Tom Petty = Rocker

A couple of my high school friends that we saw during our Christmas visit to Arizona showed off their mad parenting skillz by bragging how their (super cute) boys had been so effectively acculturated by the consistent application of the 80s music station during car drives that they were now pushing their parents to get tickets to the 3-D U2 movie. Awesome. During Jim's stay-at-home dad quarter, he signed us up for XM radio, which has its own delightfully endless supply of 80s hits, 90s hits, and of course, Snoop Dogg's classic rap and hip hop, making it possible to relive high school, college, grad school, and all the weird in-between times.

Just as an aside, has anyone noticed how you can hear old songs that you expressly didn't like, or would have considered not even on your radar, yet when it comes on the radio (or, the satellite radio), you not only know every word, but you even know every annoying grace note and dramatic modulation? Ah, the spongy mind of youth. Why didn't you soak up something more useful?

Naturally, staying home with a nearly three year old (and a six month old!) has an entirely different soundtrack from some of the other lives I've led. Naomi got some cool new music for Christmas, including a Justin Roberts CD and another, called "Mary Had a Little Amp," (thanks, Tudes!) which includes a Dixie Chicks cover of "Rainbow Connection" that actually brings tears to my eyes. The tot does not seem that emotionally affected by it...

The two disks hogging the air time this week- Ella Jenkins' multi-culti kid songs (C & B, thanks!), and Laurie Berkner's "Buzz Buzz" (shout out to Pearl for recommending that one!). I should mention that my other friend C. bought me the Ella Jenkins album on...wait for it...cassette tape, back when I was the world's worst preschool teacher. I made the kids learn Swahili songs, before getting myself escorted from the building for distributing to the other teachers the photocopies I had made regarding mandatory overtime laws (which the school owners were, um, flouting). Workers, rise up!

Anyhoo, Ella's back and she's better than ever. Naomi looooves the "Mexican Hand Clapping Song" and this other Spanish chant that includes a whispered "Chickie-cha, chickie-cha, chickie-cha" or something. She walks around the house chickie-cha-ing in a stage whisper, which was really confusing to Jim for a few days. The new Ella-related hilarity is that Naomi has started to sing "The Dredel Song," although she has no idea what any of the words are, including...dredel. She says, "Is it 'Cradle, cradle, cradle, I'm giving it away?'" Hee.

On the Laurie Berkner CD, she likes to speculate how the many many songs might be related to each other. For example, when she hears the "Clean It Up" song, she opines that they are likely cleaning up the big old messy mess that happened as a result of the "I'm a Mess" song. Makes sense. What doesn't make sense is why Laurie felt compelled to include "The Erie Canal," and why, somehow, I know that song. Did you guys also learn this song for some reason, when you were kids? Because I know it, but- how, why? Anyway, Naomi was of course fearlessly singing some combination of words that approximate the sounds of the actual lyrics of this song, and because someone made me learn this anachronistic ditty, by goodness, I'm going to force it on my toddler too. That's not really what I was thinking. I don't know what I was thinking. But by the end of the day, and my four hundredth retelling of what a mule is, what the Erie Canal was, how canal boats work, where New York is, and so forth, we were looking at historical postcard lithograph something-or-others on the internet, depicting horses (mules?) pulling boats, low bridges, the whole 15 miles. Sheesh.

Lest anyone get the idea that I am not also training Naomi in right, we DO also listen to the XM 80s station, usually around dinner-cooking time (although with our meal, we switch down to the 40s or "High Standards"). And last week I dug out my old "Full Moon Fever" CD to play her a Tom Petty song that is one of our favorite lullabies. It happened that Tom Petty was enjoying a big week on XM radio and on PBS (did he have a birthday or something?), and after my initial instruction, Naomi now confidently informs her dad that Tom Petty is a rocker. Of course he is.

To Dream, Perchance to Sleep

A few weeks ago I was poking around on the all-knowing internet for some ideas and encouragement in the child-rearing arena, and ran across what seems to be a really calm, sane, interesting source of information (drgreene.org). One article I read (though I wasn't looking for it) addressed the issue of being driven crazy by your pre-schooler asking you why? Why? Why? Or in one of our typical end of my rope exchanges, Me: "No, don't ask why, just say, 'Yes, Mom.'" Naomi: "Yes, Mom, but why?" Says Dr. Greene, or whoever wrote the article, the questioner does not in fact really want a logical cause and effect explanation for every minute particle of their day, but instead, just really wants to hear me talk a lot more about whatever we're already talking about or experiencing. When I think about it that way, it's a little easier to make myself think of more to say (though I already think I have created a chatty little monster, in a lot of ways).

The other standout was an answer to the question of whether babies dream. Based on brain signals, it seemed that babies likely do dream, and maybe even more than we do. The other fascinating idea from this article was that we not only dream at night, but also during the day. In the same way that the brightness of the sun prevents us from seeing the stars in the daytime sky (though they are there), the overbearing brightness of our conscious mind makes it impossible for us to experience our daytime dreams. 

Hmm, what am I dreaming about today? Are the daytime ones as weird as the nighttime ones? The other night I dreamed that I met a plane carrying Naomi (current, little tiny Naomi) back to me from somewhere, and she had been inexplicably seated next to... Billy Joel? Not angry, grayed, and drunk-driving, but jovial, friendly eighties Billy. And he had found Naomi to be such a charming seat mate that he offered to sing us a song, so which one did I want? And in the dream I was so embarrassed because I knew there was a song of his I really liked singing along to, an extra cheesy one, but I couldn't remember. So I had to say, oh, thanks, no need, rather than risk sounding like I didn't actually know any of his songs. I remembered the song when I woke up; it's "For the Longest Time." Heh.

Finally, in the category of sleep related items, whenever the grownups in the house are required to pretend to be sleeping as part of imaginary play (which for Jim often leads to real sleeping, on the kid's bedroom floor), we always dutifully make cartoon snoring sounds. Recently, Naomi finally learned how to fake snore, and she sounds like a high school football player clearing his sinuses. Lovely. Even though I fake snore with the best of them, apparently, she thinks I'm really really faking, as the following exchange suggests:

Naomi: Do you know what mans do when they are sleeping? 

Me: Um, no. what? 

Naomi: They SNORE!

Snowy Night

This picture is a bit blurry, but you get an idea of the good time Naomi was having in last night's snow. Not so, the poor bamboo plants (on the left).

Our Dog is an Awesome Dog

OK, it was that or Dog is my Copilot. This post is a shout out to an oft-neglected member of the Khooler pack, Luna, who turned 13 yesterday. We celebrated as we usually do, with the ritual trail of popcorn, and lot of extra petting. Now that she is a teenager, we didn't force her to wear a party hat, as we usually do. 

Luna still isn't convinced that we didn't have children expressly to ruin her life, but she becomes slightly more tolerant of Naomi every day, and just in time, as Naomi is increasingly committed to being dog's best friend. Happy Birthday, Lulu!

Christmas Trip Photos, Finally!

Phoenix Zoo carousel: two tokens per ride, one dollar per token, big gang of pushy kids behind me in line as I tried to get the token machine to take my crumpled dollar bills...

Entrance to the Desert Botanical Garden, where Jim had a nice solo afternoon visit. Sigh.

Child labor laws do not apply to Christmas paper chain operations.

Wall lizards and lollipop drum. Naomi is a fan of Gramma's house.

Does this really need a caption?

(My nephew's new toy dachshund, Zeke)

Did I mention the weather? This was a really beautiful trip to Saguaro Lake east of the Valley.

Too cool for school, in new sunglasses.

Alas, Muriel does not own sunglasses.

Novelty jammies! Baby's first seasonal one-time wear item.

Christmas morning, what a happy sight!

When babies attack! This is Muriel's super cute cousin V.

Naomi in her seasonal one-time wear item, playing with the weird psychiatrist office dollhouse furniture I got her for Christmas. And to all, a good night.

Trip Report - Sans Photos

I have been putting off posting anything until I can get our Christmas trip pictures posted, and no matter how many times Jim runs through the process of exporting multiple photos out of Lightroom, or whatever the software is called, I can never seem to make it work on my own. So, sometime in February, you will be able to enjoy the pictures of our trip to Arizona...

In the meantime, I will summarize: it was a good trip, for a lot of reasons. First, my parents were excellent hosts. They were wonderfully available for baby holding, no questions asked car-lending (nevermind that my dad ALWAYS handed the keys to Jim, and not to me, ha), outright babysitting (enabling an actual dinner date, which I am still savoring in my memory), and activity planning. Second, we had a lot of good family fun, including a retirement party for my dad, a portrait session (and actually, that part wasn't that fun), various other get-togethers, and a big Christmas celebration. 

Third, it was a good trip for reconnecting with old friends. At a brunch party at my parents' house (during which my parents went for a drive), I saw four old high school friends and their kids. I love a bagel with smoked salmon, and I love coffee, but what I really loved was how fun and easy it was to be with these old friends, all of whom were doing different and interesting things with their lives, and all of whom were as funny and thoughtful and delightful as I remember them being. Which is either a compliment to them or to the accuracy of my memory. Hee. And naturally, their kids were a whole new crop of interesting little individuals, great to see. 

I also had a phone call with a friend from college whom I hadn't spoken to in...TEN YEARS. These are the kinds of time spans that make me feel a bit elderly. Although I am sure he is different in a lot of ways, he too sounded the same to me. But when I think about who I was ten years ago...would I even know myself? Would I be someone I would like to talk to? The answer to these questions depend on how charitable I am feeling toward myself when I think about them. Also, it doesn't really matter. I am who I am now, and where I am now, thanks to that person ten years ago, and all the other mes before and since.

Apparently, going back to Arizona is like going back in time, for me. But with all the passengers from my present along for the ride. And oh, the beautiful sunshine! Of course there were some things in Arizona that didn't agree with me (mostly, the water, which not only tastes bad, but also makes my hair and skin go back in time to an extremely homely year), but overall, a very satisfactory trip.

Since we've been back? The year ended, a new one began, I finished up work for three more months, Jim had his wisdom teeth removed, Muriel turned six months old and had her first "solid" food, I took down the Christmas tree, and Naomi learned how to shoot digital photos (I included that for your parents, C.W.!). Maybe I should post some of those. If only I could figure out how!