3 posts tagged “drums”
Don Henly, perhaps? Phil Collins? Or maybe Travis Barker or Tre Cool?
Regardless, The Boy loves the drums. Moreover, he loves to drum. If he spies drumsticks, he wants them, and once in hand, he wants to drum on everything: the coffee table, the Diaper Genie, the ottoman, the floor... It's so adorably cute, it's infectious. I've already decided if he's still this interested in drums when he's three, I'll sign him up for lessons. Hey - Einstein took violin lessons when he was four, and they say kids who play music have a higher aptitude for math and science than those who don't.
I captured the funniest moment on camera this weekend when he was sitting on Chris's lap, bongos propped up against his daddy's knees. Drumsticks in hand, he lifted his arms in the air then began drumming on the bongos. Before we knew it, he started drumming mid-air to his right, making "pfth pfth" drumming sounds as he did, then back to the middle, and over to his left (again with the "pfth pfth" sounds). As he did this, I realized he was playing on an extended kit - and seriously wondered where he picked up on this! After all, it's not like we have a drum set in the house, and the extent of "drumming" that we do is all from Rock Band or Guitar Hero World Tour.
One of these days, I will figure out how to compress the video to make it suitable for posting. In the meantime, you'll have to take my word for it.
We spent Saturday at home indoors. The weather was nice but it was still a little cool for my liking, and Chris and I really just needed a day to unwind a bit. The Boy, on the other hand, was starting to get restless, so we decided Sunday morning to take him to EPCOT.
I will say that it's a little surreal being able to decide on a whim that we'll go to Disney World. Though we went to Disneyland fairly frequently when I was a child, it was always a big, elaborate, carefully orchestrated event. This was quite the opposite, almost as though we were going to a good friend's house for the afternoon and not a multi-million dollar theme park. But I digress.
He thoroughly enjoyed himself. The fun began as soon as we pulled into the EPCOT parking lot and he saw the Ball (Spaceship Earth) and the Mon (monorail, to the rest of us). We spotted birds on the way to the entrance, waved happily to the guard who checked my bag, and eagerly began our day in Future World. We went to the Land first (my favorite - one of these days I really want to do the greenhouse tour), then to the Living Seas (he wasn't a big fan of the giant aquarium - not that I can blame him when the turtles are about three times his size) before wrapping it up at Journey Into Imagination. Now, if you're a Disney fan and remember the old ride, clearly you'd be disappointed with the current ride. Sometimes, you just can't top the original. But the ride was changed long before The Boy was even a thought, so this is the only version of the ride that he knows - and he really likes it. Mind you, it's not the scream-with-laughter-oh-my-god-this-is-the-greatest-thing-ever kind of reaction, but his wide-eyed wow-this-is-so-cool expression says it all.
He and Chris watched the jumping fountains (if you've never been to EPCOT, the jumping fountains at Journey Into Imagination are almost worth the trip), and Chris "directed" the water where to go while The Boy watched, giggling as the water "obeyed" his father's commands. (I took video, but the file is too big to post here.) Then we went to the World Showcase for a quick trip around the world.
Before hitting the World Showcase, I stopped to sign up for a Kim Possible mission. (I love Kim Possible. I'm such a dork.) It's actually a pretty cool set up. You get a "Kimmunicator" (really, a cell phone) and have to go to a certain country, interact with a few things, and then "save the world". I highly recommend it.
So, when I signed up, my ticket directed me to Italy for my first mission. We set off by way of Mexico and, since it was almost noon and past The Boy's lunchtime, decided to stop in China for lunch. This was the start of a series of fits proclaiming Chris and me the meanest parents ever.
The Boy enjoyed a lovely lunch of Cheerios, dried cranberries, and an egg roll. (He loves egg rolls.) His belly was already full, but he desperately wanted the other egg roll. I refused to give it to him, wrapping it up instead to save for later. Tears and screaming ensued, and we quickly left the dining area and headed to Germany.
Now, Germany has a very cute outdoor train display. There's a town center, tiny townspeople, and little vignettes set up along the "mountainside" (really, just a little incline). As The Boy loves trains, Chris thought it would be something he would enjoy. And it was... until we had to leave.
"Tain!" he would cry between sobs. "Tain! Waaaaa!"
He was still bitter when I picked up my Kimmunicator in Italy, and his mood didn't change much when we got to Japan until I was almost finished with my Kim Possible mission. Without giving it away, I had to "defeat" a robot, and The Boy loved the little robot... so much so that he wanted to stay and watch it as more people completed their missions. He wasn't happy to leave, but he didn't throw a fit like he did in Germany.
We next stopped at the drums at the African outpost. He didn't take to them as we thought he might. He was, I think, a little overwhelmed at the sight of all the drums and the bigger kids who would run to the drums, beat on them for a little while, then leave just as quickly as they came. But he did enjoy them. We knew this because, as we explained we needed to leave, he burst into tears.
"Dum!" he screamed as we walked away. "Dum! Waaaaa!"
Chris led us to a little toy store in England that had, among other things, a Thomas the Tank Engine display. No trains were out, but there was a glorious display on a real Thomas the Tank Engine table! He so wanted to get out of his stroller to touch everything on the display. Mind you, there were no cars on it and all the pieces were glued to the table, but there was the car shed! And bridges! It must have been a glorious sight to his eyes. Chris and I looked at all the pieces, and though there were a few that we liked, we weren't prepared to spend that much money on toys that day. But we found a cute little shirt for The Boy, and then we were off - only it wasn't that simple.
"Thomas! Waaaaa!" he wailed, giant tears rolling down his cheeks. "Tain! Waaaaa! Thomas! Waaaaa!"
We took it in stride. "Yes, you have the meanest parents ever," Chris told The Boy. A passing couple laughed when they heard him say that.
As if to punish us, The Boy boycotted his nap yesterday. He didn't fall asleep during the car ride home (I did, though), and he was full of energy once we got inside the house. But he went to bed without fuss at 6:30 and didn't wake until 5:15. All the same, he was still tired when I took him to school this morning, and I warned his teachers that he would probably have no troubles going to sleep at nap time.
And he'll probably go to bed early again tonight, too. That's what we get for making him leave behind the train, the drums, and the Thomas display!
I also spent a lot of money, but I got a good chunk of my Christmas shopping done - including my husband's gifts for his bosses! Hooray! Now I have a lot of wrapping to do, but that's the easy part of Christmas. Shopping sucks.
I was super psyched, though, because I found the perfect gift for one of our friends for whom, I think, it is near-impossible to shop. But I chanced upon it, immediately called his wife for approval, then purchased it - and even used a coupon for it! Hee hee! I love being frugal when I can. It makes the dollar stretch so much futher. And then I can get so much more!
So now I really only have one person left on my list who has nothing from me (not including family, of course). I have some thoughts, but I need to give it more consideration. And I only have $87 of my allotted budget left. I need to get really creative about this!
The weekend started out with a trip to the Saturn dealership to get my car serviced. There isn't anything wrong with it, mind you; I just like going to the dealership and having them check everything out as long as the car is under warranty. I had my fuel injector thingy flushed and my tires balanced and realigned on top of the oil change and fluid top-off, but it was good to have that done. Besides, I haven't been there since June, and my Saturn e-mail said that I only had 33% of my oil life left.
After the dealership, I stopped at Costco ($1.98 for gas!) to pick up some of The Boy's bath soap and a couple of other things. Then it was on to Target (office gifts in the front bins for $1 each!), where I found some long-sleeved tops for myself (all ridiculously on sale) and long-sleeved onesies for layering The Boy this winter (45 degrees this morning! Yikes!). I also picked up some much-needed hand soap, some of which was Method's toasted hazelnut holiday scent. I highly recommend it. My next visit was to Bed Bath & Beyond before I made a final stop at Old Navy to use a gift card that had been burning a hole in my wallet. I tried so hard to use it all and fell $4.13 short, but the cashier was nice enough to let me have the change rather than keeping it on the card. Because, really, when can you ever find something for $4 at Old Navy?
As I said, I spent a lot of money.
That evening we went to our friends' house to celebrate a few birthdays. The Boy loves playing drums on Rock Band 2. Our friend Doug set up the drums on Freestyle Mode and let The Boy go to town on them. It was so much fun to watch! He held sticks in both hands and was hitting all the drum heads... I may have a future Keith Moon on my hands! Perhaps I should think about sound-proofing a room.
The next morning, we went to IKEA to pick up a few things. I (finally) got my chandelier and shades for the dining room, and because I needed to spend at least $100 to get a "free" $20 gift card (and it was something Chris needs), we picked up some bookshelf extenders, too. Now I have $23 IKEA dollars to put towards a mirror for the dining room. Woo hoo!
Of course, the trip to IKEA completely threw The Boy off schedule, which, as we all know, is a big no-no. He boycotted his nap and had a major meltdown around 5, so Chris and I whisked him into the bathtub, cleaned him, put him in his pajamas, gave him a yummy dinner of bananas and bread (he ate a lot of chicken for his afternoon snack), then brushed (and flossed) his teeth and put him to bed. And then he didn't wake up for 11 whole hours!
So, yeah, it was a really busy weekend. But I got a lot done (including three loads of laundry), and The Boy woke up in an awesome mood this morning. Who can argue with that?
