Conch Shells and Sea Chanties (or, "How HD at 22 Months is Like DP Mama at 13 Years")

Firstly, witness the cute that is my child when she purposely smiles for the camera:

Secondly, be thankful for that extremely rare footage.  We have a hard enough time just getting her to be still enough for us to capture candid stuffs she's doing, never mind a full-blown pose...

Lately, HD has become a little music obsessed.  I am very proud to say that she gets this from my side of the family, as my father, brother, and I are all a bit snobbish and faux scholarly when it comes to music, a la High Fidelity.  

So imagine my excitement the past month or so when all of a sudden, HD wants involvement in all sorts of musical processes.  She's always loved being sung to, and she'll more or less stop in her tracks to pay attention if she ever hears music on TV -- especially, inexplicably, for the HIMYM theme song.  But now?  She's constantly singing (she's got the entire first verse to A Pirate Looks at Forty down pat, I kid you not), she wants to play her xylophone and pots-and-pans drums constantly, and she can identify most instruments when she sees them (thanks to Animal Orchestra!).  I'm on the brink of busting out my old clarinet just to give her a thrill.

I was at Target last weekend, and I picked up a pair of children's headphones for HD.  We're heading on a cross-country flight later this summer, so I picked up a pair thinking we could use them for (last chance, emergency only) cartoon-viewing on Hubs's iPad.  HD was instantly drawn to her pink present, and was astounded when she realized that these magical things were basically her own private musical experience.  And she's been enamored ever since.

  

I've been trying to expose HD to all sorts of tunes.  My view?  She hears enough of I'm a Little Teapot at daycare.  I'm there to help guide her into understanding how pop music and the history of the world go hand in hand.  Do we love the Yo Gabba Gabba soundtrack?  Hell yes.  But it's important that kids know who Elvis is, and the glory of Otis Redding, and Mahalia Jackson, and Led Zeppelin, and Jimmy Reed, and Steve Earle, and Dolly Parton, and Raphael Saadiq, and Jenny Lewis, and the Cure (don't tell Hubs!) and...  Anyway.  Suffice it to say that HD's new fave pastime is to put on headphones, crawl into my lap, and make requests while Mama plays DJ on the iPod.   

Behold, my bebe's first time experiencing her own private concert on headphones.  I am so proud.