Catching up: Trip to Denver

We went to Denver on the last weekend in April, as part of our Great Piano Hunt.

We stayed at Roger and Anne's (Chris's uncle and aunt) house. They live in the southeast part of Denver, and their back yard is on a small lake. On Sunday morning when we were there, Chris and I woke up long before anyone else. We hung out in the living room with a two-story wall of windows facing the lake, talking quietly and watching birds. There were several pelicans, and another bird we couldn't identify. Does anyone know what the dark bird is?





After Roger and Anne got up, we watched the birds some more, sipped coffee and chatted. Eventually Cailan joined us in the living room and played with a Polly Pockets dollhouse - I didn't think he'd be interested in it but he played with it for a long long time. However, there was something else that Cailan was much more interested in:





Roger is a drummer and let Cailan play his electric drum kit. Cailan has had the chance to play one of these a little bit at a music store in GJ, but at Roger's house he was able to drum to his heart's content - over an hour on Saturday evening and another hour on Sunday morning! The headphones were a little too big and kept slipping off his head, and he couldn't reach the controls that let you change the sounds of the drums, but he just kept playing.

In between the drumming and the visiting and the four piano stores, we managed to squeeze in a trip to the Denver Zoo. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just went to Cailan's two favorite exhibits: Tropical Discovery (which has a big aquarium inside) and Bird World. Of course, those are on opposite ends of the zoo, so we got to see lots of other animals walking between them.

Duet

Last week, Cailan and I were looking at pictures of musical instruments. We saw a clarinet, and I told him that I have a clarinet, and that sometime I would get it out and play it for him.

Over the weekend, we picked up some fresh reeds and last night I brought the clarinet case down from the closet shelf where it has been silently languishing since we moved in August. I showed Cailan how to open up the case, put some cork grease on, put the clarinet together, and put the reed on. I played a few notes (which surprisingly didn't sound that bad, considering how long it's been) and then he wanted to try.

It turns out that a clarinet is much more difficult for a 3-year-old to get any sound out of than a piano, guitar, or drum. Biting back the thought "But this is a brand new reed" I held the clarinet up to his mouth and he tried to play it like a kazoo, by humming a tune into it. Didn't work so well. We also tried letting him press some of the keys while I played, and he was able to get a few different notes out.

Then I got the idea that we could have a duet. I took the music book from his Music Together class out to the sun porch and played some tunes on the clarinet while Cailan played the drums. Mostly we were playing in two completely separate musical worlds, but every now and then we'd get a few measures where our beats lined up together, and that was pretty fun.

Cailan had a great time. After we put the clarinet away and were putting his pajamas on, he kept asking if we could do that again on Tuesday night. Yeah, buddy, I think we can.

*****

Coming soon: tales from a triple tandem trail trek!

Little drummer boy

He was very very happy.

We set up the drums on the sun porch Thursday night after Cailan went to sleep. Then we closed the curtains over the the doors that go from the dining room to the sun porch, so he wouldn't see the drums before breakfast.

After oatmeal and getting dressed Friday morning, Chris told Cailan we had a surprise for him. "I'm ready to go see my surprise!"

We took him out to the sun porch and showed him the drums. HHe didn't scream or squeal or jump up and down. He just said, "That's my set!" Then he walked over to it, picked up the sticks, and started playing.

He did take a break long enough to give me a hug and a kiss and wave good-bye as I left for work, but then it was back to the music. He started working on his CD right away and by 9 A.M. he was up to track 23.