A {Little} Love of Music

Often, people ask me whether we're going to put Ellie Jo in music lessons. The long and short of it is - well, yes! I want my little girl to have a love and appreciation for the arts, music and local/ community engagement. Along those lines, I desire more than anything for her to find a passion for something she loves, and just run with it. 

One of our family favorites is the Disney movie, "Secretariat." (When I say, "favorite," you can safely assume that we watch it a minimum of two or three times each week). In that movie, Chris Chenery tells his daughter, Penny, to "let him run his race, darlin'," in reference to Secretariat as a young colt. I could ask nothing more of my own sweet little girl, but to run her race! 

At 22 months (today!), she has a profound interest in many activities: KinderMusik (which she has participated in since she was 4 months old), horseback riding (we're hoping she can start doing Western Gaming this year), playing music (usually piano, but sometimes my guitar or violin), singing, cooking and baking, coloring and much more. 

Yesterday, I snapped this picture of her and posted it to my Instagram account: 

It instantly sparked about 75 "likes," and had several comments of how sweet and cute Elizabeth is. Most of my dad's friends (he is a professional musician), are blown away by how much she adores music.

Anyway, I decided to recreate this photo (with a bit nicer attire, lighting and camera of choice) today, after our Pastor asked me last night what I used to take the picture (my iPhone or my Canon), and then explained he was just curious, because we could do a lot more with it if it were on my professional camera. Don't get me wrong; I'm usually not opposed to leaving well enough alone. But we had time today, and she was in a great mood.

Here are the photos I got of her today, playing piano and singing for me:

While I hope this is the start of a keen interest in music like her mama, I do not want to have any expectations. I don't expect her to start with and stick with any one instrument (I certainly didn't!), and I don't expect her to want to play 8 or 9 different instruments (like me). I don't expect her to love to play chess or keep baseball stats (like her daddy and me). I don't expect her to want to do everything and be a perfectionist. I don't expect her to be a prodigy.

My only expectation for my precious little girl is that she grows to know, love and serve Jesus with her whole heart. If she finds her passion in music along the way, that would be wonderful, and we'll encourage her every step of the say.

Robert always jokes that "Mama plays it all; Daddy plays the radio." Even if she doesn't want to follow in my footsteps, I hope she at least starts with piano. She can decide what she wants to do after a few lessons with Mama.

But this is also why pictures like these are precious and priceless to me. It might seem counter-intuitive, but if she grows up to have nothing to do with playing piano, at least I have these cute pictures, lol!

My mom took some pictures of me when I was younger:

1st day of Kindergarten

 Sadly, I didn't grow up to be a ballerina, or a little princess. While I dabbled in cheer & dance.....

 .... I grew up to be a traveler (the above pics are me in Japan in 2002, meeting my dad's family)...

....extremely active athlete...

  .....music-addicted....

This is me, playing my dad's tuba in my Easter dress...

 .....soccer playing....

 ....softball loving....
 

....snowboarding...

....adventurer! 

I know my parents are still proud of me, and I'm glad they led me spread my wings early on in life!

When Ellie Jo is in her 20s like me, I don't want her to feel like she's missed out on anything. I want her to live like I strive to every day: 

"I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well." - Diane Ackerman