Our Rock Show

I'm taking a break from colds, sinus infections, ear infections, teething, lots of cavities, and lots of responsibilities to post some pictures from a month ago.(Wanna play a fun game? See if you can match each malady to the person in my family to whom it belongs.) No worries, we're actually doing great, especially since I figured a way to get these pictures onto my computer, even with my cord still lost. Ya-hoo!

Josh started his music career mostly on the harmonica. He was 20 months old when he got it, and I'd find him sitting around the house wailing away on the thing, like this picture where he is sitting on a bucket in the laundry room. Every now and then he'll get it out and play it in the back yard, just as a side thing while he plays on the swing set.

Josh has begun to show promise as a drummer. I made some drums for him out of oatmeal containers, and he walks around the house singing and drumming away. The thing that's awesome about it is that the "songs" he sings sound like he's really rockin' out, but he drums like he's got a set of bongos. Gary said, "It's like Rock N' Roll Bongos . . . you'll probably be famous for this some day." In the picture below he's not posing, I just caught him when he was really into his work. For a while there he was really into singing into a microphone. The picture below shows him using his microphone, but I wanted him to use something different. I tried to teach him that proper children use large kitchen utensils as microphones, but this has been a tough transition for him since he'd already decided those are all ball-bats.

Here we see his percussion repertoire expanding. He is using a marker to bang on the cupboards, with the occasional tap on the pot above for a cymbal-like effect. He was REALLY into the song he was singing, as you can tell by the expression on his face.

And Noah has the coolest contribution of all to the rock show that's being prepared at our house. I was changing his diaper in the middle of the night in the dark, (yeah, I know, I was really rolling the dice on that one) and all of the sudden the diaper and the sheets around it started sparkling with little spots of light firing off one after another. Incredible static show! It's happened to me twice now, but I don't know how to tell you to replicate the experiment, besides that it probably helps to live in the desert, and, I don't know, drag your feet on the carpet all the way to the crib?

So, I think there are still a couple of bugs to work out, but when the show is all ready to go, my kids will probably invite you, charge you your pocket change for the privilege of watching, then make you a part of a special number in the end. At least if they run their shows anything like their mother did when she was young . . .(Don't worry, they'll dump the money out of the jar and give it back to you.)