My son, B, has been spending his afternoon playing with the electronic keyboard I got for M, my husband, for his birthday a few years ago. B loves music; he started beatboxing when he was tiny, and he's frequently found humming recognizable music themes, particularly from video games. After a few hours of noodling around, B started playing something different. I glanced up at M and saw him notice this, as well. It was the Metroid theme, and he'd figured it out by ear, including the bass line.
I am, quite frankly, amazed and astonished. I always knew B had a "musical ear", but to be able to identify what the right notes are, not just of the treble line but also the bass line, to make it sound like what he heard in his head, is a musical talent. I'm not surprised, per se, since both M and I have backgrounds that are somewhat musical anyway, but I love that he has this gift.
I want to get him some music lessons, but I'm not sure where to start in order to preserve and nurture this gift rather than get him bogged down in the basics. He needs to know how to read and write music, which will entail at least some measure of tedium, but I want him to be able to enjoy his musical talent rather than be bored with the learning involved. I'm not sure how to do this.
But for now, I can just enjoy that my kids are immensely talented.
A is 16, and wants to be an engineer. He routinely gets all As (as does B, but in first grade, that's less of a challenge, especially as smart as he is... the challenge is to get him to focus his energy and intelligence into schoolwork). A is whip-smart, and surprisingly mature for his age. I have outside confirmation of that, as he's accepted by my friends in our small "chosen family" for himself, not just because he's my kid. As an aside, I am immensely grateful to my "family" because they've been very up-front about it when A has been unintentionally offensive, and help him to improve. "It takes a village" doesn't have to mean geographic location.
A wants to be an engineer. He's already taking Calculus and, again, getting good grades in it. He's enjoyable to be around (when he's not unintentionally offending someone, but I cut him some slack because he's 16... he hasn't really had the life experience to figure out what not to say and how not to say things) and good at both following directions and being a leader.
Both of the boys are thoughtful (relative to their ages) and creative, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the years to come.
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Monday, March 16, 2015
Cat and "Snake"
I observed some curious behavior in one of my cats today. My younger son has a toy snake; it's very obviously fake, blue, made of hard plastic with a big goofy face, not one of those rubber ones that can be mistaken for an actual snake. It was laying at the foot of my set of drawers that I keep office supplies and miscellaneous junk in.
Somehow, my younger cat, Scrumpy, became interested in it. I didn't know what he was looking at, but he was very interested, and kept inching forward, slowly, one paw out and cautiously extended toward the snake. I touched his back and he jumped across the room, but he came back almost immediately and resumed his odd behavior. Normally, this cat is the biggest goofball I've ever seen a cat be, but he was intent and serious. I watched for a second, and he quickly batted at the snake and pulled his paw back. This went on a few more times before I picked up the snake and he jumped away, eyes still firmly on the thing. I waved it around and he batted at it, each time becoming more and more comfortable with it until he ended up ignoring it in favor of sniffing around and investigating the area where the snake had been laying. Once he determined that there were no more snakes to be found, he wandered off.
What I found so intriguing is that this cat is an indoor cat. He's never seen a snake before in his life (that I know of... he did spend a couple days hiding under a neighbor's porch when he ran off once). That means that this behavior has to be instinct, especially since there is very little that actually is snake-like about the toy; as I mentioned, it's bright blue and has a big, goofy face. I don't know if it was the tongue that set him off, or the diamond-patterned stickers that are on each section of the snake, but he was DETERMINED in his mission to make sure it wasn't a threat. I find this fascinating.
Somehow, my younger cat, Scrumpy, became interested in it. I didn't know what he was looking at, but he was very interested, and kept inching forward, slowly, one paw out and cautiously extended toward the snake. I touched his back and he jumped across the room, but he came back almost immediately and resumed his odd behavior. Normally, this cat is the biggest goofball I've ever seen a cat be, but he was intent and serious. I watched for a second, and he quickly batted at the snake and pulled his paw back. This went on a few more times before I picked up the snake and he jumped away, eyes still firmly on the thing. I waved it around and he batted at it, each time becoming more and more comfortable with it until he ended up ignoring it in favor of sniffing around and investigating the area where the snake had been laying. Once he determined that there were no more snakes to be found, he wandered off.
What I found so intriguing is that this cat is an indoor cat. He's never seen a snake before in his life (that I know of... he did spend a couple days hiding under a neighbor's porch when he ran off once). That means that this behavior has to be instinct, especially since there is very little that actually is snake-like about the toy; as I mentioned, it's bright blue and has a big, goofy face. I don't know if it was the tongue that set him off, or the diamond-patterned stickers that are on each section of the snake, but he was DETERMINED in his mission to make sure it wasn't a threat. I find this fascinating.
Who Am I?
I'm a woman. I'm fat. I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I'm a friend. I'm a gamer. I'm a feminist. I'm a vaper. I'm someone with depression and anxiety. I'm someone with a genetic disorder, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). I'm a student. I'm an observer. I'm a talker and a listener. I'm a pagan. I'm a reader, and (sometimes) a writer. I'm a (bottle) redhead. I'm blunt and honest, even when I don't mean to be blunt. I'm a fighter. I'm a lover. I'm opinionated and passionate. I'm someone with two names, one for chosen family and one for legal/medical matters. I'm bisexual. I'm smart. I'm funny. I'm caring. I'm occasionally offensive, often just by existing. I'm friendly, to most people. I'm the sum of all my parts and then some.
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