"Petting Zoo"

We heard there would be a petting zoo, so we had to go.  This is not your typical petting zoo, it was an instrument petting zoo. Following the "petting zoo" was a free concert offered at a local church by the Houston Symphony.  I told Zachary to simply sit back and listen to songs.  I forgot how visual he is.  He was looking around, checking out the musicians, quietly commenting on what he saw and heard.  He was in his element, to say the least.

At the petting zoo, he tried every instrument, and most more than once.  I had spoken with a young lady about him playing their bassoon.  She brought one because Zachary has his own reed.  I know you are surprised to see more pictures of Zachary playing instruments.

First he tried all the brass instruments, while patiently waiting for help with the bassoon...

And now what the audience (well, only Zachary) has been waiting for.  His first bassoon lesson by a principal bassoonist from the Houston Symphony.  She was so kind to assist him.  And she said he could come on stage afterwards and she would play a bit for him.

He loved the show, and by the time it was over, he wanted to play the English horn. But then I happened to show him the conductors bio, which stated he played the oboe.  So, for now, he will stick with the oboe and work on conducting too.  That is what he says he wants to be when he grows up.

And on the funny side, he jetted up to the stage and started trying to touch instruments.  I was trapped talking to two older ladies about Zachary and the performance.  I finally got up to him, and the musicians were all so nice to let him handle the instruments.  He even asked the bassoonist to play Echos of Christmas.  He just happened to have the sheet music with him, and she was gracious enough to play a few measures.

Funny things said...

At this point, 5th grade is over and we are well into summer.  But I wanted to share some funny things he has said over the year.

10.  My girlfriend and her kids were over.  Zachary suggested a game, which is unusual.  The game was called "Spank the Booty", as he gave a little grin.  Come to find out, this was an option on the same page as Pac-man and various other children's games, only Zack wanted to play it in real life with the other kids. You can imagine the game.

9.  One day in the car, Zachary said, "Mom, I inked."  Me:  what's that mean?  Zachary:  I farted.  I think he had seen Nemo recently.

8.  We were out in the car, and Zachary says, "It has to stop raining or I may get a cavity."  Not sure how the two relate.

7.  He has several teeth loose.  We talked about the tooth fairy, since it has been a while.  I asked what the tooth fairy should bring...."maybe some coins, but I'd like $10,000" - the coins mentioned with a somber tone, and the $10,000 mumbled under his breath.

6.  When he doesn't like to do something or eat a particular food, Zachary says he's allergic.  So we have been talking about allergies and what they really are.  I told him I was allergic to cats as an example, and that I often sneeze.  So we are at Target and this lady sneezes 7x, and he says, "she must be allergic to cats."

5.  Along with the allergies talk, has become a desire to get a cat.  We are not cat people, so there will not be a cat at our house, despite Zachary's pleading.  Anyway, he says, "when I get older, I'm going to get a cat for my house."  I said I thought that would be just fine, but we wouldn't be able to come visit because I'm allergic...Z:  Never mind, then.  He loves his mama!

4.  Zachary has been learning about idioms which are rather challenging for a literal child.  An example of an idiom would be 'it's raining cats and dogs.'  Zack discussed wanting to go to Lupe's for dinner and I said I wasn't sure his dad would want to go.  He said, "Let's make a secret decision, and we won't let the cat out of the bag." 

3.  In the car on the way home, he says, "mom, the teachers at school are really impressed with the 6th graders,"  as he smiles and nods proudly of himself (since he will be in 6th grade).  I didn't figure to tell him the teachers get less and less impressed with you as you get older.  ;-)

2.  When he received his Easter basket this year, we talked about the Easter bunny's existence.  I asked him where he thought his basket stuff came from.  He said, "Santa?"

1.  Zachary had spilled a few crumbs on his place mate, and I commented cleaning them up.  He casually flipped it over, and smiled (implying, fixed it!).  I've seen something similar with two men in a commercial. 

0.  In order to download apps on his ipod touch, I have to put in my account password.  The other day he sat down beside me and chuckled, "let's play crack the code."  He proceeded to type in my account password.  He laughed hysterically, but the laughing stopped once I realized he had charged $100.49 worth of apps and songs.

And some sweet things he has done in the last year:
-He has started holding the door for me.  Once I told him women and children go first.  He said, children should go first.  Not sure what happened, but he decided to hold the door for me the other day and hasn't stopped.

-I had come into the kitchen before heading out to a meeting.  And he said, "you look pretty, Mom."  So sweet to receive a compliment from him.

-And last, in the car, he says, "my hugs are sweeter now."  I asked why. He said, "Because I've changed my heart."

What might he play next?

Most of you know of Zachary's love for music.  That has since expanded from piano to marimba this past year when he was allowed to played in band.  And why keep things boring.  He remembered Santa brought him a violin some 3-4 years ago.  So, two students at school started helping him learn to play in March. 

About that time, he discovered the library had books on instruments.  For a while, he wanted to play the double bass, and I told him to learn the violin first and he still had two other instruments he had not mastered.  But that did not stop him from asking several music store employees to let him play their double bass.

 

Then he decided he liked the challenge of the double reed instruments, so he really wanted to play the bassoon.  When we went in a music store, he begged for a bassoon reed, which he ultimately bought with his own money.  One day, I caught him pretending to play a bassoon...

 

Towards the end of the year, he started expressing his new interest to his band teacher.  I was pretty set against a new instrument since he had just received the marimbas in January.  But in May, his teacher approached me about him playing the oboe and felt Zachary could do it and offered to give him lessons over the summer.  Hmmm, now what to do?  I'm sure you can guess what we did...

And he has played most days for several hours.  He is also interested in conducting and so his band teacher is giving him lessons on that too.  It's only the beginning of July, and so far, it has been a musical summer.  I'm not expecting that to change much.