A word that sums up the week that was…

I’ve been trying to find something that would capture Arthur’s fascination with his Dad’s guitars and decided on:

He discovered the guitars a couple of weeks ago – an acoustic and a bass – and whenever he could would take himself off into Leigh’s study to strum away at the strings, a look of pure delight on his face. It was the first place he headed when we came downstairs in the morning, and if the door was closed he’d pull himself up and bang on it until I let him in.

Not wanting to discourage this musical enthusiasm (but hoping to protect Leigh’s guitars from too much of it!), this week we managed to acquire a ukelele, which is decidedly more Arthur-sized and so far impressively resilient. And he loves it! He has spent hours seeing what different sounds he can produce from it, looking quite the little rock star.

It is without a doubt his current favourite toy. I think he’s generally developing a bit of a guitar obsession – we were walking back from his baby music class yesterday and he almost climbed out of his sling with excitement when we passed a charity shop window display of guitars and ukes, not quite understanding why I wouldn’t let him go and play with them.

It’s so lovely to watch him with his Dad – listening intently and looking adoringly as Leigh picks out a tune and trying to mimic him the best he can.

I mean, he’s still got a way to go as far as actually strumming a tune goes. But he’s getting so much pleasure from trying. I hope we can continue to develop his interest and inspire him to make making music a part of his life as he gets older. Though the way he’s going so far he doesn’t need much more encouragement!