Sullivan is all about the A, B, C’s and 1, 2, 3’s these days. Whenever he sees writing he yells out “A,B,C’s, A,B,C’s”. And to our surprise he actually can recognize the correct letters at times. The other day we were in the car and he yelled out “O” and sure enough we looked around the there was a sign that had a great big “O”. Damon bought him a big tub of foam letters that he loves to play with now. He doesn’t always get them right but he is just so excited about learning them and exploring with them. He even knows the melody of the A,B,C song and tries to sing along with me now….of course some of the letters get mumbled together like L,M,N,O,P sounds more like emenemopee.
He also likes to try and count things. When we were at the park the other day there was a giant bead counter on one of the playscapes and he tried to count each one. Not in order but all the numbers were there. Just like the time he walked up all the stairs at the UT building the other day. I had to run an errand and he wanted to climb the stairs himself and as he walked up he said, “one, too, tree, fur, ive, ixs, even, ate, nine…..then he got lost at 10 so went back to 1,2,3.

Music is such a big part of our world here at the house. As much as I originally whined about Damon taking up a quarter of the playroom with all of his drums and drum accessories I really can’t imagine it any other way now. Damon and Sullivan have Jam out Sessions all the time back there. As soon as Sullivan hears daddy begin his tapping rhythms Sullivan runs through the house to find me. Where ever I am in the house I always know when Sullivan wants a full family dance party. He runs in gabbering on about coming back to dance and play with him. Daddy plays the drums and Sullivan and I play all the rest of the instruments (and dance of course). He often asks me to play the toy electric guitar which I love to do…the only time I am the preferred musician. Great since I don’t play any instruments at all. Damon has created several Sullivan drum themes…..One is for the cowboy hat. It has a kind of Lone Ranger/Indian feel to it. Whenever Sullivan puts on the cowboy hat Damon strikes up that tune or vica versa…whenever Damon plays that tune he goes and finds his hat. We also have the hip hop rhythm and the rock out rhythm and the funky rhythm which is my favorite. Sullivan also likes to count off Damon’s jam session….with drum sticks in hand he waves them around like a conductor and counts 2,3,4 and then of course Damon begins to play. We have lots of musical fun over here at the house. Here are pictures of the last jam session. Right before nap time….Daddy came home from some meetings and he led a rowdy time to tucker Sullivan out before nap. As you can see Sullivan takes all of this very serious.

The Biscuit Brothers performed with the Austin Symphony Orchestra tonight and Sullivan and Granddaddy Jerry came along. The show was part of their annual children’s music concert. They expanded the program this year to include several guest artists to kick off and celebrate the symphony’s new home at the Long Center for the Performing Arts. The symphony did a short concert first then the Biscuits joined in for the last half. The whole evening was thrilling, a career highlight for me. Grand dad Jerry came down with us so Sullivan could enjoy the show as well. We got there early for sound check and Sullivan had a chance to explore the new stage and tour around and see the instruments (that is him in front of the big tympany drum that he calls a Bum). It was cute seeing him react to all the musicians warming up. Orchestra members would arrive, unpack their instrument and go set up on stage and as soon as he heard their instrument he would run to the stage calling out what instrument he heard (he has learned them all through the countless instrument of the day segments on the Biscuit Brothers)….so when he heard the Clarinet from backstage he ran out saying “net, net” and when he saw the Tuba being unpacked he ran to it saying “horn…Milk” cause Buttermilk plays the Tuba on the show.
Jerry said that Sullivan was his quiet attentive self during the show. Damon and I were a little teary backstage during the opening song “Fan Fare for the Common Man”…..realizing that we were missing seeing Sullivan experience his first symphony but Allen reminded me that at least we can say that his first visit to the symphony was to see his parents perform. It was a THRILL for sure being on that stage and singing with an orchestra but I also would have loved to see Sullivan’s reactions first hand. But so glad his Granddaddy got to be there to enjoy it….said it reminded him a lot of Damon’s first trip to the Dallas Symphony. Wish we could have gotten more pictures and a video of the night but hopefully there will be many more shows like this with the ASO and around the country with other orchestra’s.

Sullivan has a bit of insomnia this week. I think it’s because he’s going through a language learning phase and he is just not tired or too many things to think about. Last night he was up till 1:30am with Daddy watching his new favorite movie “Finding Nemo”. Well tonight we tried to tucker him out by a trip up to the grandparents so he could run around in their big yard. It helped a bit I think cause it only took him an hour and a half to fall asleep tonight and thankfully before midnight. Anyway, we captured some fun pictures of him tonight during story time. I have this favorite picture of his uncle Kirk in diapers reading a book and I have wanted to recreate it with Sullivan. We came close tonight but not an exact duplicate. He usually reads the first page of every one of his books as a night time routine but tonight he actually read several of his books front to back and multiple times. Another example of his new language skills. Notice several are upside down….well he read them up side down and right side up as well as front to back 🙂

Oh and tonight when we were at the grandparents he was playing a fun “magic” trick with grandmother Judy where she hid his cup underneath one of two hats and he had to guess where it was. Well at some point someone must have said “it’s amazing” cause he started to say “It’s Amazing” after he found the cup but his voice sounded more like a Latin announcer….Eatsa Masing!….priceless……and also while he was playing this game he was screaming and giggling and his great grandmother Jo who is being cared for at Jerry and Judy’s house called him a “My Little Screaming Mudpuddle”…it was too darling.

Sullivan is just fascinated with Daddy’s motorcycle. We were outside playing in the yard when Daddy came home from Chuy’s and Sullivan got to ride down the driveway on it with Daddy and sit and listen to it rumble.