Drums! At that age, they just love banging on things and making noise. On the low end, a wooden spoon on the bottom of a saucepan will fit the bill. At the higher end, Fisher-Price makes a drum with an attached drumstick which lights up in different colors and plays different tunes depending upon what part of the drum is hit. She'll quickly figure out how to make her favorite colors and tunes work.

A game my grandsons love is matching their steps to my beating a drum. They "march" to a moderate beat, run to a faster one, take giant steps to the slow beats. The fun is mixing them up and catching them off-guard, but it also teaches them rhythm.

I keep a lot of real (but old and nothing I worry about getting scratched) instruments in the house so the boys (3 years, 2-1/2 years and 4 months) can experiment. Timothy will be banging on the piano while Seamus strums a guitar or beats a drum (baby Matthew just noisily sucks his toes at this stage).

Then there are the singing games. She'll love you making up little ditties using her name. When you two go out for a walk and when you bathe or feed her, sing to her about what you're doing. It's raining, it's pouring...Wash, wash, wash your feet...Erica's eating her peas...

Don't worry. You'll communicate your love of music to Erica. You won't even have to try. You're going to find your little granddaughter so delightful that you'll want to hum, sing, skip and waltz her around in your arms the whole time you're with her.

Have a wonderful visit!

(P.S. My grandchild #4 is due in January and an ultrasound performed on Wednesday shows that this one might, just might, be a GIRL!)