Hunter loves music.

The past week or so, whenever a different instrument would start playing on a CD we'd be listening to, he'd ask, "What's dat?" I'd tell him it was a guitar, or a harp, or flute, or whatever.

Then I came up with what I modestly consider an absolutely brilliant idea.

Tuesday night, after he'd brushed his teeth and gotten into his jammies and was all ready for bed, we curled up together in Mama and Daddy's bed, and I introduced him to Fantasia.

He was thrilled. Being able to see all those instruments, and having them light up when they played, was wonderful. (For those unfamiliar, the original Fantasia opens with JS Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D illustrated by shadowy representations of the various parts of the orchestra as they play.) He also liked the more abstract pictures accompanying the remainder of the piece.

Then we watched The Nutcracker Suite, and he was completely enthralled. Like his mother, he's completely in love with Little Dancing Mushrooms. ("They're so tyoot!") And the flowers performing The Russian Dance make him giggle every time.

That's as far as we've gotten at the moment. I want to show him Pastorale (centaurs, etc.), Dance of the Hours (that's the hippos, crocodiles & ostriches), and that little interlude where they have the "sound wave" illustrate the different sounds that instruments make, but I think he's still too young for even The Sorceror's Apprentice, let along Rite of Spring (dinosaurs) and Night on Bald Mountain.

But I am delighted that he's delighted.