From scratch

Cleo's current favorite performing artist may be (as I mentioned on Friday) Milkshake, but it's also true that she's giving more and more time to inventing her own melodies. Sure, these may be almost completely random passages knocked out on the piano, or a few nonsense syllables chanted sequentially in a virtual monotone. But her original compositions can also be surprisingly disarming - as recently, when I was carrying her upstairs to bed, and she began to sing, in a soft lilt, something like, It's time for bed / And when we wake up in the morning /There will be no more snow. Where does such poetic tenderness come from, exactly? But maybe her best work, these days, takes place around nap time. And for a description, I'll turn the microphone over to her nursery school instructors, who sent us this summary of her week:

Cleo had a great week! She really enjoyed all of the time we were able to spend outside! She enjoyed the time outside to go on trips to the beach, and to work with her friends to bake pies in the dirt. Her favorite pie was apple carob... She has also been very interested in creating new songs to sing during nap time (mostly about underwear).

Songs about snow; songs about underwear. It's an eclectic soundtrack, but we're thrilled to be able to watch it take shape.