Top Requested Songs

The kids always request songs to be played off the iPod on the way to and from school. As this is the last day of school for a while, I thought I'd get these down for posterity. In no particular order:

• No Sleep til Brooklyn - The Beastie Boys
• Free Fallin; - Tom Petty
• American Girl - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
• Pocket Full of Money - Jens Leckman
• The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side - The Magnetic Fields
• Rock Lobster - B52s
• Hard Knock Life - Annie Soundtrack
• Honkey Tonk Woman - Rolling Stones
• Hang Fire - Rolling Stones

These kids have been introduced to all kinds of music: blues, pop, folk, alternative, jazz, motown, etc. But  these are the ones they like to hear over and over these days. Lesson Learned: Make sure you really like the music you introduce to your kids because you will have to listen to it every day for weeks and weeks. There is something adorable about overhearing a 4-year-old Eliza singing "No Sleep Til Brookland" to herself while she plays.

Gray Goose & Gander

Mother Goose rhyme put to music (David's tune) with Eliza thrown in for fun.

Touche'!

Night-time Performance

Transcription:

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Once I caught a fish alive 

(segue into made-up song)

Two tige-e-ers

This my-y ba-a-rette 

(in fact, it's mine, note slight challenging expression)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Then I let it go again

(with a little prompting from mommy)

Why did you let it go?

Because it bit my finger so.

Why... Sing with me!

Which finger did he bite?

This little finger on my right. Ow!

(segue into pretending she's a cat cleaning herself)

I want it baa.... (she's referring to the aforementioned tiny hair clip on which she'd been chewing)

...insert practical, callous mommy's unnecessary explanation for the obvious...as well as delegitimizing, modern-parenting apology...followed by successful distraction

That one. I want you to read the ant one. "Hey, Little Ant."

(...mother not hearing her daughter give the actual title of the book can only speak from her less specific memory...the one about the ants?)

yeah...the one about the ants