Playing the Rattle

I wrote recently about Braden potentially playing the guitar and my inability to play here. I told you that I never took a music lesson of any kind. I also told you that I begged and pleaded until I was taught a few cords just to keep me quiet. With that knowledge I was able to play guitar just well enough to destroy some great classic rock songs. I am writing today to share some good news about my musical development. I have found an instrument that I can play......The baby rattle. That's right. I am now an accomplished baby rattle player. I could try and take this up a step and play the maracas but why worry with that. I have a built in excuse and free rattles already lined up to fuel my new pursuit.

I started playing the rattle randomly when I would sing to Braden. Every once in a while a mood will hit me and I might break into song. Now that Braden is always there and he is too young to make fun of me, I sing to him rather than to myself. He seems to enjoy it. If there is a rattle within reach I try and add a nice percussion rhythm to the song. More often than this though I sing along with some of his toys. He has a few animals and books that sing various children's songs. I try to memorize them and sing along as well. On some songs I have my own established rattle routine. On others I just make it up as we go along. The best songs are anything with a salsa type beat. There is one song his blue eared puppy sings that has that type of beat. For that song I can swing the rattles from side to side like maracas and due a Latino dance. Of course the sight of me doing any type of dance is enough to turn your stomach, but once again Braden doesn't mind. It seems that the sillier I act the better he likes it. That is good news for now because I fully expect to turn into an embarrassment later in life. Knowing my future embarrassment status I plan to take full advantage of these times when I am still funny. There is nothing like having someone around that thinks you're funny even if he is only 3 months old.