Music, Maestro

David has become very interested in music. He is playing the drums - actually taking lessons and paying attention - and he has a iPod onto which he has loaded a lot of music, and he has created numerous mixes. His taste is definitely eclectic - not just "today's hits" but a whole array of music, from Ella Fitzgerald forward. (Unlike Mikey, he only tolerates symphony and does not care for opera.)

So yesterday I bought the new Sting Christmas album. The album is very non-traditional in the current sense; it contains many traditional and seldom heard carols, although there are a few standards like the Cherry Tree song.

I left it out on the piano; David saw it and started to comment on it immediately. He also looked it up online. He knew already who Sting was.

When asked if he liked Sting, he responded, "I appreciate his work. He is a modern-day Kenny Loggins"[!]

He launched into a set of comments made by other people, including those who think Sting "sold out" and several other criticisms. David has decided he likes the album, with the exception of one or two of the songs, and asked to borrow it (to add to his iTunes library).

Additionally, he has decided, "even though I don't really like your voice" that he would like to "make a cover album" for this one, using Garage Band, himself, my friend Richard and me. We shall see. (David has met Richard before but it's been a while.)

Captain Underpants

One of the book series that is - interesting - to the 10-12 year old male set is a series called, "Captain Underpants." The hero is - yup, you guessed it, a chubby male who wears diapers. I have not read them. David was into them several years ago; out of nowhere, Michael has suddenly taken a significant interest in them. This is progress, trust me. He brought 3 of the books with him today, and read through parts of them from time to time.

We also went to the park today, and Mikey engaged in play, with me, for the better part of 1/2 hour. (Also some progress - often when I'm around he pushes me into another place or room.) It was fun, but Grandma is not in the same shape as her 13-year-old grandson. The one who ate 2 hotdogs, a big mess o' baked beans, and 2 helpings of cheesy potatoes for dinner (then wanted dessert.) We suspect he'll shoot up to meet David soon.

As usual, after we got them home, they performed their nightly ablations, then went to bed. Not too sleep. We talked with Mom for a while and then realized that Mikey was still wearing the slippers that we keep at our house - so we went into his room to fetch them. Mom recovered him (he's a cover-kicker, just like his Aunt Evie), and Grandma bent over to sneak in one more kiss. "Sleep with Grandma!" was the response. I told him, "Not tonight" - but it was very sweet.