Conrad Invents An Instrument

Most of Conrad's cool exploits are non-verbal. Considering that his first birthday is still a few weeks away, that's probably as it should be, but Gareth was such an uncommonly quotable infant, it's really different to hang out with a one-year-old who communicates mostly in ASL signs and other gestures.

The thing about Conrad that blows my mind every day is his musicality. He was trying to dance with his upper body long before he could stand. He can imitate a rhythm on a drum, and match pitches with his voice when Dan's playing something familiar on the guitar. When we're out in the wide world, the world that keeps ASCAP and BMI busy by saturating public spaces with music, Conrad's always paying avid attention to what's playing. At a restaurant this weekend, a Nirvana song came on. He was overwhelmed with joy, dancing in his high chair and drumming on the table, yodeling along. That's my kid, the world's tiniest Kurt Cobain fan. Don't know where he got that.

So yesterday, he was playing with a plastic cup while yodeling along with Dan's guitar practice. He discovered by accident that he could change his vocal tone by yodeling directly into the cup, and then spent a good twenty minutes systematically figuring out every way he could adjust his results. So intent.