Planting Seeds

When I was a kid my parents were always excited when my sister and I showed an interest in something.....my sister and I were both at one point involved with Girl Scouts, Swim Team, Soccer, Basketball, Tae Kwon Do, Piano, Flute (my sister) and Clarinet (me).  I have to say some things we were good at, somethings (me with Basketball or Soccer) we were terrible at.  But they encouraged us to try and finish our commitment to it, even if we ended up not being good at it or liking it.

As a mother, I am trying to plant seeds, just like my parents did.  You don't have to like it, at least just try it once with an open mind.  So far, William isn't a huge fan of swimming and I'm ok with him not being the next Michael Phelps.....but there are things that I'm finding that he does get excited about.  Balls (bouncing his soccer ball) and Music.  That is all kinds of music.  Since the age of 8 mos he has been Dancing and DJ ing for us.

Today the library offered a "Musical Petting Zoo" in collaboration with the  Nashville Symphony Orchestra.  Since music is something that I know William enjoys I thought he would have fun touching and examining the instruments.

Before I get into William's performance, let me explain that William may have some genius musical talent from his mom.....did I mention his mom is an awesome Clarinetist?  Well, not anymore but from 6th grade through high school I participated in numerous local and quad state honor bands.  Also, received numerous solo awards and was offered a scholarship to march for Vanderbilt (but didn't do it).  I was far from being mentioned in the same breath as Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and the best of all of them Pete Fountain (If you haven't heard any of these guys play you should check them out here.  Pete Fountain (here). I think band and band friends are some few fun memories that I have from High School (no offense guys).

Ok, so enough about me and back to William and the Musical Petting Zoo....At first when we arrived at the library William was skittish about the crowd and noises but as the crowd thinned he warmed up to what was going on and couldn't get enough.  

First we tried the Xylophone.  He thought it was ok but wasn't uber excited about it.  This video clip pretty much sums it up (click here).

Next we checked out the French Horn and Trombone.  He loved the sound that the french horn made (and giggled when the man played) but he was too small to try it himself.  He did get to press the shiny buttons though.  

The trombone was long and awkward, no shiny buttons......We had to pass on that instrument.So next in line was the trumpet and clarinet but the line was LONNNNNNGGG....we decided that William could try mom's clarinet at home.

So we moved on and decided to try the Cello (at least I think it's a Cello, it's too small to be a bass, right?)  We waited and waited and finally it was William's turn and......

well, I thought this was going to be a repeat of the trombone because of the size of William compared to the Cello BUT.....

he played......

and played........

and played some more until there was another kid behind us and we had to move on to the next instrument.

But he hated the SOV (Silly Old Violin).......but there is another family member that won't blame him....right Aunt Kate?

So he left the violin and did what?



Yep, he went back to the Cello! and played all by himself (video clip here) and he loved it!

I love watching him learn and grow and discover his interests.  Being a parent is just awesome.