Baby Blog

As my baby grows I begin to notice how he connects one thing to another, from one medium like the printed page or the computer screen to the toy box or the playground. He’s constantly making connections and where some things are new, some early discoveries still hold true.

Babies learn early that when they cry, they will be soothed. They learn that screaming gets more attention than soft cooing and that mommy is probably a softer touch than dad. Well, Nik still realizes that it’s better to go to mom than dad for a treat and that loud verbalization of needs but now he sees other action reactions. Specifically, I’m talking about music.

From the womb, baby Nik has been introduced to music. No, not a steady diet of 18^th century piano music but an eclectic mix of mom and dad’s favorite rock tunes and whatever was on the radio at the time. Nik loves music and is realizing that he can make music himself rather than just listen to it.

On the baby development channel today they showed, discussed and played a variety of musical instruments. Nik was absorbed in the show until it ended then he walked over to his toy box. Now Nik had a rack of toys with each tray filled with different types of toys. Until today, the bottom tray filled with plastic musical instruments that had accumulated over the months lay almost forgotten.

After looking at the tambourine on the television, Nik dug out his own tambourine. I didn’t even know he remembered owning one. After a little experimentation with the tambourine, Nik moved onto the xylophone. He was so happy to reproduce the sounds and actions he had just seen on the television screen. It was like watching the brain synapses fire. Maybe they were.

Children develop different ways every single day. One day they are a new born baby. The next day they are learning to walk. One day they are kicking in the womb in time with a hard rock classic on the radio and then they are making their own tunes on their own instruments.

Never stop watching your baby grow. Not even for a second. It’s like beautiful music playing before your eyes.