He Likes To Move It Move It

My boys are best friends for life.  There isn’t much that if one of them is into, the other isn’t.  They’re like little twinsies, joined at the hip, partners in virtually everything.  The little one even looks up to his older brother (who is only a little over a year older) and wants to be a part of everything he does.  He’s almost lost without his older brother when CJ leaves for school, and sits and mopes around waiting like a little puppy whose owner is away at work all day.

However, the one big difference between them already has to be their taste in music.  Caden loves almost anything pop, and I’ll catch him singing Lady Gaga, Linkin Park, Big Time Rush, Chris Brown, etc.  He likes anything with a fast pace and a beat he can dance to.  One of these days, I’ll have to show you his awesome break dancing moves (which, now that I think of it, are strangely similar to his Kung-Fu moves).

But the little one is completely different.  He surprises me every time I turn the iPod on with his random requests for songs he’s heard once, or ones that I’ll skip through thinking he won’t like them (because I know his brother doesn’t).  Having heard just a few opening lines from a new song, they will either both cry “change it, change it!”  Or, more often than not, Caden will be in the back saying “Mom, this song sucks.  Will you please change it?” (he is totally anti-change and if he had it his way, we’d listen to Bieber and Big Time Rush all day every day - oh, and the song by Linkin Park from the movie Transfomers which he knows every word to) but Trysten argues, “no leave it!”  The way he is building his own musical taste makes me proud, especially because what he picks is not-so-mainstream (at least, not anymore), and the fact that I love jammin’ to the tunes he picks helps, too.  If I had to pick songs for a playlist that just he and I could sit and jam to,  I’m sure it would look something like this:

• Paradise City - Guns ‘N’ Roses
• Renegades of Funk - RATM (it only took once for him to hear it and now he asks for it almost every time we get in the car)
• White Wedding - Billy Idol (he heard this song one time in the car, then went into my grandma’s house and asked her to play the “Hey Little Sister” song.  She had to call me and ask what he was talking about.  They then spent the next hour watching Billy Idol vids on youtube.  He’s a fan for life now.)
• My Best Friend’s Girl - The Cars (again, only took one time.  He sings the chorus like “she’s my best best girl” and tells me it’s about me… awwww!)
• Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
• Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer (heard the first half of this song and got mad when I changed it at Caden’s request)
• Let’s Stay Together - Al Green (another one he got mad about when Caden asked to change it)
• New Divide - Linkin Park
• Don’t Touch Me - Brak (Cartoon Network, Cartoon Planet/Spaceghost)
• I Like To Move It - Hans Zimmer (Madagascar 2 Soundtrack)
• Rock That Body - Black Eyed Peas
• Crazy Frog - Axel F
• Sexy Chick - Akon
• Alejandro - Lady GaGa
• The Look - Roxette (don’t hate, you know you love it too)
  
• Heartbreaker - Pat Benatar
• Otherside - RHCP
• Heads Will Roll - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) - C&C Music Factory
• Uprising - Muse

So there you have it.  My rockin’ little four year old.  Obviously there are tunes that EVERY little kid wants on their play list (that Crazy Frog is musical crack for kids), but some of them just surprise the hell out of me.  His favorites are mostly songs he’s heard once, rather than the ones he hears over and over again on the radio or in the car.  I just love it.  I love that he loves the music - my music.  Makes my heart happy.

Oh, and for anyone who thinks I should still be shoving strictly Kids Bop, Disney Sing Along Songs, and nursery rhymes down my kids’ throats, and not letting them listen to that kind of music, all I have to say is this:

Cram it up your cramhole, Lafleur.

Monster See, Monster Do

For some, being entertaining seems to come more naturally than it does for others.  Being fresh to this whole blogging thing, I have found it a little more difficult than I had originally anticipated to get what I’m thinking out there in a way that is as funny, witty, and entertaining as it appears in my head.  And I have to say, I’m a little jealous of my kids when it comes to this ability.  For them, it seems entertainment, whether finding or creating it, is a cakewalk.  For my kids, funny seems to just come naturally.  They are hilarious - and not just because I’m their mom and I think that they eat rainbows and poop butterflies - but because they really are just funny, and the kicker is that they don’t even know it.

For example, I’m in the kitchen making dinner one night and my four-year-old rushes in and stops in front of me all like, “Hey mom, check out THESE babies!” As I turn to look, I see him rotate his arms downward and flex in serious muscle-man fashion, then lift each arm to his mouth, one by one, and KISS his biceps!  KISS HIS FREAKING BICEPS!  Then he runs off and I just stand there, laughing and shaking my head as I ask myself “What just happened? Was that my kid? He’s FOUR YEARS OLD, where the crap did he get that from?”

And though I can usually count on the little one always being a character, his brother definitely has his moments, too.  One day they were both playing some imaginary game that involved light sabers, kung-fu moves, live-action sound effects, and the couch as a spring board (which is something I’m not too incredibly thrilled about and is the source of repeated time-outs - but we will save the couch kung-fu for another time).  On this particular day, CJ had the brilliant idea that part of his kung-fu mastery display would involve a running leap onto the couch, followed by a full somersault roll over the chaise lounge and back onto his feet.  Only, it didn’t quite go as planned.  Instead, he ran toward the couch, jumped up and landed on his knees, bounced off of the cushion and over the side of the chaise lounge, and landed flat on his butt on the floor.  Before I could even ask him if he was alright, he leapt up off of the floor and announced “I’m OK!  It’s alright, I’m OK!”

Of course I just sat there and laughed.

When I ask myself why it’s so much easier for them to be so funny, the only answer I can come up with is sheer lack of inhibition.  They are so far away from caring what anyone else is thinking, doing, feeling, or saying that they’re just free to do and laugh at what they feel is funny, and say whatever is on their minds. Now, I know I’m not the first person on the planet that has ever made this connection (in fact I’m pretty sure it was this same basic concept that led to the development of Wacko Jacko’s Neverland Ranch), but what I’m essentially saying here is maybe it isn’t such a bad thing to act like a kid sometimes - to throw the confines of every day responsibilities and the realities of your life away for a moment, embrace a little immaturity, laugh at the silly things and just be happy to be.

I know I’m no philosopher and I have no degree, but it seems to just make sense to me.  Especially lately as I’m struggling with my own take on the world and where I am in my life.  Like a lot of people that have made personal sacrifices to raise kids, I’m still juggling that age-old question about what and who I want to be when I grow up.  Part of me is content with the pieces I already have in place (I always wanted to be a mommy), but another part of me longs to do so much more with my life.  I guess what it essentially comes down to is this: do I want to be the kind of person that takes themselves and everything else so seriously in order to achieve my goals, that I make it virtually impossible to enjoy the small things that surround me every day?  I know that I don’t.  And I think it’s in these times of questioning and self-doubt, what I really need most is to be able to laugh and let go - and there really isn’t anyone I know who is better at laughing and letting go than my monsters.

So, even though I am the one that is supposed to be leading by example and molding and shaping them into the functioning adults they’re meant to be, I find that, from time to time, I am actually looking to them as the examples as they mold and shape me.

Battle Cry

Let’s get ‘em to death!

TJ’s battle cry before kicking some serious imaginary zombie butt with his paper-towel-roll sword and stealthy kung-fu moves