the music man

At this point, it looks like Sam is training to become the next One Man Band in Mary Poppins. Dick van Dyke would be proud. Sam is obsessed with musical instruments right now, and imagines that all types of everyday objects are actually instruments. He pretends that drinking straws are flutes, and the handles on Gram's exercise bike are either flutes or trombones.

Lately, Sam has been perfecting a rendition of "Hey Diddle Diddle" (as played on his red Alphabet Pal caterpillar, see picture and video). You can kinda sorta pick out the words to the nursery rhyme, as he sings along in the clip below. (And, just so you know, he keeps running to the fridge in order to point to a "Hey Diddle Diddle" picture that he colored.) He's obviously interested in the combination of musical and visual experiences, like his daddy and uncle.



We recently purchased a plastic trumpet and recorder for Sam, which was partially necessitated by Sam's realization that his yellow toy kaleidoscope didn't have a handle like real trumpets. In this clip (sorry it's turned sideways), I'm playing the kaleidoscope trumpet behind the camera, while Sam plays the "real" trumpet.


Here's a picture of the Pied Piper on his recorder:


Luckily for Sam, he has a daddy who is more than willing to jam with him. They've had countless jam sessions since their first one last year. Sam hounds J to play the guitar or the double bass (which he also calls "Big Cello") just about every night. And here's the latest picture of their musical collaboration:

Like father, like son.