raising a drummer boy

world’s largest drum: source

Everyone knows that Ames Emmanuel likes to play air-drums. It’s his thing… the ice-breaker, the crowd-pleaser, the mood-stabilizer. But lately, his sense of rhythm has completely overtaken us. We drop our jaws in amazement as he finds hidden beats in his daddy’s songs, layered under noisy guitars and vocals. He turns his ear to background music in public and properly identifies each piece of percussion. The boy carries around a set of drumsticks and beats on everything under the sun. Ever the polite tot, he’ll point to an object (by poking it with his drumstick) and ask innocently, “I please play dwums on dis please?”

For over a year now, Chris has been harassing encouraging me to let him get Ames a drum set. He’s offered to build a bed that folds out of the wall, in order to store a kit in his room more efficiently. Ames himself has even gotten on board, offering to sleep in a “closet bed” so he can “play da dwums” in his room all day. He’ll be three this month, and we’re thinking a kit is finally in his future. Any tips or recommendations? Aside from ear plugs, of course.