Alex put on this little show for us a couple of weeks ago. I love the part in the middle where Alex and I start laughing so hard that the show has to stop. Kids are weird.

Alex really likes to sing and her favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She doesn’t know all of the words but almost. Her favorite part (or at least the part she sings all of the time) is “up above the world so high”. It is really cute but she sings it over and over and over. She needs a new song. She also really likes Rain Rain Go Away. Yesterday Alex went over to her Grandmother’s house with Marc and Marc said she sang both of those songs all the way home

Recently she learned Row Row Your Boat and she sings it like this -
“Row row stream
Merrily Merrily Merrily
Dream”

Apparently QRS Y and Z is Alex’s favorite part of the alphabet song - she sings it over and over all day long

Alex hasn’t been doing it quite as much but she likes to sing what I call the Mommy Song and the Baby song. Basically she just says the word over and over in a sing-song voice. Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, etc. She also does this with the word Baby. Here is a video clip that Rachel took of Alex singing the Mommy song and then attempting to count. It is almost 4MB and it should play in Winamp or Windows Media Player.

The Mommy Song

Alex has a toy phone that has three different settings - music, alphabet and numbers. Lately it has been on the alphabet setting and we’ve heard her in her room trying to sing the alphabet song. She isn’t really singing the letter but she has the tune and she is trying to do it. What is really funny is that if I ask her to do it she acts all shy and she won’t do it when we are in the room with her. We only hear it when she is in her room and we are somewhere else in the house - that is why I call it the secret alphabet song

Alex has been spending a lot more time playing by herself and I noticed this week when peeking in on her that her play has become more interactive. Of course, she loves to look at books and she is usually sitting in a chair or on her boppy looking at books. She likes it when I take ALL of her books down from her shelves so she has a huge pile to sit in the middle of and spread around. But she is now also playing with other toys - she has a Fisher Price Little People train with animals that you can out on and off that she got for her birthday. She will push the train back and forth and pull the animals off. The other day I saw her pull the tiger off and then move him around like he was dancing to the music playing on the radio.

Alex also likes to play music class - she has a bag of instruments and we will play on of the cd’s from her class while she bangs on the instruments. Yesterday, however, she was more interested in collecting the instruments, putting them in a basket, taking them out and starting over again. This was odd because so far I haven’t really been able to teach her to pick anything up. My guess was that she was imitating Mr. Larry, her music teacher, walking around the room and collecting the instruments and putting them away. The again maybe not but I’m not sure what else was going on in her mind.

Here is a picture of the little people train.

Alex and I had a lot of fun in her music class today. The last couple of weeks Alex acted really nerdy and I didn’t have a very good time - she wouldn’t participate and she insisted on sitting in the lap of another girl’s nanny and refused to come to me. I found it very frustrating and was grumpy by the time the class was over.

Today, however, was different. Alex danced, played instruments, and stayed with me most of the class. She still went to visit the nanny that she really likes (and I’m fairly certain this nanny is not Mary Poppins) but only sat with her briefly. Alex seemed to really be enjoying herself so I had fun too.

After class we went to the park for a little while to play and for Alex to have a snack. She ate a little bit but mostly chased pigeons and squirrels (city wildlife). By the time we headed home she was really tired and she fell asleep on the trolley. She’s going to have a VERY late lunch today

I took Alex to the demo class for Music Together last Wednesday and signed her up for another 10 weeks starting on the 24th. She loved it and what a difference from when she took it last spring. Before, she liked it but she was kind of in her own world and was more interested in crawling around and getting into mischief than in participating. Now the she is a little older and walking it is completely different. She dances, claps her hands, and plays the instruments. Recently she has started enjoying music a lot more so I knew she would really enjoy the music class. We gave her a bag of instruments for her birthday and almost every night when Marc turns on the radio and plays with her in her room she pulls out the instruments and they have a little concert. She especially likes banging two sticks together and using the tambourine as a mini-drum.

Anyway - they also have activities at the music class where you get in a circle and dance in one direction and then the other - things like that. Last spring I had to carry Alex to participate, which was really exhausting. At the demo class she was standing in the middle of the circle laughing and trying to follow along. I think we are going to have a lot of fun with this class and are going to get a lot more out of it this time.

Yesterday I took Alex to a free demo music class for infants through preschoolers - she LOVED it. The instructor, Larry, played the guitar, sang songs, played music from a CD, and had the kids do physical activities to music as well as play with instruments like shakers, maracas, and bells. I thought Alex would spend most of her time chewing on the instruments but she did shake them to the music and the songs with a big smile on her face. She is SO social. She was really good about participating but also spent a lot of time crawling over to other Moms and babies - everyone thought she was such a cute and happy baby. She also spent a lot of time crawling into the middle of the circle and staring at Larry playing the guitar - I think we need Uncle Dylan to come visit with his guitar At one point we were doing a circle activity where we were singing a song a trotting like horses - when it started Alex was sitting in the middle of the circle and Larry scooped her up and did it with her for a little bit before he handed her to me. I was amazed that he let him hold her - usually she starts crying or making a boo-boo face when someone other than Marc or I hold her. He told me that a lot of parents say that but that he wasn’t surprised - he said there is something about music that creates a connection and makes people respond in different ways.

Since she liked it so much I signed her up for a 10 week program - it will be every Wednesday morning up until the day before her birthday. I thought she would like it because she has been really responsive to music lately and bangs objects together whenever I turn the radio on. She has also been pounding on the tray on her highchair although I’m not sure if she is playing the drums or just wants to be fed faster.

Music Together is a program that involved parents and the children - even if the child doesn’t participate much in class later she will do the activities at home because she has seen her parent doing it. It is a nationwide progran that has been around since the late 80’s.

There is a website at Music Together .

A week or so ago we were in the record store and Santa Claus is Coming to Town by Bruce Springsteen started playing and Alex loved it! Marc got her a single of the song for her Christmas stocking.