In the last month or two Cooper has become a lot more cognizant of the music he is hearing. This may or may not have to do with the fact that we've begun listening to actual children's music in the house with greater regularity. Tom T. Hall's Country Songs for Children is the go-to, thanks to Spotify, though we also have a compilation called Play Music that was assembled by a local place that does music classes, which Coop was attending for a while. That's the album he really goes ape for. The other day I sang him a line from a song from that album and he jumped up, ran into the living room, pointed at the computer and said this, this, this—i.e., I need to hear that song now.
My objections to bona fide kids' music have faded in the last year and a half, though I will say that last night I woke up at 4 am and could not go back to sleep—I had work stress at front of mind, but soundtracked by the lines "Hello boys / It's great to see you once more / Hello girls / I can't wait to hear your voices soar." The two replaying thoughts intertwined was a special kind of torment that kept me up until about 6:30; then I fell asleep before Coop woke up at 7. Luckily it was a weekend so I was able to sleep in a little since my brilliant wife graciously took the wake-up duties.
Anyway, at the same time Cooper is becoming more aware of non-children's music, too. He loves "Barbara Ann" and attempts to sing along with it. (He says "Ba Ba Ba," almost on cue, but not to any melody.) But he does try to sing: if you ask him to sing he'll start saying "Mommy" or "Daddy" in a really high voice in a kind of meandering stairwell of a melody. Occasionally he'll also dance to songs we play around the house; his form of dancing is standing very thoughtfully and then half-squatting up and down a few times.
The highlight of the day, today, was while he was sitting in his high chair eating lunch and I turned on T. Rex's Electric Warrior. "Cosmic Dancer" came on and suddenly Coop just started swaying gently in his seat, as if he were in an arena ready to get his lighter out for the power ballad. It was beautiful.
- T. Rex: Cosmic Dancer
That Tom T. Hall album is great! It was one of my favorites as a kid and I still enjoy putting it on from time to time. Glad to see it hasn't been lost to time.
Posted by: Jason | September 24, 2011 at 11:23 AM