Listen to the Music

My daughter is now at the age where she considers herself to be quite the connoisseur of music. The girl adores any and all audio entertainment, and loves to groove. Especially in the car where she's become very vocal about it. As soon as I get into the car, after putting her in her car seat, she says, "more, more, more, more." Which means, "Dear Mother, would you be so kind as to depress the button that starts the melodious harmonies that entertain me so? I would be ever so grateful." Like Fred, my daughter also has a British accent in my head.

I've tried to trick her, and play my Ipod from time to time. For some reason, she likes my tunes at home, but if I try this in the car, her response is, "Nooooooo.... more, more, more, more?" If I try to ignore her, she just gets louder and more whiny.

So we've stocked up on CDs of (very annoying) children's songs. I did buy the Barenaked Ladies "Snacktime" CD, and she'll tolerate it to a degree, but nothing resonates with her like "Down By the Bay", or "B-I-N-G-O". I've also thought about buying the "They Might be Giants" children's CDs, but I'm a little unsure of how they differ from regular TMBG stuff. Having said that, I don't think you can ever go wrong with They Might Be Giants.

Elise is especially fond of a CD of Portuguese songs that was sent to us by a friend of Fred's. There's one song about an owl that she loves and asks for it by hooting. I now know pretty much all the lyrics to these songs, but have nary an idea what I'm singing about.

The songs I do understand the lyrics to, well... have you ever noticed that children's songs are a bit weird? Have you ever really listened to them? Take "Frog went A-Courtin'". According to this song, Mr. Frog, packing a firearm and a sword, went riding over to Miss Mouse's house (where he had often been before - hmmm, what does THAT mean?). The frog, wants to marry the mouse, but she can't until she asks her Uncle Rat (what kind of screwed up family tree is this?) for permission.

Apparently, Uncle Rat is down with this and goes off to by his niece a wedding dress. I'm not sure what woman in her right mind would trust a guy with this task, but whatever. The happy couple decide to wed in a hollow tree (who needs a beach in Hawaii when you've got a decaying stump, am I right?), and the guest list includes; a moth, a jig-dancing flea, a fiddle-playing bumble bee, and a cow that can't dance. Anyone else wonder why this last guest is about 100 times bigger than everybody else?

So the frog decides to get married naked, because the song tells us he was dressed in green. That would be like Fred waiting at the alter to marry me in a flesh-coloured tuxedo. Just... weird. The odd couple get married by a bird, there's singing and dancing and then they jet off to France to honeymoon. I guess frogs and mice aren't on the no-fly list.

Seriously, the whole song is like a really bad acid trip. Well, since I've never done drugs, it's what I think an acid trip would be like. But alas, my daughter likes it, so Frog will be a-courtin' in my car for many years to come. Uh-huh.