Totally Groovy, Dude

On By LynnIn TurtleHead

Quick Update Number One: The root canal went great! I am pain-free and painkiller-free. I’m eating normally and all is well. I am shocked, shocked at how incredibly happy and bubbly and joyful I’ve been around here ever since. Um, sorry for the past four weeks, Turtlehead family. I’m thinking of having all the rest of my teeth done now.

Quick Update Number Two: I was at the WalMart in Kanata today and they still had four of those Princess Castles still for $50. (I know, I know – why do I even bother recycling, when I’m going to blow all that saving the world crap by shopping at WalMart? SIGH.) Anyway, they are way at the back with the seasonal toys, on the bottom shelf. Go get one. If I had any nieces younger than 18 years old, I’d be all over that.

New Business: So this weekend, Gal Smiley and Sir Monkeypants did a small project where they made a CD of all her favourite songs.

(We’ve talked books! We’ve talked movies! Now bring on the music!)

I never really think of the kids as having a taste in music, because after all, these are the children who can listen to the Lazytown soundtrack over and over and over in the van until I feel compelled to drive into a tree. But also, I think they haven’t developed their own sound because they have no control over what they hear. I get to pick what gets played in the van, and Sir Monkeypants or I pick the playlists for our occasional dance parties. I do put on kiddie CDs to please the crowd and I do take requests, but it’s not like they have free reign to just go over and pop in a CD (Good God, is that even a thing anymore? I am SUCH A DINOSAUR).

Anyway, one thing we do know is each kid’s favourite songs, so it was pretty easy for Sir Monkeypants to help Gal Smiley assemble her list for the new CD. I was pretty impressed to find that other than the odd sentimental favourite, she is developing a distinctive sound. She likes rock, lots of guitar and a bit of an alternative sound. She likes Teagan and Sara the best, and also The Killers and the Von Blondies and the Fratellis, and I’d name some other modern type musicians here but that is as far as my “current” musical knowledge goes.

Then Little Miss Sunshine decided she wanted a CD too, and hers is much more of a mishmash, including such infamous titles as Elmo’s Song and Do-Re-Mi from The Sound of Music (Movie List FOR THE WIN, spelled out for you dinosaurs like me). But as I played her certain songs I thought she might enjoy, she showed surprising confidence about what she did and didn’t like. It turns out she likes jangly kind of folky Canadian rock, like Great Big Sea and Spirit of the West and Blue Rodeo. I am so surprised, I had her pegged as a Hannah Montana fan from day one.

Now the Captain wants a CD too, and he wants the first track on his to be Block Rockin’ Beats by The Chemical Brothers, which Sir Monkeypants considers to be a personal triumph of parenting. Looks like we have a little electronica fiend on our hands.

All this with, I have to say, complete and total lack of encouragement on my part. I listen to total crap music and often inflict the worst sort of 70s and 80s soft rock on my poor children’s delicate ears. And I rarely just listen to music around the house, too, it’s all in the car, half-heard songs as we dash from place to place.

And yet, they’re finding their niches. They’re expressing themselves.

It’s like they are…their own people.

Not sure why this should surprise me so much, but it does. It’s a wonder to me that they are turning into little humans who think for themselves, who have their own likes and dislikes, who can express what they want and don’t want.

I love it. I love getting to know them. I can’t wait to learn more.

14 thoughts on “Totally Groovy, Dude”

  1. Music is so important to me. Good for you guys and your “taste development” strategies. I think I’d like Gal Smiley’s CD the best, but that’s just me. 😉

    Our little guy says to us the other day, “This is mine BEST song!” when a new top-40 song came on the radio (my wife is primarily an 89.9 listener, when we’re not listening to CBC; I’m more of an 88.5 guy). It was… “Glad you Came” by a boy band called “The Wanted”.

    He had never heard this song before in his life. But it was his “BEST”!

    He seems to like top-40, with other inappropriate favourites including Superbass and In The Dark, both chock-full of censored language and sexually suggestive lyrics. He gets a kick of of some kids’ stuff (Laurie Berkner band, Dan Zanes) and knows the lyrics for “Lady is a Tramp” and “Our Love Is Here To Stay” almost by heart since we use slowed-down versions of those as lullabies.

    I predict a kid with good taste in music, but who doesn’t mind the occasional dance track. Looking forward to seeing if that prediction comes true!

  2. music is a big part of our lives and I love when Lulu sings along to her favourite songs.
    Especially when I love the same song too.
    Let’s hope this continues all the way through adolescence.

    not that I want to think that far ahead…shudder..

  3. CapnPlanet

    That is so cool. Parenthood rocks.

    I’ve just recently realized that we don’t play a lot of music around the house when the kids are here (which is, like, all the time, of course), and I’m trying to rectify that. I already had a Kids/Pop folder on our media server with a bunch of stuff in the grownups’ music collection that I thought would be suitable for them. But I think it’s time to branch out and let them hear more stuff. Like the other commenters, music is very important to both of us, and we really owe it to our kids to expose them to more stuff beyond Sesame Street and Charlotte Diamond

  4. Ours are all over Quebec / francophone pop / rock as played on NRG. My husband hates it with a passion – one of these days his ears are going to start bleeding. I tell myself I’m completing the immersion process by immersing them in the Gatineau Top 40!

  5. Oh wow! this sounds like such a fun idea. It will be something to look at when they get older and see what their tastes were. If they are able to play CD’s then might be another story 😉 oh- and incidentally- my husband went out in the snow storm to Walmart (actually went to 2 walmarts) to get the Ultimate castle after I read about the great deal on your blog. I guess not all Walmarts have the same special and he had to go to Centrum. thanks again 🙂

  6. If you need kid-friendly music that won’t make you tear your hair out, give Caspar Babypants a try. The singer is Chris Ballew, the lead singer from Presidents of the USA. Really good songs 🙂

    My child *insists* on classical music in the car. SO now we have a deal – one “regular” song for mama, then we switch to the classical station. When the song/movement/whatever is over, I get radio control back. I guess I should be happy about this, but sometimes I want music with words, dammit 🙂 In English, even!

  7. Luckily, I’m secure enough not to feel bad that the only music I recognize is on Little Miss Sunshine’s CD. And now I have Elmo’s Song stuck in my head.

  8. Hana and Jamie totally have their own tastes in music, though their tastes do overlap sometimes (for instance Phineas and Ferb tunes). Hana goes more for pop songs…Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Miranda Cosgrove, etc. She also loves French pop (which I went out and got her to help with french immersion) so she likes Coeur de Pirate, Marie-Mai, and singers of that ilk, too. She also still likes a lot of the 80’s New Wave stuff that we got the kids into a few years ago.

    Jamie likes music that’s got a bit more of a heavy guitar sound. He’ll come into the kitchen when I’m playing music and start thrashing about. Then he’ll pause suddenly, and say to me, “Mom, is this rock and roll?” I assure him that it is indeed rock and roll, and he goes back to thrashing about. He likes Death Cab For Cutie, REM, The Kaiser Chiefs, OK Go. He also likes older rock stuff like Foreigner and ZZ Top, which makes his Dad happy.

  9. Glad you’re feeling better. There’s serious dance music happening in our house right now. Some of the lyrics are… inappropriate, though I don’t really think they notice or comprehend.

    Hubs is doing his best to inject some classics (Beach Boys, Beatles, MJ, Bob Marley – not our favs but at least worthwhile for music education) that he thinks they might like, but Eminem, LMAO, Pitbull and Taio Cruz are still high on the list.

  11. One Barbie Princess Castle does NOT undo all your recycling and composting goodness. I have utterly failed to introduce my kids to ANY cool music at all, except that Eve loves the Hairspray soundtrack (wait, that’s not an except, is it, that’s not cool at all). If my kids do the diametrical opposite of everything I do, they might turn out cool. But then we wouldn’t be able to communicate. What? No, I’M not on painkillers….

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