Singing & Dancing

Parker hasn't had much exposure to music. I'm 110% sure I'm tone deaf, so I rarely sing around other people.  Because of this, I sang very few lullabies to Parker when he was an infant.  The first time I sang to him, I couldn't remember any songs so Parker's first lullaby was the Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme song!  Last year, in preparation for traveling to and from Moscow; I bought a 3-disc set of what can only be described as 101 ear bleeding children's tunes and have avoided all kid music since then. Lately, though, music has started to make a come back.

Parker had been super squirmy when I rock him before bed. Out of frustration one night, I started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  When I sang he stopped moving and just listened!  I've done this a handful of times and it works every time.  Parker's interest in singing made me rethink my ban on kid's music. So last week, I decided to give "kid music" another try. 

I found a great blog written by a Dad who was sick of all the horrible kid music, and set out to honestly review children's albums and weed out the crap. I checkout out a few albums and bought The Best of the Laurie Berkner Band.  Last Friday, we headed to a friend's house for dinner and a play date, so I used the 45 minute ride to test out the new tunes.  Parker really liked it! The songs are easy to sing along to and who wouldn't like a song about people w/ animals on their heads?  This weekend we listened to Laurie Berkner, but I also threw in some Adele and a little country.  I sang and drummed along with Adele and Parker clapped and drummed by stomping his feet on the back of the passenger seat.  I even got him to dance in his car seat!  Nothing cuter than a kid in a 5-point harness trying to shake his booty and move his shoulders! He even claps and cheers at the end of each song.

I thought the clapping and cheering was pretty cute until the other night, when I received a standing ovation at the end of Twinkle Twinkle. So much for singing calming him down before bed!

Parker only rocks out when the car is moving, so here is a video of P dancing in his highchair, enjoy!