Syd's Violin

For as long as I can remember my grandpa, we call him Papa, has wanted a grandchild to play the violin. It took a second generation of grandchildren to fulfill this dream but we will now have a violinist in the family. Sydney has asked us before if she could play the violin but we didn't think she was big enough. Over Christmas Papa asked us if he bought her a violin, would we put her in lessons. Well we said yes because this is something Syd has already shown interest in. Today was the big day. We went to the music store and found the perfect violin. Sydney is so tiny she needed the smallest size, 1/10th. It is itty bitty, as you will see in the pictures. I didn't know they made violins that tiny. Rest assured, however, we did not purchase this violin at Toys-R-Us, it is from a legitimate music store and is an official, yet very small, violin. We are so grateful to Papa for buying this for Syd. She is so excited. On the way home from the music store, Syd named her violin Stephanie. We also think this will be a great way for Syd to get her mind off diabetes. This is something she can turn to in order to uplift her and feel better about herself. Syd loves music and we are so excited for her to start lessons! Her first one is tomorrow and, of course, there will be pictures.

The only downside to this whole thing is the fact that Sydney loves music and her mother is so musically inept. The music guy was talking about rosin for her bow. I had no idea what he was talking about. He must have realized this from the blank stares coming from my direction. The only thing that popped into my head were the two lines from the song "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." I added more of the lyrics just so you can re-play the song in your head as you read below because, lets face it, this song is awesome.

Johnny you rosin up your bow and play your fiddle hard.
'Cos hells broke loose in Georgia and the devil deals it hard.
And if you win you get this shiny fiddle made of gold.
But if you lose, the devil gets your soul.
The devil opened up his case and he said: "I'll start this show."
And fire flew from his fingertips as he rosined up his bow.
And he pulled the bow across his strings and it made an evil hiss.
Then a band of demons joined in and it sounded something like this.

(Ok, admit it, you sang the lyrics in your head, right? I think it is impossible to just read those words.) After Gary-the-music-man explained what rosin was, I nodded in affirmation acting like, "oh ya I knew that all along." In actuality, I still need another lesson in how to rosin a bow but enough about my musically challenged mind, onto the pictures! (P.S. Don't worry too much about my negative instrument influence on Sydney, Loren makes up in music what I lack, he played the trombone for 6 years.)

~Sydney and Papa and Stephanie-the-violin




~Syd standing with Stephanie.