Budding musicians

The other night before bed Elijah was humming to himself. Then a thought struck him and he looked at me and said, "Mama, when I'm a grown-up, I can play Tai-chow-sky on the pany-o." :) :) :) I assured him that yes indeed, when he is a grownup, he can learn to play the piano and then he can play all the Tchaikovsky he wants.

Noah knows and can hum the opening line to Beethoven's 5th, and part of a piece by Mendelssohn. Elijah sometimes puts a name to pieces whose name I don't know, and I have to check to see if he's right. He usually is. Both boys like to "play instruments" while they are listening to music. They have decided that the broomstick is a cello, and a shorter stick has been labeled a violin. Both instruments are "played" with mixing spoons. Occasionally arguments erupt when Elijah decides that he would like to trade instruments, but Noah is not ready to do so; then I have to intervene...but this is an ongoing issue, Elijah deciding that he would like to "trade" toys whether the other children are willing or not. *sigh*

Perhaps one of these days I'll get a "real" instrument for the kiddos to play. Elijah would really like a triangle. Seems to me like a triangle would be pretty much indestructible, right? Indestructible is nice. Come to think of it, we do have a harmonica somewhere--I put it up during naptime one day, and never got it back down. Hmmm, now where did I put it?

Actually, come to think of it, maybe the pretend instruments are better than "real" ones, as they can play along without interrupting what we're listening to! I mean, the music to which we are listening! Sometimes correct grammar just sounds so awkward. Anyone want to suggest a better way to end that sentence?

Changing subjects--I have recently learned that several family friends (and my sister-in-law!!!) are expecting little ones. Congratulations once again! All are due I believe next spring.

For a while I felt like I had a house full of babies, with my own two and the two I watch; but now they are all getting so big! There aren't really any babies in the house any more. The older two are preschoolers now, and the little ones are fully toddlers. The littlest one just turned a year old this month. But I did get to babysit a really-truly baby for a few hours on Friday--she's 7 months old. That was nice. :)

Okay, this might be a bit disjointed? But I'm off to bed. I meant to go to bed early tonight. :( I would like to wean myself off of emoticons but it's hard.