<p>Happy Mothers Day to all the moms! Now that some of the college craziness has settled down a bit, I thought it would be cute and fun for moms (and dads) to share when and how they first noticed their babies were "different".</p>
<p>Certainly not the first indication, but one of my favorites is when DS (now studying composition and violin @ Tufts/NEC) requested that we play Appalachian Spring during dinner as a barely 4 year old.</p>
<p>The above was DS1. DS2 told his first joke and revealed his interest in music at 20 months. He was riding around on his dad’s shoulders banging out a beat on his head. I said, “Easy there, Dad’s not a drum, you know.” He said, “No, he’s a guitar,” and began strumming his head instead. At 9, he’s remains adept at comedy and music. ; )</p>
<p>Favorites with my son: </p>
<p>Soon after he started walking, he would pick up any suitably shaped object and bop up and down while strumming it like a guitar. When he was 4 or 5, we got a call from his Kindermusik teacher saying that in her twenty years of teaching he was the only child who had ever, when asked to cite an example of a wind instrument, responded with crumhorn.</p>
<p>While not a music major, he is now at age 20 a rather good guitar player.</p>
<p>It was obvious with my daughter from very early on. My wife frequently took her to rehearsals when she was a few months old. When awake, daughter would sit in her infant seat quietly and contentedly so long as music was being made. If they stopped playing to discuss something, she would start fussing and then quiet down again as soon as the music started up.</p>
<p>We took her to an informal concert when she was 2. There happened to be a baby of just a few months old a few seats down from us. At one point, the baby started crying during the music. Daughter turned and said something like, “Baby! Shhhhhh! Concert!” with a very serious look on her face.</p>
<p>One of my all time favorite pictures of her was taken at age 2 or 3 when she was watching an episode of Sesame Street that featured Yo Yo Ma. At one point she ran off and collected a little stool and an old student violin and bow that we had lying around. She sat down on the stool, set the violin upright between her legs and started sawing away at it with the bow. When Mr. Ma finished playing on the TV, she stood up and took a bow with him.</p>
<p>D3, the music major, eagerly participated in her older sister’s kinder-rhythms class even though she’s 21 months younger and was just supposed to be along for the ride. (This did not go over well with D2, a pattern that has reappeared at intervals over the past decades!)</p>
<p>We decided to go ahead and enroll her in violin lessons at age 3 when it turned out that she was outperforming the kids in the beginner violin class whenever she could wrestle an instrument away from her older siblings.</p>
<p>Older thread, similar topic: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/379137-what-age-did-light-come.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/music-major/379137-what-age-did-light-come.html</a>.</p>
<p>Not music related but son was really non verbal as a wee tyke. We wondered when he was going to begin to talk and were getting a bit worried. He assuaged our fears one evening. Put on the news, the blue screen comes up on the tv and son wanders over, points to the header and says “Nightly Business Report”. </p>
<p>Granted, he said nothing else for about three months, but when he did start it was complete sentences.</p>
<p>He did the same thing with “first steps”. Never took them. One night, he just comes running into the kitchen. And that was that.</p>
<p>He was an all or nothing type.</p>
<p>DS was 18 months old and in his stroller for a walk. He was singing the song Bingo (you know…the one about the Farmer’s dog)…perfectly in tune. I thought I was hearing things.</p>
<p>A friend of my son’s came over after preschool and was very effective at picking out Mario (Gameboy) songs on our piano.
(His dad is a computer scientist/music researcher, so no surprise there)</p>
<p>Our D was clapping rhythms at 6 months of age. I thought it was pretty strange when I saw it, but maybe this is common? Later she would start screaming when we changed the car radio away from rock. Then there was the drum-playing on nearly every surface in our house. Then as soon as she learned to walk, she started playing “parade”: marching around the house with her toy drum, and dragging everyone along with her. (I think this came from Barney the Dinosaur, to whom I suppose we are indebted). She is now a section leader in marching band. Weird.</p>
<p>She was a blues fan at two months old. One song in particular. Muddy Waters “Mannish Boy” would send her into a trance. Rocking back and forth exactly to the rhythm and making an odd, but in tune cooing sound. It was genuinely weird. Only the “mud man” would do that to her.</p>
<p>When my S was about 2, he was sitting on a little riding toy at home scooting around the house. We were clicking through the TV channels, and suddenly, Lawrence Welk came on. S was absolutely mesmorized. It was hilarious. He is now a very cool jazz guitarist. We love to tease him that his first musical love was Lawrence Welk.</p>
<p>Son, now a graduate tuba student, was caught by Dad on home video at about age 13 months.
He could barely walk. He was wearing one of those dopey feet pajama things.
DH had placed his ENORMOUS tuba on living room floor.
Son kept crawling over and pulling himself up to the mouthpiece to ‘play’.
He got an incredible sound out of it, even though the mouthpiece covered basically his entire face! He would play, then toddle/crawl away and return repeatedly, unable to contain his excitement. This went on for about 30 minutes, son all the time babbling ‘buba’ when he wasn’t actually playing. </p>
<p>It’s one of my fav videos but son does find it a bit embarrassing when I threaten to drag it out for his friends!</p>
<p>Had my D’s senior voice recital this weekend. I made a display that showed her “journey.” At age 6 (when you are practicing your writing and drawing in first grade), she drew a picture of herself on stage, singing with the lights beaming down on her. There are hands at the bottom of the page, clapping. The commentary she wrote: “I love to sing and dance. When I grow up, I want to be a singer and dancer because I want to do something I’m good at and I like. And I’m good at singing and dancing.” The only part she got wrong was that she included a microphone in the picture. She does not need a mike.</p>
<p>A few signs:</p>
<p>When S1 was an infant, he was colicky. Beethoven was the only thing that would soothe him. (Not a music major, but a talented guitarist and pianist.)</p>
<p>S2 composed before he could talk. Had a 5-note motif he sung over and over as a babe in arms. After he started talking (late) was constantly making up songs. Still prefers music without words, though.</p>
<p>Have a Christmas video - S 1 got a toy guitar, and S2 got a cash register. The boys made a beeline for the other one’s toy. (S1, as I said, still plays guitar, but he is an economist by profession.) But S1 didn’t like S2 touching the guitar, so we encouraged S2 to open another present, which happened to be a xylophone. The whole rest of the video, you can hear S2 playing that thing in the background. </p>
<p>For D’s violin recital poster last month, it shows a picture of her about age 2, sitting on the fireplace hearth enraptured while her daddy is kneeling in front of her playing his violin. (I believe he was playing Pop Goes the Weasel.) She sang on pitch very early, and still sings beautifully. But she doesn’t have a “pop” voice - sings very pure and very high, so she doesn’t think she is any good!</p>
<p>First day home from the hospital, baby McSon took to conducting air. He was so animated and intent, deliberate and graceful the way he moved his hands, everyone who visited found it highly bizarre. We weren’t sure whether he was landing an imaginary spaceship or conducting a quantum orchestra.
Fast forward to three years old; we have a video of him with my brother-in-law’s keyboard on a coffee table, headphones on, smack dab in the middle of a family visit; looks at the camera, lifts one side of the headphones, and says: “I’m busy writing a song…”
While he is a music/tech major, he claims he does not intend to conduct. But guess who his HS teacher always asked to fill-in conduct in band and jazz when he had to step out. That’s right, baby McSon remains within 
And picture of him in front of a keyboard with headphone on? I probably have so many shots of that by now I could morph him from 3 to young adult!</p>
<p>These are fun!</p>
<p>DS would jump and kick in the womb during church offertory (we had an amazing pianist at the time). People on our pew would snicker it was so obvious. However, a few minutes into the sermon and DS was sound asleep. Good thing our preacher had a sense of humor! This went on every week!</p>
<p>When D was just a toddler, and hadn’t uttered more than single words or simple phrases, she observed me pulling cash from my wallet to pay the bill at a restaurant. Plain as day, she blurted out her first sentence: “Daddy, I need that money!”</p>
<p>A pursuit of music was inevitable.</p>
<p>When my infant son would wake up from sleep or nap, he would sing instead of cry. He was the only one of my children to do this. </p>
<p>Also, when he was a few months old, I found out that, even if he was waiting for a bottle, he would stop crying and completely quiet down if I let him listen to opera or classical music. I still remember calling my dad excitedly and telling him he finally had a grandchild who loved music as much as he did-- and my son was under a year old.</p>
<p>Likewise, my D was 2.5 and we were in JC Penny’s in the children’s dept buying clothes. I sat her on the counter (so she wouldn’t wander off) while I was paying. I reached for my checkbook and I uttered “oh I used the last one.” She reached over and pointed: "mom, use your american express.</p>