He's his grandmother's grandson

My mom has been involved in the church choir for ages, and I think it was sometime during my high school or college years that she and my step-dad started up a more contemporary music group for the less formal church services. She mostly sang at first, but then at some point she got involved with playing the drums a bit, and found a late calling in life. She got her own drumset that sits in her bedroom, and she plays it often both for personal enjoyment and for stress relief (it appears drumming is great for getting out some pent-up aggression). She's played piano for as long as I can remember (I attribute my love for the sound of the piano to hearing her play it constantly at home while I was growing up) so she's always been musically talented, but the love of percussion was a pleasant surprise for all of us.

Now we have little Donovan around, and on a few occasions we've introduced him to that drumset and boy oh boy does he love it. It's calmed him down when he's upset, and just plain ole entertained him greatly as he bangs on the drums and symbals with his hands, drumsticks, whatever he wishes. Some of you may also recall how he immediately took to Mom's small set of bongos last month, too. Donovan may have found early in life a passion that his grandma found late, but I think she gets more than a little kick out of sharing this with her grandson. And the rest of us? We just think it's cute as heck.



Last night we had a joint birthday party for my step-dad and step-sister's birthdays (the 19th and 24th of Dec, respectively). We had a big crowd (don't we always) and had a good time. D's been having fun playing with his fan club grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and they've just been eating him up (figuratively, of course). Zach and I are beginning the usual process of trying to fit in time with local friends, and still try to relax a bit and enjoy downtime while we have so many volunteers to take care of the kiddo. I think it's tougher for me to just let others take care of D than it is for Zach, I think I just feel more needed by him and feel bad about not being around, but I also need to take advantage of this break.

Zach and his dad are sitting next to me at the dining table, watching football online. Gotta love the holidays and family time. =)