Developing musical taste

A week or so ago, we started actively making sure there was music on reguarly for the baby to hear. At first, we tried the method of placing headphones on my tummy, until some smart cookie told us that by this time, the baby is able to hear/respond to ambient music. So, we gave up the 10 minutes a night on the belly stuck sitting down very quickly. Now I try to make sure there is music on in the house at least an hour or two a day.

We started with classical, since it seemed to be the thing to do. Not much response there, and since I couldn't bring myself to buy any Baby Einstein tapes, I decided to try the Carlson Music Method. For those of you unfamiliar - it basically involves playing music you like until you find something the baby likes. To this day, my friend Kim's son Owen is still a Weezer fan.

So, I started with some classics from Robert's iTunes - since his computer is much easier to access during the workday. I did find that the baby seems to respond to some music more than others, or it's all a coincidence and he just happened to decide to kick at that moment. More onn active kicking later.

Cashew's Hit List

• The Beatles
• Eric Clapton
• The Black Crowes
• U2

We learned about his preference for U2 when we found Rattle and Hum playing on the HD music channel Palladium over the weekend. Of course, sadly only one of us in the family actually remembers being at Sun Devil Stadium for that show. Others of us had not develped musical taste by that year and were listening to that up and coming singer Vanilla Ice.

Aside from when we play music, our little guy seems to be most active at about 2am. I started waking Robert up for the strong kicking moments so that he can feel them too. He is definitely kicking hard enough now that anyone within a mile of my belly could feel him! If you lok at the right time you can even see belly movement. Of course, sometimes this makes for lack of sleep or uncomfortable days (like tonight).