KIds: What a Hoot!

I know I haven't posted all that much for quite some time about the grandkids here. Not that they don't keep us hopping (well, in my case, not so much hopping cause the old legs won't lift that high or move that quickly -but you get my drift I think, on the use of that word) because there's rarely a dull moment around either one of them and together -well, aside from the fighting and Maya trying to beat Kurtis senseless at times, they are quite the entertaining pair!

This past Monday when my older daughter came down to Pittsburgh to bring me home from the hospital, she had Maya with her. Maya had spent Saturday as well as Sunday nights at Aunt Carrie's house and this time, she'd been pretty well-behaved, overall -didn't get into any of the many danger areas that she could have found and explored had she been of that mind to do so. So that was a definite bonus for Aunt Carrie.

She did however provide lots and lots of great entertainment for her aunt during their drive from near Howard, PA to Pittsburgh Monday afternoon.

Maya's brand of entertainment in the car is that she sings -over and over -Every. Song. She. Knows! Some she does somewhat quietly but many of the numbers in her repertoire she really lets fly and blasts them out!

After they picked me up and we got on the road towards home and during the roughly one hour that we kind of wandered around the north-easterly section of Pittsburgh -because I sort of got us kind of lost -Maya entertained both Aunt Carrie and Grammie with her singing.

She often sings at home too while she is playing or drawing too. Sometimes, the melody is recognizable but not the words. Other times, we might understand the words but have no clue as to where she found, learned or made up the melody.

Today, when her bus arrived bringing her home from school and I met it out front to watch her disembark, her driver and I were talking and I asked him if she had mentioned that she had gone to Pittsburgh on Monday with her Aunt Carrie. He said no, she hadn't but that Mandy had told him when she got on the bus this morning that she'd ridden down there. I was somewhat surprised that she hadn't announced this to him as a few weeks ago, she had gone to Hazelton, PA with Mandy's friends, Jenn-Jenn and Nick-Nick, so Nick could pick up some car part he needed there. After that trip, she about drove us nuts talking non-stop about having been to Hazelton and spouting off little bits and pieces about the drive down there and back -all in one day!

I told the bus driver then about how she had sung every song we figure she knows on Monday when she went to Pittsburgh and he laughed, telling me how every afternoon, she sits in the same seat, directly behind the driver, and then proceeds to sing her little heart out to him.

Today, he said he had made a suggestion to her. He'd asked her if she'd like to sing "Jeremiah was a bullfrog" and if so, he would sing along with her and they'd do a duet.

Her response to that: "NO! Jeremiah was not a Bull Frog!" No further explanation as to why she thought that and no words as to whether or not she even has a clue about that song either. Just that with her response there to his suggestion it meant that the subject was closed in her opinion.

He said he'd asked her one day what she plans to be when she grows up and big surprise in her answer to that too!

She wants to be a singer!

If her actions now at this age are any indication, it's obvious to us that she can carry a tune fairly well -considering her age and other things and we know she can often pick up the words to a song very quickly too from listening to the radio or a cd or just hearing other kids sing a number. All of this is something we -that is the adults around her -find pretty darned amazing. So at the rate she's going and seeing how much she loves music and especially singing, you know, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if some day she does do some kind of singing in one way or another!

It is a talent she does come by quite honestly too though. Her dad loves to play the drums and also, strums the guitar a bit now and then. It's my understanding that he has also done a little singing in a couple of rock bands -generally those that lean to the kind of music I don't usually listen to though -heavy metal -so I can't verify if he really can sing or maybe he is just good at shouting some words out. I say that because, yes I am biased and don't care for that type of music and I turn into a clone of my mother where heavy metal stuff is concerned. (It all just sounds like noise to me is what my Mom would have said about regular rock and roll so I can pretty much figure she would say at least that and probably a few more derogatory comments about heavy metal stuff then too.)

I've always enjoyed music and for a number of years sang in the chorus in high school as well as in the church choir and more than just my Mom and my aunts and uncles had told me often back then that I had a very nice, very good alto voice. Today -not so much as I've probably pretty well killed that little bit of talent with a little beer, maybe some whiskey from time to time and yes, good old nicotine too! I also took lessons as a kid and teen on the piano, violin and French horn too for a while. Not that the lessons did much good as one must also do this thing called "PRACTICE" and then do it a whole lot more too in order to be able to play even just decently on any instrument and my Mom never could get that message drummed into my head for some reason or other.

Going even further back though within my family, my Dad's mother and her Dad often played and sang back in the late 1800s at dances held in barns and such for the local coal miners. One brother of my Dad's played the violin and it was his violin that was loaned to me to learn how to play that instrument. And my Dad's baby sister was an excellent pianist, played the church organ for over 40 some years, had a beautiful alto voice and even taught music in the nearby local school district too for many years. And on my Mom's side -my grandfather and three of his brothers sang as a quartet for many years, his baby sister was a self-taught musician learning to play the piano and organ, and all five of my Mom's siblings had decent singing abilities too! So there's lots of musical talent floating in Miss Maya's little gene pool there, don't 'cha think?

And now -I need to end this little (Do I ever write anything that could be construed as "little?") piece, load the kids in my car and run to the store. Kurt thinks -or wants -me to get cake while we are there. Maya wants tomato soup so we can have grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for supper and I'm going up there to buy vegetable seeds so I can get cracking and plant me another little garden again this year.

Just that this time, I'm getting the stuff sown a little more in line, time wise, to when things should be planted!

Ah, the ability to plan things ahead! I'm trying but have yet to master that aspect of life!

Maybe next year I'll achieve that goal.

What do you think?