I absolutely love, love, adore Stendeck’s “Frozen Sun” because of its eardrum-crushing, distorted drums and wailing sirens in the background, but I figured Lenny would hate it for the same reasons. I mean, he’s barely graduated from nursery rhyme CDs.

So I had Frozen Sun on in the car, but turned way, way lower than I’d like to because Lenny was in the back seat. Suddenly I hear him beatboxing to it (a habit he picked up from me). When it faded to synth pads at the bridge, he stopped, and I asked him:

“So, do you want this on CD?”

“Nah, no thanks.”

“Oh. OK.”

Disappointed, I drove on in silence, until the percussion kicked back in on the song, and Lenny exclaimed,

“OK, yeah, I do want this song.”

I gave a huge grin. “You just didn’t like the part without any drums, huh?”

“Yeah.”

I set up MTV Music Generator 3 on the old XBox for him the other day, and he gleefully set about randomly filling the score with nothing but bass loops, which when played simultaneously double their volume: “duhduhDUHduhDUHduhduhDUH”… Well, whatever, he’s having fun. Finally got him to add some percussion, and maybe we’ll do a more structured tutorial when he’s ready.

Should I be getting him violin lessons or something? Maybe, and I will if he asks for them, but I couldn’t do that with as much enthusiasm. Besides, exposing your kids to the things you love is the greatest reward of being a parent (and gods know I need some rewards).