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TIRED Dadvice B101.5's "CHRIS & DEE IN THE MORNINGS" CHRIS CENTORE Carried Away Crabby Patties and Jellyfishing have become my life. Can you guess what show my kids are into? Yeah, I know, they probably watch too much TV and don't read enough. Before you judge, let me tell you they have great taste in music because we listen to a ton of music around here. This is something I'm a bit proud of. Since Young NC was a baby, we've listened to something together. Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds" was our breakfast go-to for the first year of his life. By the time he was 2, he knew all the words and could sing Edelweiss, and today both boys can remember lyrics better than me. We have a specific playlist that gets played in the car; there's also one for bedtime and even a Saturday afternoon jam playlist. As you can probably guess, the only thing I like better than talking is music, which is quite helpful for my job. Knowing that I will pass that gene along to my boys feels awesome. Here is the other thing - I have absolutely no musical ability, can't sing, struggled to learn to play the saxophone in high school and think almost every contestant on Idol sounds good. I do have a good sense for hearing and picking hit songs. I also love all genres of music, some more than others, but listen to a lot of different things on a daily basis. There are times when I'll shuffle the iTunes, a song will pop up, and I'm momentarily back in the time when I first heard the song. This is the reason I love music so much; every single song can evoke such great memories of places I've completely forgotten about, people who have come and gone through my life or it connects me to my family. I'm even talking about awful songs nobody ever liked. I hope that someday L'il A will hear "Safe And Sound" and think about Papa and the road trip we took to Boston, or Young NC hears "Firework" and remembers playing in his first baseball game. I'll never tell anybody how to live his or her life, but I will suggest making music part of it, whether it's listening to the radio (B101.5 of course!), singing or playing an instrument. Oh, and I know where my love came from — my parents, of course. My dad did the same with me and to this day my mom has music on at all times in the house. Whenever I go back, it's nice to remember all the things we did as a family with music in the air. Dang, did I just quote Rogers and Hammerstein? 36 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • October 2013 of information going IN one ear and OUT the other? Working memory is essential in order to maintain attention, concentration, and focus in children. Attention deficits have been proven to be caused by poor working memory, which can in turn cause problems in school or in the workplace. We offer CogMed Working Memory TrainingTM, a method of improving memory that is proven to be 80% effective. Learn more. Call: 540-628-4145 Dr. Joni Johnson (540) 628-4145 www.PP4AL.com