Violin!

So yesterday I told you that I play the violin, right?

Well, Nikolai's grandpa Dave knew that already, so when Nikolai was born, he bought him a teeny tiny violin (he did similar things for the other grandbabies).  We were so pleased for the present at the time but put it aside until Nikolai would be big enough to play it.  Well, the other day I started thinking about it again, wondering what size it was and if Nikolai was big enough for it yet. So I pulled it down from the shelf in Niko's closet, thinking it was probably going to still be too big, when lo and behold, it was the perfect size! 

Of course, I brought it down for Nikolai to play. He was SO EXCITED!

His violin 1/16th size, so it's TEENY (I really should post a picture of it next to my full size--it's really cute :D) but it was the perfect size for him.

Oh boy, did he get a kick out of running the bow back and forth over the strings!

I tried to show him how to hold the violin up properly, but he only held it this way for a minute (with my hand propping his up!) before he got squirmy and wanted to put it back on the table for him to play.  It's cool though--I recognize that bringing your arm up in that position doesn't feel like the most natural thing in the world--we'll keep working on it :)

After a while, our ventures devolved into him playing the violin on his lap and getting curious about the tuning pegs, (which is not something I want him getting interested in for about six years) so I brought the music lesson to a halt for the day.

You guys, I can't tell you how awesome it was to share the experience of playing the violin with Nikolai. He doesn't really get what it's all about yet, but he was excited, and that excitement reminded me how much I love playing.  If nothing else, I'm so excited to introduce him to music and get him interested in being musical, though I'm secretly hoping he'll latch on to the violin and play for years :) (I can dream, right?) 

I know I said this when you gave it to us, Dave, but thank you again for the kind and thoughtful present. This is a really cool thing and we're hoping it'll continue to be a really cool thing for the years ahead :)