Colds, Chi, Chords, and Coolness

Sam and I stayed home from church today with colds. We had a pleasant time playing together. I snuggle-tickle-pounced him. He retaliated by poking me and shouting "Chi block! Chi block!" (Think "nerve pinch causing temporary paralysis.") I collapsed dramatically into a chair, recuperated, and exacted vengeance. He collapsed even more dramatically onto the floor.

Later we read a book and he "read" lots of the words. Yes, he was using pictures, but still, it's an important pre-reading skill. He pointed out every instance of the letter S and said "S like Sammy!" We played with letter blocks. Sam made "chooch trains" of blocks, with a heavy emphasis on S and "M like Mommy" letter "cars". I spelled some family names. Sam identified most of them correctly. :)

The piece de resistance, though, was when Sam asked me, randomly, to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the piano. I pulled out Mozart's "Ah, vous dirai-je, maman." Then Sam asked me to switch to the ABC song, and I did, seamlessly. (I'm still not sure if he realizes it's the same tune.)

Sam and I both tried to sing along, which is difficult while handling the Mozart variations. Especially when playing them. It sounded awful, of course, and not just because my voice is froggy right now. Whatever--it was fun. :)

If you'd like to hear how the Mozart theme and variations are supposed to sound, try this link.

If you want to hear how I actually played them--tough. I bust them out occasionally as background music, every few years, at weddings or other similar events. My "interpretation" is very...liberal. (In other words, I slow it way down, change the rhythm, and fudge many of the notes. A sad consequence of not practicing.)

All in all, a pleasant day. When Jeff got home from church, he also built "trains" from blocks. He said "choo choo" and everything. I love imagination!




Eric and Daniel also got into the spirit of things and added names to our list.






Sam can't understand why he's not allowed to watch "Baby Signing Time" videos. In his mind, if he's sick and didn't go to church, he should be allowed. The explanation that it's still a Sunday and other people went to church is not making a noticeable dent. Fortunately, now that he has brothers to play with again, he's not as insistent.

This means that, despite all my efforts to be a Cool Mom, I'm not as fun as his siblings. I can live with that.

I'd rather play Minecraft with Jon, anyway. Because although watching an educational, wholesome DVD is prohibited in our house on Sunday, obviously trying to murder my husband in an interactive computer game is perfectly in keeping with the spirit of the day...