Pumpkin LOVES music and he loves guitar in particular. He will turn anything into a guitar-- his fork, a book, his toothbrush, a flyswatter... If he isn't holding anything in his hands he plays "air guitar." Beloved found an old plastic toy guitar that looks like a guitar hero knock-off at Value Village a few months ago. It cost $2 and quickly became one of the most favored toys in the house. Here is a post with a picture of Pumpkin playing a clipboard guitar from a few months ago.
Anyway, my parents got Pumpkin a small "real" guitar for his birthday. It's kid-sized and it has real strings! We'll be in South Africa on his birthday, so they gave it to him now rather than wait.
Oh my goodness, was he excited!
Here he is opening the package.
The guitar gets a full-body hug even before it's out the box.
Pumpkin in stunned awe of this treasure!
Doesn't he look serious? He's trying out plucking the strings rather than strumming.
He still has little dimples on the backs of his hands sometimes. He's getting so grown up that those dimples, when they appear, make my heart catch with love for him.
Sparkle handled it all very well, as you can see!
Actually, he did do very well. He had to bury his face in the couch momentarily with impatience and jealousy, but I was proud of him.
You can see our first Value Village guitar beside him.
Sparkle did get a turn before too long.
Sparkle's interest faded after a day or so, but Pumpkin still loves both guitars. He still prefers the red one when he's listening to music and pretending to play along.
Oh, and here is the sweetest thing ever!
Pumpkin came to me with his new guitar and said, "Listen, Mama, I will play you a song."
He strummed along for a bit with pretty good rhythm but terrible sound, obviously, since he can't play any actual chords.
After about a minute the song was apparently done and he looked up at me and said, "That song says, 'I love you, Mama.' "
Be still, my heart!