It was my horrible luck this weekend to find out that the international definition for “toddler” is “destruction.” I came home on Sunday night to a very serious, sober-faced wife, who informed me that my 21-month-old son had fished my Bleazey applewood soprano D out and beat the living daylights out of the piano with it. Before she could get to it, a chunk was split out of the fipple from the top blowhole all the way to the windway and about a half-inch wide. Ruined forever. Ugh.
Expensive lesson learned. Lock 'em up boys. (The whistles, I mean. Not the toddler. HA!)
Calvin is in the living room pounding nails into the coffee table. His mother, in the kitchen, hears the pounding and screams, “CALVIN!!! What are you DOING?!?!!!”
In the last frame, we see Calvin looking up calmly from his handiwork, twenty or so nails sticking out of the tabletop.
Ouch indeed. I can sympathize with this as there is also one loose in my house.
I was pretty upset about all the little bite marks on my Feadog, not nearly as bad as yours.
We do not have children. My wife babysits (at their house.) Our house is not child proof, we say it’s child booby trapped. Over the years, whichever kids she was babysitting have always loved coming to our house because we have so much stuff. Amazingly, they have all understood that some musical instruments and some other stuff can not be touched. We have a secret passageway too. You are extremely blessed to have a toddler. Save that whistle to show him when his kids destroys something of his.
Sorry to hear about the whistle Little John. My grandaughters were here the other night and I was showing my 20 month old my Obrien Rover and playing it for her. Her eyes lit up and her little hands reached up. Showed me she was a potential whistle blower …and reminded me not to leave it laying around when she’s here.
Hahahaha! Will do! He’s just started climbing, too. I was making dinner last night, and I heard my wife scream, “No, no, no, no, NOOOOOOOO!!!” And BOOM!!! I looked into the living room and saw that he had climbed up on the piano bench, stood up and grabbed my 26-string harp off the top of the piano. Man, I’m glad those things are made sturdy. Not a ding on it. Thank heavens!!!
Can you guess what I’m doing this weekend? Yep. Aaaaaaaall my instruments are getting a new home in my room – up on the wall. HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Did you keep all the pieces? It is possible to put it back together.
I have had several wood whistles shatter apart when pushing a cutting tool in to fast on a lathe. Rather than scrap them I took the opportunity to practice repairs. Some of the repair can be seen, and some blends in with the grain of the wood. They play fine, and stay in my own collection.
Do what I did for my two toddlers, make them their own whistles out of PVC. They don’t even need to be tuned (but it is better if they are). Everytime I pick up a whistle the kids reach for theirs too. They quickly learnt to differentiate between theirs and Daddies whistles, especially when they were told several times that theirs were special whistles just for them and kept where they could reach them more easily then mine (a matter of a few centimetres difference). As for the harp…Maybe a toy Guitar or Ukelele…A toy Guitar stopped my girls from going for my Guitars. None of my intruments are out of their reach, but the more expensive ones are kept in cases. Hope that helps anyway, all kids are different.
I keep my two boys away from MY toys by letting them have their own versions. They have their own colorful Clarke Megs to deafen me with. Their own Hohner C harmonica. A small guitar. I am restoring a 1/8 fiddle I picked up off Craigslist for $10 for their use. I saw at Walmart from FirstAct a lap harp for $20. And I am looking for an cheapy mountain dulcimer, as well. My oldest (4 years old) likes to play on my full size drum set. Oh, and their own bodhran. Daddy’s bodhran is never to be touched, on pain of spanking.
This is why human babies are born so cuddly and endearing that you can’t help but bond with them. Otherwise, if they were born as they are when they reach the age of two years you would not hesitate to throw them out the window.
Mine are 14, 17, and 23. I think the 23-year-old (now married, out of college), is good to go. The other two I still occasionally remind that certain species of animals, when under stress, eat their young.
Got the following poem from the youngest last summer for Father’s Day:
To my Dad
To my dad I owe so much
he has patience my mind can not quite clutch
from day to day I ask questions to no end
sometimes silly things, like how far back can an arm bend
sometimes grammatical things, like if there is a rule for watched and saw movies
linguistic is common, do I say vemos or veamos for imperative voice.
Often I ask what he wants to do, his answer, “it’s your choice.”
All the times I have annoyed him, and I’m still alive
it’s a wonder how he can hold it in.
On an occasion or two he will say, “I brought you into this world, I can take you out"
I have always wondered about how legal that is, but I never ask, because I know practically it’s true.
So Dad all the times you have let me live, thanks.
This thread resonates rather strongly with me… I have a child on the wrong side of toddlerhood (not quite 4 months at the time of this writing).
Funny thing is, his birth has rekindled my interest in whistling. I figure if he shows any interest in the ITM his Dad loves so much, that whistle will be a great introduction for him.
This thread has given me an additional reason. Whistles are a heck of a cheaper than concertinas … You could buy 4 or 5 top range wooden whistles (i.e., $500 each) for the cost of a decent hybrid concertina.. and 10 or more for the cost of a traditionally reeded instrument. And since my whistles are either plastic or fairly heavy metal, I have reasonable hopes that I can play those around him and still have a chance on having playable instruments when he is grown My brother got him a Guinness Whistle as a gift.. but if he is really interested, his first real whistle might be a PVC whistle since they are probably as close to indestructible as one can get.
…and reminded me not to leave it laying around when she’s here. 
… You could buy 4 or 5 top range wooden whistles (i.e., $500 each) for the cost of a decent hybrid concertina.. and 10 or more for the cost of a traditionally reeded instrument. And since my whistles are either plastic or fairly heavy metal, I have reasonable hopes that I can play those around him and still have a chance on having playable instruments when he is grown