It all started last Christmas. We were helping my mom set up her Christmas tree, so holding true to tradition, we were listening to a Randy Travis Christmas CD that my parents got at one of his concerts forever ago. James has always liked dancing (bouncing) to other types of music, but as soon as the country twang started, he was hooked! He stood right in front of the CD player and danced till he was almost out of breath. Even the slow songs were exciting and dance worthy. At the time, we thought it was cute but didn't think too much of it. We were just happy he wasn't trying to get into the ornaments.
Then last week, James went to his first rodeo concert. Our brother in law got tickets to see Keith Urban (thanks again Ryan!). It was last minute so we couldn't get a babysitter but we figured we'd take James and just leave whenever he got fussy. Little did we know that James would have more fun than us! He was getting restless during the rodeo events beforehand but suddenly the lights went low and the fireworks started. James loved looking at the lights and eventually started dancing. He was bouncing up and down and shaking his head. It was really entertaining to watch. By the way, we also saw Judd (one of the cowboys on the Amazing Race) riding a bull and John Wayne Schultz (made top 40 on American Idol) sang a little on the big screen.
If you're still not convinced, here's the clincher. I was watching American Idol last week while James was on his own, playing with his toys. Scotty McCreery (a country singer with a crazy low voice) started singing "The River" and James dropped whatever he was doing, went right up to the TV, and started dancing! As soon as the song was over, he went back to his toys like nothing had happened. Now when we're in the car, we might turn on some country every now and then and can see his eyes light up every time. I guess those country roots go deeper than I thought!
