Musician in the making

Dear Maya,

Uncle Matt's a musician, too--you'll have to
 wait 'til you're older to listen to his albums, though!

Mommy and daddy have made an effort to expose you to a variety of music even in these first eight weeks of your life.  Every day we play music around the house, whether it be:

• on the internet (YouTube, Pandora, NPR music, Musicovery and StumbleAudio --thanks Uncle Matt for telling us about those last two),
• on the radio (NPR or WKZE for a diverse mix and occasionally WPDH for some rock 'n' roll), or
• from our CDs (which we haven't really done much of yet but plan to!)

In this past week alone we've listened to the soulful stylings of Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder and Ben E. King, classical movements by Holst, Mozart and Beethoven, and show tunes from Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, and a selection by Mandy Patinkin.  We also exposed you to Japanese music--popular tunes as well as the more traditional enka and even the rhythm of taiko drums to see how you would react to that.  Mommy read an article that said many parents swear by the syncopated beats in zydeco and reggae music to please a baby so we tried that, too.  Basically, there's nothing that pops into our heads or onto a playlist that we haven't given a listen to.  We're getting quite an education, too.

Mommy has also been compiling a playlist on her computer called "Maya's Mix" for our almost-daily singing-and-dancing session.  Every week we add a new song, sometimes one chosen for the lyrics or message, sometimes for the beat, and sometimes just because it's fun to sing along.  Here are our additions so far:

• Natasha Bedingfield's "Unwritten" (the lyrics made mommy tear up when you were in her tummy)
• Macy Gray's "Beauty in the World"
• The Ronettes' "Be My Baby" (you love it when mommy sings the 'whoa-whoa-whoa' part)
• Janelle Monae's "Tightrope" (mommy lifts you "high and low" along with the lyrics)
• Natalie Merchant's "These Are Days"
• Thurston Harris' "Little Bitty Pretty One" (mommy used to dance with Aunt Kelsie and Bobbie to this)
• Monkey Majik's "Around the World" (a fun half-English, half-Japanese pop song)
• Guns 'N' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine"
• O-Zone's "Dragostea Din Tei" (for the fact that it sounds like they're singing Maya-hi, Maya-hoo...)

All of this music time is really paying off as you proved your rhythm skills to us big time this week.  A few times each day you would coo, mommy would imitate you, and you would repeat the sound over and over again in near perfect rhythm.  You even started to catch mommy's eye as if to let her know it was time for another back and forth cooing session.  Then, last night, mommy had the idea of starting the cooing game, then breaking into song to see if you would continue cooing, kind of like vocal percussion.  And...you did!  It was hard to get on video as you seemed to get stage fright every time the camera pinged on, but this afternoon mommy tried again and caught you singing along!  How awesome are you?!?!?!

Well, we've had a long day (someone woke up on the wrong side of the crib at an ungodly hour) so it's time to settle down for the night.  Love you!