Slowly, Slowly

I like to sing songs

Winslow has recently been discussing all of the things he likes: "I like soup.", "I like Bao's house.", "I like this."   A few weeks ago we were in the supermarket and he said, "I like, I like...sing songs."  He is singing quite constantly these days and his repertoire is ever-expanding.  Current favorites are:

- Old Macdonald

- Baa Baa Black Sheep   

- Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

- The Music Together Hello Song

- Goodbye, So Long, Farewell

- Raisins and Almonds

- Sweet Potato (i.e. roo, roo, roo, roo, sing roo, sing hokey dinkum...)

- The Bells of Westminster

- Two Little Drummers

- Redfaced Robot (A song Irene made up. It is the theme song of the redfaced robot who sits atop a kitchen cabinet.  He is programmed to love Winslow more than anything has ever loved anything else ever.)

- We're off to See the Wizard

- Doe, a Deer

His favorite song to listen to right now (and one he also likes to sing) is the Tin Woodsman's song from the Wizard of Oz, "When a man's and empty kettle, he should be on his mettle and yet I'm torn apart..."  He won't see the movie for several years but we play the film soundtrack often.   

And just today he was very moved by the Rolling Stones song, Painted Black, which we heard at the University Village "pumpkin patch."  The song features some pretty propulsive drumming which is a sure way into Winslow's heart.  ~b

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Winslow has begun spotting sea turtles in the sky.  One day he just looked up and announced what he saw in the clouds.  For some reason I had come to regard cloud gazing as an activity that required some sort of formal initiation, one that needed to be taught in order to participate.  Maybe it's because there are children's books built around it, or because in general most adults don't make these kind of observations/connections in their daily lives--sweet, whimsical stuff.  For whatever the reason I thought someone would need to point out to winslow that clouds can look like other things.  In actually thinking about it though it is immediately obvious that a child would discover that activity on his/her own.  And  it has now extended to other things as well.  Just a few days ago he was eating a piece of bread.  He stopped ,held it up and said, "sea turtle", then took another nibble or two and said, "dog", then after a bit more pruning "duck."