Flippin' Out at Flipnotics

How did we end up with the wild kid at storytime? Claire is the blur in the brown dress trying to get a mosh pit going.



Hats off to Laura Freeman for her inspired performance at Flipnotics. She really knew how to get the kids -- or at least Claire -- going.

Music Update

Claire always loves her kids' music. She loves to hear anything from the Countdown Kids. She will listen to them sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame or I've Been Working on the Railroad over and over dozens of times. She is also enjoying a Backyardigans CD I bought her recently. They sing so high and squeeky, but the music itself it not half bad.

Normally Claire is not a big fan of "real" music. When I play my own CD's in the car, she'll say, "That's one of your songs, Daddy. Is it time to listen to one of my songs?" But occasionally she actually likes grown-up music. Her current favorites are the Fleet Foxes. They are a very strange group, combining folk, progressive rock, and lots of vocal harmonies that sound kind of folksy and choral at the same time, along with a little Beach Boys tossed in for good measure. It is weird stuff, but Claire likes it. She asks what the songs are about, and she asks to hear them again.

Her other favorite is Christmas with Weezer. She just cannot get enough of the perennial geek rock band performing We Wish You a Merry Christmas. She has enjoyed Weezer in the past too. There was a period about a year ago where she seemed to enjoy The Sweater Song. She even noted, "That is a gooood song."

Crooner

Claire likes to sing her own little songs about different people now. She'll pick a person and sing a little song. Sometimes it even sounds pretty good. Normally her songs go like this one about Muffin.

"Muffin is a wonderful doggy, Muffin is a wonderful doggy, so wonderful, Muffin, Muffin, Muffin."

She doesn't sing it to any tune I can readily identify, but it might be inspired by "Frere Jacques". She adapts this same format to the people in her life, like, "Grammy is a wonderful lady..."

One day Kit and I were driving to dinner with Claire, and she started singing a different variation, about our jobs. "Mommy is a doctor, Mommy is a doctor." Then she started singing, "Daddy is a ...." After a long pause she sort of mumbled something quietly to herself, like "Daddy is a .... mrpahpahpah". She couldn't figure out what I was besides a daddy! After a few more seconds, Claire found another way out of the conundrum. "Daddy is a ... handsome guy!" (Later, she changed it to "office guy")

Thanks for compliment, Claire, but for future reference I am a "systems analyst". Don't worry, I don't know what it means either, but it seems to have something to do with computers.

Varied Musical Tastes

In the continuing theme of moving to Texas, I have put together a "Texas Tour" playlist on my iPod, completely made of songs about Texas places. Kit originally had the basic idea to do a Texas mix, but it turned into a fun little project for me. Most of the songs are pretty mellow, and we listen to it sometimes during bath time. The playlist features things like Patsy Cline singing "San Antonio Rose" and Arlo Guthrie singing "Streets of Laredo". Claire does not react much to those particular songs, but she seems to enjoy "Galveston", of which we have on old Gordon Calcotte country/surf version and a nice newer alt rock version by some band called Sparklehorse. Claire will sometimes say, "Let's sing about Galveston!" She also seems to enjoy the Lightnin' Hopkins blues song, "Goin' to Dallas", of which she will sometimes say, "That was a good one" when it is finished. Then again, these are two of my favorites, so maybe she is just tuning into that.

But Claire's real favorite music is The Countdown Kids and their renditions of toddler classics like "Old McDonald Had a Farm", "The Wheels on the Bus", and "Frere Jaques". She tries to sing along and occasionally clap. The Countdown Kids helped make the six-hour car trip back from Florida back to Atlanta in December more bearable by just keeping Claire occupied for a couple of hours. She also seems to like The Wiggles, who sometimes accidentally appears on our TV after Calliou or Curious George, but Kit and I try to avoid them just because they are kind of creepy and annoying.

Claire can even sing a couple of songs somewhat successfully all by herself, such as "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". It's just so sweet to see her sing; she concentrates real hard to remember the words, and she gets a big smile on her face when she finishes the song.