Music, Music, Music.

The boy loves music. From day one, he loved having music played and being sung to and making music on his own. As he's grown up we've expanded our musical repertoire so that it's not just kiddie music, (having to listen to some of the kids music that's out there is enough to drive you mental!), but also classical, jazz (which he loves), reggae, rock, and pop. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for Sharon, Lois and Bram, and Raffi, but there's also a place for bands like Minuit (a new discovery of mine), and Depeche Mode.

Recently the boy has discovered the Muppets CD that his Dad grew up listening to. O.k., when his Dad listened to it, it was a tape, but a little creative work with the computer and the stereo, and presto, it's now a CD. He really loves the Muppets and sings along with a number of the songs, especially anything featuring Animal! The boy has a CD player in his room, and one of his favourite pastimes at the moment is to put the Muppets CD in, and sit in his rocking chair and listen to the music.

I say listen, but it is definitely not just sitting and relaxing, it's an active sport. There are very few songs that he listens to the whole way through, and the ones that he does listen to, he plays over and over again. So what you hear is the first few seconds of a song, before he decides to get up and listen to the next track, and then the next track, and then the next track, until finally one of the songs he's decided to listen to for the day comes on and then he goes back to the chair. When the song ends, there's always the dilemma of are we going to hear it again, or is he going to play something new. It's actually quite funny, and some days I'm tempted to record everything so that I can make a mash up of the few seconds of all the songs he doesn't want to listen to.

It's funny and cute now, and it's not really a problem, as he only listens to the music for about 15 or 20 minutes in a row, before he moves onto something else. I know that both hubby and I are 'flippers' when we have our own music in, so I'm sure it's an inherited trait. But I can't help but think that when the boy's a teenager, blasting whatever music he has decided he's into, (which I'm sure we won't like, by the sheer virtue of it being teenage music designed to make parents yell 'turn that music down'), that having to listening to the first few seconds of a bunch of songs and then hearing the same ones over and over and over again, I'll be longing for the days of hearing “It's the Muppet Show” on repeat!