Music Mornings

I am a lucky lady. I get to take the coolest little dude ever on a drive filled with music and giggles every day of the week.

Now that we're commuting in from North Attleboro, the distance to SeviSchool and work is longer, but we're leaving earlier in the morning to avoid the heaviest Providence traffic, so the actual commute time is usually only around 25-30 minutes.

This new schedule is great. If I get us out the door around 7:15, we get to school well before 8. This means we have time in the morning, and time in the morning is a fairly foreign concept still, so we are enjoying it very much. We can stop and get an iced coffee and share a treat. We can have a pleasant back-and-forth about the upcoming day's events, we can walk hand in hand to Sev's class, stopping along the way to say hi to anyone (everyone) Sev feels like visiting, and I don't even feel rushed when a random little girl from the older kids' room runs up to us and exclaims "hi, baby!" while giving Sev a big hug. There is a zen-like state that never before existed in our weekday mornings and it is wonderful.

One fairly consistent part of our mornings is music. When Sev starts staring out the window pensively, or even more so when I see his little brow furrow up as his face turns frowny, I know it's time to put on some music. Sev, like most kids his age, loves music. When he was just a tiny little baby I would sing entire albums to him as we played tummy time or just rocked back and forth in the comfy recliner. He's heard the entire Smiths library, most of the offerings of REM, Elysian Fields, the Ramones, Led Zeppelin, and selected works from the Beasties, Black Angels, Blackalicious, Fugazi, The Beatles, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Melvins, Neurosis, Isis, Mastodon, and a boatload of classical and holiday tunes. He's a well-rounded little dude.

This kid knows what he likes, and when he hears something that tickles his fancy, he bops his sweet little head up and down and rocks his body to the beat, "sings" along with the melody or moves his mouth like he's singing words, claps his hands and squeals with excitement, and by this point my heart has swollen to a size that feels like a warning of immanent explosion.

I love our morning drives.