Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Sheltered


You may know about my aversion to kid’s music. In Bob’s first couple of years we taught him Row Your Boat and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star but that was it for our child-centric musical repertoire. He was surrounded by music but not the kind that has accompanying hand choreography.

Last summer, Bob and I were at circle time at our weekly Mommy and Me class. All of us mommies sat in a circle with our small people on our laps singing "Old MacDonald". We had sung this song a few times at class before but it was not on our Rosenberg Ipod playlist. We went around the circle and this time, let each kid take a turn yelling out what kind of animal Mr. MacDonald had on his farm.

“Cow!”

“Pig”

“Dog”

When it was Bob’s turn, he decided that on his farm he had an, “Office!” This was met by a few long moments of silence, scattered laughter then an awkward vamp of, “With a work-work here and a work-work there…”

On his subsequent turns he pointed out more of Old MacDonald’s fine items.

“Chair!”

“Helicopter!”

“Birthday!”

Clearly I wasn’t doing my part to drive home the farm concept. I realized that my dislike of kid’s songs had the potential to make Bob a social outcast.

So, we worked on it. Among others, we are now fluent in:
"The Hokey Pokey"
"A Ram Sam Sam"
"The Old Gray Cat"
"Squirrels!"
"Mathilda the Gorilla"
"Hermie the Worm"
And of course, "The Wheels On the (freakin’) Bus"

I am making the choice to enjoy it while I can. I know in just a few years, this will be behind us and Bob will be into some other music that I don't like and instead of cute arm movements it will require an odd haircut and guyliner. And I will be fondly nostalgic for A Ram Sam Sam.

3 comments:

  1. In a couple of years they make up their own songs. Pull out the camcorder.

    How was the flight to Portland?

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  2. I totally have that song from the clip stuck in my head now :)

    I'm still giggling at the "office."

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  3. The bass line in that clip is worth adding to his repetoire

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