Band on the Rug

Happy new year, folks!

Our christmas was good this year - we had family come stay with us in waves - C-chan's family for xmas, and my parents for the new year. I'm finding these days when family come to stay, it's a good thing mostly because I get a chance to hand over the kids to someone else and get some things done! C-chan and I enjoyed designing a christmas day menu, shopping for it, & making it, after 3 years in a row of visiting Radelaide for christmas. We got the odd opportunity to go out and see a movie or go out for dinner. Our baby is a pretty good sleeper, and sleeps for at least 6 hours in her first nightly stretch, and is usually down by 7pm, which has meant going out is possible. We had a full house, yet our house guests were pretty good - we had a nice mix of hanging around at home, getting out and about, and my parents went off by themselves once or twice to give us a little bit of space.

The Grandparents of course went gaga over the baby Astro Girl, whilst our little 3 1/2 year old  E-chan ensured he had attention by talking non-stop for a few weeks. This almost drove me nuts. I couldn't think clearly, and almost every conversation I tried to have was talked over the top of constantly. At times I just had to tune out so I could follow a thought through to it's logical conclusion, but often if we didn't acknowledge what he said, he would repeat the same thing over and over - broken record style - until he got a response. Nothing would stop him from talking - even though he was getting plenty of attention. Eventually we challenged him to see how long he could stay quiet. He lasted 53 seconds! Finally on New Year's Day, the constant chatter subsided a bit, and things have returned to normal now. He's still on the talkative side, but as he gets more and more articulate, we're starting to have some really fun and funny conversations.

For christmas, E-chan got a little CD player from his grandparents. This has come just at the right time, as despite having music pushed on him all his life particularly by his Dad who is a big music fan, he seems to finally be receptive to listening to pop music and getting to know songs. Strangely (I think) his first preference was for Paul McCartney and Wings. Not the Beatles, but that followed soon after. His first favourite song that he danced to and played over and over was "C Moon" which is hilarious. At night, when we're putting him to bed, we listen to a compilation we've made and he asks us lots of questions:
- Mummy what's this song?
- What's he singing here?
- Is Paul McCartney a Beatle? Didn't he want to be a Beatle any more?

Often he doesn't hear the lyrics properly (hey, who doesn't?), and sometimes we tell him what they are and he sings them properly, but sometimes he stubbornly decides his are better such as:
- Band on the Rug (aka "Band on the Run")
- Mibby om man (? aka "Maybe I'm Amazed")

So next he was made a Robot Music compilation, made of Daft Punk and Kraftwerk. "Daddy, this isn't a robot singing, it's a MAN!"

True...

He doesn't quite get the concept of robot dancing yet, but I will persist...