Just Another Ordinary Miracle: Mommy is a Jukebox

Zain loves music (a.k.a. "minky"). He'll ask us to turn on the minky if it isn't on while he's playing. He plays his little toy xylophone/piano and sings a song of his own composition called Lola (there is one repeated lyric, inspired by a dog named Lulu that he met at the park).

He can hum several bars of Frere Jacques to the right tune. That was formerly his official sleep song; we'd hum it before we put him into his crib. There are now several sleep songs and he has become very discerning about which one we sing. We'll start a song and, after a note or two, he'll say "no" in a tiny but very directive voice. Last night, I went through my entire repertoire of 8 or so songs, all rejected. We finally landed on You are My Sunshine. He knows when the end of the song is coming and will start saying "more" before you even get to the last line.

Zain and I started a music class at the local community center last week. He's the oldest kid in the class and the only one who seems to exhibit any signs of life. Which makes him "that kid". He runs into the middle of our little circle in the middle of activities, tries to take toys and instruments out of the cabinet while the teacher is trying to put them away, and generally is noticeable while all the other kids sit mute in front of their mommies. But he seems to have fun. Ashifa has gotten her old guitar out recently and he loves to strum it. So when he sees the guitar in class, he squeals "Mum Mum gee-tah!"

We have a CD called Zen Lullabies that one of Shif's friends gave us when Zain was first born. It has been a fixture in our lives every day, multiple times per day for the last 400 days or so. It's our official sleep instrumental music, and we play it during his naptime and bedtime routines. When we travel, we even take it on an iPod so we can maintain his routine. You'd think we'd be completely sick of it by now, but somewhere we aren't - the soothing Asian-ish music is relaxing for mommies, too. Zain is a total creature of habit. We use the same iPod, which contains oodles of kids' songs, in our stereo at home during the day. So, when we play the iPod on shuffle, the sleep songs will occasionally come up. Zain will be playing and partying and, all of a sudden, he'll go into a deep trance. Shif and I will look at each other like "what is wrong with him??" and then we'll realize that one of Zen lullabies has come on. Even when he's totally engaged in something, we've found he still is paying attention to the background music. He'll be playing intently with blocks or Play Doh and suddenly shout "kazoo" when a certain song with a kazoo comes on.

Yesterday, we went out with Stu and Paul to a restaurant that has a Family Acoustic Brunch on Sundays. It was fantastic. Everyone there had a kid or two, so they understood the occasional noise, fuss, squeal, or thrown food that occurs. And the kids could roam around and climb on the furniture. There was a bluegrass band that played and Zain sat in front of them, mesmerized at times. He especially liked the gee-tah and banjo. It also brought on the return of dancing Zain. He went through a period several months ago where he would really boogie (the zenith of that period was a serious chair dance at a pub, where he got down to Play That Funky Music - glad my mom and grandma got to witness it!). But his dancing has almost completely died off in recent months. But there was a little bluegrass bopping going on yesterday.