this winter, while more or less house-bound, we’ve been marking our time in music.
noam goes through his exercises once every day, and jasper has been following along with his “practice violin” (a cardboard box and paint-stirrer!). usually daily practice happens early–before the sun rises and before breakfast–since that’s when everyone seems to be at their best here. while i bathe or dress or nurse renn before heading out to teach my 8 a.m. class, morty goes through exercises with noam (and jasper). oftentimes he plays his guitar with them, which has made practicing fun (and funny) for everyone. i take noam to lessons friday afternoon, and saturday mornings this month we go to group rehearsals: a huge room full of tiny violins, and players, and jabbing bows. the wonderful thing about the suzuki method is that parents are actively involved. we learn as they do. and the learning happens seemingly by accident. music is learned by ear, not note-reading. all of the sudden, noam is playing songs that grew from learning rhythms alone, coupled with a lot of listening to the songs on c.d. it’s kind of magical sharing this with him. his second concert, but first big concert, is this sunday at the university.
jasper is adorable:
at the end, he says something like: “the author goes in 7, 7,” meaning, the author died in 2007.
generally, this winter both boys are…becoming, becoming, becoming. something familiar, the people they have always been, the people i knew immediately in the minutes after their births, but more vividly– and in much sharper contrast to one another. they are becoming their own people in the world, in relation to others, and it’s so incredible to witness them filling out and taking shape in their own ways. jasper is headstrong, temperamental, particular, and verbal; noam is accommodating, empathetic, capable, and competitive. they are very different physically in the world, though they enjoy similar kinds of play. they are both verbal kids, but they seem to use speech for different purposes (jasper tends to use it more to exert his will or to demonstrate how he is different than/separate from others, whereas noam seems to use talk to bond with others, to make sure he’s understanding and, in some ways, pleasing others). much of this has to do with their ages, of course, and some has to do with their birth order, of course.
and baby renn, our gassy, giggling bed bug:
no teeth yet. no solid foods yet. he’ll be six months in about two weeks. he is such a sweet thing. big, open-mouthed smiles. greets new faces excitedly with quickened breath and reaching fat fists and fingers. good sleeper, good nurser, good little spirit. thinks noam’s face is hilarious. is most ticklish under his chin. wakes himself with his own farts. happiest when being undressed and free of cumbersome clothes.
