The Temperamental Artist

After finishing a long and drawn out dinner that culminated in numerous “dessert” courses (yoghurt, berries AND a Christmas cookie), Toby was well satiated, reenergized and cheerful.  So cheerful, in fact, that he burst into song as I cleaned up the dinner dishes.

“I’m a lucky boooooooy” he sang in his atonal, eurhythmic, off pitch voice while slowly sashaying his head from side to side, “I got THREEEEEE treats after dinner and Mia only got TWOOOOOOOO”

I interrupted his creative composure to remind him that pointing out the unequal distribution of desserts wasn’t very kind.

The sashaying immediately stopped.

“WHY?” He asked in astonishment. “It’s the TRUTH, isn’t it?”

(Sometimes it catches me off guard, the little things that seem OBVIOUS to me but have yet to be learned by my kids).

I told him that what he was doing was called “gloating” and asked him how he would feel if he had been the one with fewer dessert treats and a sister who emphasized that to him.

He thought about this for a bit and then apologized.

A few moments later his sashaying resumed and he again broke into song.

“I love my mommmy……she gave me treats after dinnnnnnnnerrrrrr…..she gave me THREEEEEE and Mia only had TWOOO but that’s OK, Mia, because it doesn’t MAAAAAAAAter how many you get….”

“Is that better, Mommy?” he asked. 

I couldn’t expect perfection; it was, after all, only his first lesson in writing non-gloating-lyrics, so I reassured him that his second draft was acceptable and went back to cleaning up the dishes.

After another round or two of the song Toby let out an exasperated sigh.  When I asked him what was wrong he rolled his eyes, got down from the dinner table and excused himself in a huff suggestive of a temperamental artist.

“I get what you said, Mommy, but I just can’t keep singing.  I really liked the first version the best.”

I thought it only fair to highlight my budding musician singing a song he actually KNOWS.  He sings Oh Canada on a daily basis at school and for a while it was his favourite song.  Here he is singing it into the vacuum cleaner.  I think it quite accurately reflects the description in paragraph 2.  Without the sashaying, of course.

And while I'm at it...here's a glimpse of take #22 b).  Life as a musician is tough...