Don’t you just love kids’ music? For me it brings back some fun memories, like dancing around the living room with my sister (we weren’t more than 6 and 4 years of age), singing: “It ain’t gonna rain no more, no more. It ain’t gonna rain no more. How in the heck can I wash my neck if it ain’t gonna rain no more?” Did we think we were doing a rain dance? I have no idea.
And I especially loved the kids’ church music, like “Father Abraham” or “I’m in the Lord’s Army, YES, SIR!” Even now I can remember pretty much all of the words. Oh, to be able to retain information as I did as a child.
I wouldn’t consider myself a musical person, per se, but I certainly enjoy music, so I try to sing and play music to Kendry fairly often. When he was an infant (and we went through the tedious stage of having to rock/bounce him to sleep every time) I would hum “You Are My Sunshine” or “You’re My Honey-Bun”. When I wanted him to learn to clap I introduced “If You’re Happy and You Know It”, and of course we sing the ABC song. He especially loves “The Wheels On the Bus” because I do so many of the actions for him. I admit I am often tempted to actually honk my horn for “the horn on the bus goes beep beep beep” when we are in the car, but something tells me the other drivers around me might not receive that too well. And not that Kendry is old enough yet, but I can already envision him blushing in embarrassment and ducking his head down into his carseat, lest he be seen with such a bizarre mother.
A longtime fan of Veggie Tales, I bought Kendry the Veggie Tales Toddler Songs CD a few months back. Kendry really enjoys it and I love that it has songs about God and good family values.
Kendry also has a few CDs with traditional kids’ music on them. Now, don’t get me wrong, I really love these traditional songs. Now that I’m an adult it is intriguing to me to listen and ponder when and where the songs originated.
Last night we were playing these CDs for Kendry and the song “There’s a Hole in My Bucket, Dear Liza” came on. I have always gotten a kick out of this song, as slow as it is, but it annoyed Justin to no end. Have you ever really listened to that song before? As it played on, and on, and on, and on, only singing about a stupid bucket the whole time, I started laughing and couldn’t stop. Here is this old guy telling his wife there is a hole in his bucket, she keeps telling him how to fix it, and he keeps complaining to her that he can’t. If you are a wife you know exactly why I was laughing.
But I feel a little weird playing some of these songs for Kendry. Like “Go tell Aunt Rhodie her old grey goose is dead…” What the heck? And their version of “Its Raining, Its Pouring” doesn’t have the old man just bumping his head and unable to get up in the morning; no, in this version the old man actually dies. I mean, I am all for teaching my kid about the real world, but I don’t really think that includes singing about death in his toddler years.
This whole experience got me analyzing some songs from my own childhood. I can remember singing “Little Bunny Foo-Foo” in elementary school: “Little bunny Foo-Foo, hopping through the forest…” Do you remember this one? Because the next lyrics are “…picking up the field mice and bopping them on the head!” Seriously, who lets little kids sing a song like this? I’m pretty certain a field mouse’s tiny neck doesn’t withstand a good “bopping” very well. (Did you just get a visual of that tragic field mouse?)
Of course, this never occurs to us when we are children, we just sing along, often oblivious to what we are actually singing about. So I have to wonder: having been exposed to such musical morbidity as a child, have I really turned out as normal as I like to think I am?
Kendry has six teeth now, and I have at least that many tiny bite marks on my body. I know what you are thinking: “just discipline him when he bites” or “bite him right back”. Both valid suggestions. Thank you. But here is the thing, Kendry doesn’t simply outright bite out of anger or to get your attention; he appears to bite out of affection. And this is most evident by the fact that I have by far the most bite marks out of any of his victims. Oh I can really hear your judgmental thoughts now. "Biting out of affection?! Puh-lease, Jody! Just buck up and discipline your kid already before he becomes the neighborhood biter, or better yet, before he bites my kid."
