Appalachian Spring

I have a joyful thought to post, and then a regret.

First, the joy.

As I drove home from the grocery store today, we listened to Appalachian Spring by my favorite composer, Aaron Copland. What I didn't expect was that it is a perfect selection to introduce young children to classical music. Copland's music is always so rich and vastly interesting, and I found myself able to anticipate the tempo and volume variations since I know the piece so well. I would ask Gavin to tell me if the section we were listening to was fast or slow, loud or soft. Then I would tell him to listen for various instruments, i.e. French horns (can I help it? My ear is too trained not to hear them!), trumpet, drums, violins. He maintained interest for the entire piece, all 22 minutes of it, and made his own commentary about it:

"This part sounds a little slow. No, now it's fast and loud! Oh, I hear the trumpet! There's a French horn!"

My favorite part was during the "Simple Gifts" section, where the full orchestra breaks into the main theme and the bass drum sounds at regular intervals with a loud "boom!" I told Gavin to clap every time he heard the drum, and after I clapped a few times with him, he anticipated it and clapped on the beat. Since we were in the car, I looked in my rear view mirror and saw him with arms stretched wide, ready to clap, with a look of delight on his face and a giggle or two as he clapped.

To top it off, Averi seemed to love the music too, because I could hear her giggle and make noise as we turned the volume up and down. I knew she wasn't reacting to Gavin, either, because he ended up reacting to her!

It was a simply lovely memory. I can't wait for the next time. Hmm, what music shall I choose next?!

My regret:

Grandpa Jay and Grandma Cheryl visited us over the weekend, and I didn't get a single photo with them. Not one. There were several times I wished I had the camera with us, and then I just couldn't remember to take it the next time.

It's a good thing Casey took about 20 pictures of our water heater, though. You never know when those will come in handy for the sake of posterity.

This photo of Gavin shows him wearing Grandma's glasses and Grandpa's hat, so I guess it proves in some subtle way that they were actually here with us. I just wish the hat had been bigger.


There goes my Mother-of-the-Labor-Day-Weekend award (Mother-of-the-Year has been completely out of the question for about 3 years now, although I think I might have been in the running for Mother-of-the-Last-3.2 Seconds award once until I caught Gavin drinking Tylenol. Hey, at least I gave him more freedom when playing rough that day because the pain relief was already in his system).

Anyway. Moral of the story: when I'm 30 and old, at least I'll have Copland.