Falalalalala

The little guy's Holiday Concert was tonight. His music teacher is amazing. Not only did she teach them four songs, she lead the chorus while standing up and playing the songs on the piano. Wow!

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The little guy used to wear the best outfits (still does, sometimes), and now the baby is interested in accessorizing. Like her necklace? This started out as an acoustic rendition of Shut Up and Dance, but ended up like this:
Brava!!

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The baby loves to sing a song from daycare that goes "(Name! Name!) Jump around! Jump around! (Name! Name!) Jump around! Jump around! Sit back down."

It's really cute, but kind of tiring when you keep hearing "Mommy! Mommy! Jump around!" Plus, she'll yell at you if you don't participate.

I tried to get her to change it to "clap around" tonight, which makes no sense but lets you keep sitting down.

I was briefly successful.

We're Back!

Eric and the kids had a three-piece band tonight. Too bad they were singing at least two different songs at the same time. It was hilarious.

They're going to be famous one day, and it all started right here.

That's Show Biz!

My precious angel was sick Sunday as you may have read so I kept her home yesterday to keep her from spreading the plague to her little 2 year old germ factories. I kept the boy home too because I didn't feel like driving all the way out to their daycare for observation just in case he was infected as well. We did a lot of playing and, considering that we didn't turn on a Daniel Tiger until after 3, I think we had a successful sick day.

We generally have a very musical home with lots of singing about all kinds of stuff - going to the potty, all their nicknames, basically anything we are doing. Lately though we've been (still) singing Christmas songs. When Emily and I came downstairs yesterday we were treated to a full spread of (plastic) food set up for us on the coffee table.

Too bad for Emily that she had to go to work. I got breakfast and a show!

Presenting "Sing We Now of Christmas" featuring Stinker Pants and Baby Girl!

I love the accompaniment from the girl with no pants, leopard print shirt, and pink cowboy boots. Luckily we didn't have to go anywhere or see anybody.

Jingle Bells

Our family performed a lovely rendition of Jingle Bells this evening. Eric played the jingle bells, the baby played the drums, and the little guy is off-camera playing the kazoo.

Early mornings and late evenings

As Emily has mentioned before, she's been dragging my sorry behind out of bed to work out with her in the mornings. Our wonderful son usually comes down and joins in on the "fun" by either doing some exercising or critiquing our form. The other day he had the camera out while we were working out and he snapped this awesome picture.

I really am just about as dead as I look. What you don't realize is that we were just doing crunches and we have to be off centered a little because I have stolen half of Em's yoga mat. Add the fact that you have a 5 year old aspiring paparazzo (singular of paparazzi?) flashing photos from very close range and it's a little crowded.

Last night the toddler (she's not a baby anymore, sigh) wanted to listen to some "Shake It Off" by Taylor Swift so we played it 5 times for her and the boy. They are so funny when they dance and sing!

That boy is such a goof!

Early Birds

The little guy took this amazing video this morning. These are the sounds we wake up to most mornings... at 6:15am. I love that they're getting along so nicely, but it's soooooo early!

Radioactive

Two things:

1. Eric has been driving the kids to and from daycare, meaning that he is entirely in charge of the music they are listening to.
2. Eric was alone with the kids tonight, so this amazing video happened on his watch.

In case you don't know this song (Radioactive, by  Imagine Dragons), here's the official music video. You might think that would be hard to top, but here we go!

Tis (Almost) the Season

The little guy is singing in a choir at church in a couple of weeks (I'm so excited!!), and we've been practicing his songs at home. He was showing me the hand motions to Away in a Manger last night at dinner… and it was hilarious and wonderful and even kind of dangerous!

Children get older...

I worked with the baby a bit today on drinking from a cup. She's starting to get it! It helped to take the stopper out, but then dropping the cup becomes a bit more of a mess.

The little guy has started dramatically stretching before singing Take Me Out to the Ballgame, because they sing it at the seventh inning stretch (You have to stretch!). He'll make you stretch before he'll sing it to you, too. We should sign him up for theater or dance or something-- he's got such showmanship.

The poor guy was playing with something today and he didn't want the baby to get it, so he put it maybe eight inches in front of her. She crawled over and grabbed it, like, immediately and he was SO confused. I told him that he had to put stuff up on a table to keep it away from her because she's crawling now, but she's already trying to pull up. His world is about to be rocked.

The Entertainer

One of the (few) songs I learned when I took piano lessons was The Entertainer. It was running through my head tonight watching the little dude make the baby laugh.

We did give him a chocolate chip cookie, just so you know. I think he earned it!

I love you!

The little guy has been singing "Skin-a-ma-rinky-dinky-dink, Skin-a-ma-rinky-doo" a lot this week (so have we all... it's an ear worm!). He sang it to his baby sister today and she just grinned at him the whole time. It was so incredibly cute and sweet that I made the mistake of trying to get it on video for posterity. Here's how that went:
He came out from under the blanket eventually.

Daddy's got skills

My foray into stay-at-home parenting is going okay.  I only yell at the big one once or twice a day (his listening ears somehow aren't connected to his motor systems just yet).  We've only not gotten out of the house once so far and we even took a trip to the local library today for toddler time which included stories, songs, and dancing.  Today's theme was the first snow of winter.  Winter?  I think it is supposed to be 75 this weekend.  Plus these 3 and less year olds have probably never seen snow like my mountain boy.

Anyway, Goose just sat in my lap slack-jawed while 8 other moms and their kids sang and danced.  I was embarrassed.  Thankfully the baby just slept.

Oh, and we got there early thanks to some awesome multitasking by Dad.  Here's a photo of the feeding situation while I got the big one ready.  Physics is a wonderful thing.

Heather's Song

When the little booger doesn't understand a word in a song, he doesn't hum and mumble like his Mom. Instead, he substitutes a word that he knows. For example, when he rocks out to Taylor Swift's latest, he sings "We-eee are never, Heather, Heather, gonna clap together." He calls it Heather's Song. Eric finally got him on video singing part of it last night:

Goodbye Baseball Season

Here's a picture of the little dude eating his birthday cupcake:

Anyway, tonight he was sort of singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." His lyrics were, um, perhaps an improvement?

Take me out to the park,

Take me out to the ballgame,

Buy me some crackers and applejacks!

At that point, we dissolved into laughter and missed the rest of his song. Crackers and applejacks? What a nut!

Trendoid?

I am going to have to stop listening to our local top 40 station in the car... the little booger is learning too many pop songs! He was asking for music videos tonight by singing some of the song so we'd know what he wanted. We watched some Justin Bieber and Psy tonight. He's also been singing Everybody Talks by Neon Trees while wandering around the house lately. 

We're starting to be REALLY careful about inappropriate lyrics (Flo Rida, I'm looking at you) now that we've realized he's paying so much attention!

Our Little Pop Star?

We have mad talent running around at our place (in mismatched pjs).

The video below is him singing part of Call Me Maybe (or you can watch my favorite version)-- and we have NO IDEA how he picked it up so quickly. We've heard it on the radio a few times, but he doesn't sing anything else that we hear on the radio (phew!). He calls it "my song" and requests it every time we get in the car. Enjoy!

He's Got Talent!

The little guy picked up his guitar tonight and said "Good morning!" When I said "Good morning!" back, here's what he did.
He's a natural!

It's Not Even My Birthday

The little guy can be one strange dude, but this one is new. He throws me his blanket and sings Happy Birthday to Mommy. Then he wants me to "blow it out"-- and he won't take the blanket back until I've blown all the fire out from the birthday candles. This usually takes me several tries-- mainly because the fire is imaginary so I have a hard time getting it all.

Anyway, here he is playing with his magna-doodle this weekend. Weirdo.