Arts and Crafts

Amidst grocery shopping, doing four loads of laundry to catch up after our weekend travel, and organizing many bins of amazing hand-me-down clothing for Mary (thanks, Aunt Holly!), today John and I made a drum. This morning I had an empty coffee canister and didn't throw it away, saying off-handedly, "Maybe we could make this into a drum." I don't actually know where John would have learned what a drum is, but he knew and he wanted one. He reminded me throughout the day, "And later we're going to make a drum!" So, after his nap, that's what we did.
No, he's not normally allowed up on the kitchen table, but he dashed up there to do some free form drumming and I had to snap a pic.

First I put some dried beans in the can, then taped the lid shut. Then we tore pieces of red and white tissue paper and used a glue stick to paste it on sort of artfully. I had two kinds of Christmas wrapping paper I thought appropriate: One shows an angel blowing a horn, so I cut that out and John glued it on. The other square is script about angels singing glory to God, which we glued onto the other side. The cannister can be used as a drum by banging it with a stick or as a percussion instrument by shaking it.

I assembled all of John's musical "instruments" in one basket. He has his new drum, a megaphone or horn (paper towel tube), a tiny mariachi, an Irish tin whistle, and a policeman-style whistle (which, after some experimentation, has been decreed an outside toy). My hopes for the basket are to start fostering some appreciation of music as a thing he can create all on his own because all the instruments will be in one place, instead of him randomly picking up a noise-making device from around the house, then throwing it back down again. Also, by keeping the instruments in one basket, the basket can live on a high shelf and John gets to play music (read: drive me crazy with noise) only when I get it down for him.

Last week I made a poster of photos of family and loved ones. It is almost complete, but I have to locate a CD from an earlier project to retrieve photos of three of Chris' brothers: M--, B---, and D--- and his family. When John saw the almost-complete poster, he gasped, "Oh! Beautiful pictures!" He loves reviewing the names with me. I got a great chuckle when he thought my mom and Aunt Erica (identical twins) were the same person. John even created his own game with the poster. He takes a Post-It note, covers a person, and then inquires after him. "Where is Fr. Reid? Where did Fr. Reid go? He's right there!"