Thirty-something mindset vs. Mommy brain

Ever since we brought C home, I have sung to him. Broadway show tunes, holiday songs, songs that I make up about whatever I am doing at that moment. Pretty much constant noise. I didn't even sing this much as a Theater major in college. I'm not saying that the singing is good, but he does seem to like it.

So awhile back when a fellow mom told me about a CD of kids songs that incorporates the child's name, I thought that sounded like a great idea. I remembered seeing something like that in the window of a toy store in New Orleans. So on our trip out there last weekend, I bought one.

Now I am the first to admit that I was not expecting high quality vocals. And the corny image of a kid saying, "Wow! I heard my name 50 times!" on the cover wasn't necessarily a vote of confidence (considering there are only 9 songs all under 3 minutes each). While Matt was cooking dinner, I held C and put the music on.

The first song, "All About Me" covers about 1/3 of the 50 call outs for C. Imagine a somewhat awkward pause, and then a voice saying," Hey, C...". I was not a fan of the song "Raspberry Spray" which seems to teach kids about spitting, so that one gets skipped. The other songs about counting, the alphabet, rhymes, and manners all seem pretty straightforward and somewhat educational. (So far the only one that really gets into my head is "C has good manners, and that's what matters...")

Then comes the song "monkey counts to 20." All of the songs to this point have had a cheesy quality to them, but there is something about the melody that reminds me of a sketchy circus. It is about a monkey that loves to count to 20, and is friends with "C". The monkey's name is Jay-Z. I don't know if that is the spelling, but that is what the song says. I don't know why they picked that name, because it doesn't even rhyme with anything. Well, Matt and I just start cracking up. I laugh so hard that Matt asks if I need to put C down. He also asks me how much money I spent on this thing. But C does seem to like it. We make the obligatory Jay-Z jokes about the monkey "ruling the town tonight" (a song that I have on my Ipod). Matt had to pull up "Big Pimpin'" on Itunes.

And of course, we had to name his toy monkey Jay-Z, picutred above. Not to be confused with monkey puppet, who is still called "monkey".

$13 well spent.