Some Songs are Too Damned Catchy

Hey Victor (hey Victor)
Hey Freddie (hey Freddie)
Let's eat some (let's eat some)
Spaghetti (spaghetti)
Hey Victor (hey Victor)
I'm ready (I'm ready)
To eat some spaghetti with Freddie!

Damn you, Laurie Berkner! I have been listening to Laurie's Under a Shady Tree since Felicity Metropolitan got me a copy when Baby Banana was born. And sure, I've wandered around singing the title track, I'm Gonna Catch You, Song in My Tummy and others. Catchy, but at least I don't find it insipid or mind-numbing, like some other children's singers. Then a few weeks ago we got Buzz Buzz, which they also play a lot at BB's day care, and I wandered around singing Pig on Her Head and The More We Get Together. Still not a problem. The More We Get Together is featured in BB's music class, and singing Pig on Her Head at work gets me odd looks that I kind of like.

But then BB got the other two Laurie albums for Chanukah. Upon our return home I popped in Victor Vito. I want you to know that I have listened to this album precisely twice. Twice. That's it. Apparently, that was more than enough to find me singing the above lyrics perfectly, over and over and over again in my office today. This is despite the fact that I have listened to four different recently-purchased Christine Lavin albums at my desk today in hopes of driving Victor and Freddie out of my head. Four. And still Victor and Freddie haunt me. Catchy does not begin to describe this song, never mind the rest of the album. Yeesh.

I'm afraid to go home tonight and put in Whaddaya Think of That?

Embarrassment of Riches

Happy holidays to all (both?) of our readers! We here at UM hope that you are enjoying a joyful and relaxing holiday season, and that the New Year brings you health and happiness.

I am very much enjoying Baby Banana's first Chanukah. He loves candles (which is sure to cause me serious problems later) and so Chanukah is a big thrill for him. And latkes have been a major success - fried potatoes and onions, what could be bad?

Of course, not only is it Baby Banana's first Chanukah, it is both sets of grandparents' first Chanukah as grandparents. So there are presents. LOTS of presents. Baby Banana's aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, and, of course, grandparents went a little overboard. BB, needless to say, really only cares about the wrapping paper and is a little unhappy that I won't let him ingest it. Thankfully, boxes are endlessly amusing. I have to say, I'm amused by all this. At this age, gifts are just as much for me and Mr. Banana as they are for BB. I am thrilled to death that we have some new board books and toys that skew a bit older for BB, since Mr. Banana and I are going a bit batty playing with the same stuff with BB day after day. It never occurred to me how much WE would want some new toys after a year!

But the absolute best part of this holiday has been realing that when someone asks me what BB likes, or how he likes a particular gift, I have an answer! He's showing actual preference for certain toys (like his new Elmo cellphone) and types of toys (things that make noises, things that can be taken out of and put into containers), as well as certain activities, like banging on things, opening and closing cabinets, and pulling books off of shelves. A year ago, this kid was inside me. Nine months ago, he couldn't sit up or play with a toy. Six months ago, he wasn't mobile. Three months ago, he wasn't interested in specific toys. And now, this little person lives in my house and has likes and dislikes, and eats latkes, and laughs, and babbles, and chases cats and dogs. Amazing.

Happy holidays to all, and I wish you a year of amazing discovery with your children.

Two Red-Letter Days

I was perusing one of the more-than-a-few blogs I read regularly and happened upon this company called Red Letter Days, over in London. Basically, they organize all sorts of cool experiences -- you can buy them for yourself or as a gift for someone else. Helen over at Everyday Stranger received a gift certificate for her choice of a range of experiences from her employer as a thank-you for her good work on a significant project. Take a look -- the experiences are pretty cool. Everything from a full day at a two-Michelin-star county restaurant to a Wedgwood master class to a day of jousting to a two-night teepee retreat to a day of spy training -- and that's not even the so-called "VIP Experiences," which are just cool.

Reflecting on the niftiness of Helen's reward, I got to thinking. Working as I do in financeland, I receive the lion's share of my compensation in a single bonus check at the end of the year. This tends to be a little nerve-wracking, as the base salary is insufficient on which to support my family -- bonuses are multiples of base salary, not a percentage thereof. I myself had an okay year for an organization that itself had a decent-but-not-mindblowing year, and as such my bonus was all of the above -- okay, decent, and not mindblowing. (I should note, however, that it was an improvement over Prior Employer, and thus should be regarded as a success.)

I bring this up as background to what was a more interesting turn of events: on the day of our office holiday party, the head of the company handed out envelopes to every single employee -- envelopes containing a not huge but certainly noteworthy amount of cash. I was thrilled. I immediately called Mr. Metropolitan, who was equally thrilled with the news.

Thinking about it later in the day, I decided it was kind of weird to be so excited about the cash relative to my level of excitement about my (rather more significant) bonus. I think it's because it was an entirely unexpected windfall. I know what my bonus is being used for -- mortgage, school, nanny, insurance, other living expenses, some savings -- but this little pile of money had no designated purpose other than to make me happy. And so it did.

Helen's Red Letter Day and my envelope tell an important workplace lesson, I think: doing random nice things for one's employees gets one all sorts of brownie points from said employees. I think it speaks well of both our bosses that they understand that. Speaking for myself, a bit of cash got my boss much more in the way of employee goodwill than would an additional 5x that amount in my bonus check. And Helen? Well, Helen's going to ride the Orient Express. I think that warrants a warm fuzzy or two, don't you?

TiVo: The New Generation Gap

Interesting article in WSJ Online today: The basic gist is that our kids experience TV completely differently than we did because of TiVo (assuming we have it). I'd never thought about it before, but it really will change things in any TV-watching home. Kids growing up in TiVo households will never experience the frantic call of the sibling, "Hurry up, it's on!" when they go to the bathroom. They'll never experience sprinting to get something from the kitchen or clean up part of the room during a commercial. They'll never tell their parents that they'll do something at the next commercial, nor will parents tell them that they have to go to bed at the next commercial. Kids won't have any need to complain that they need to stay up late because all their friends watch St. Elsewhere and they'll be left out in the discussions at school the next day. And it's possible to let kids watch commercial TV without watching commercials.

It's fundamentally different than when we got a VCR, or when we got cable. It's a change in the way kids experience televised media. Is it for the better?

Books, Books and More Books

Went to Baby Banana's school book fair today, and was pleased to see that I'm up on the latest kid books, even if Baby B isn't quite ready to be read to without chewing on the book yet. They had the usual complement of Mo Willems (who has a new one coming out in April), If You Give a..., Caldecott winners, etc. i dont' look forward to when my son wants books about Captain Underpants, but so be it.

Got me to thinking about what off-the-beaten path books I'm missing. It's easy enough to populate the library with recent award winners and the stuff everyone else is reading, but what am I missing? What are the books from your childhood that are must-reads? What book is your great little discovery that no one knows about? Mine is a book called So Do I. It's one of the few books I actually remember my mom reading to me. It's by Barbara Bel Geddes (yes, Miss Ellie) and it's a delightful, if totally dated, book about friendship. The pictures are colorful and wonderfully weird. I bought a copy from a used book dealer so Grandma Banana can read it to Baby Banana. Well worth your time if you see it in a used book store.

Oh, and for your amusement (I hope), this warning about the dangers of Goodnight Moon from the New York Times.

Cool Non-Kid-Related Gadget

This really has nothing to do with kids, but I have to plug this gadget! I have an iPod, and I adore it, but my use of it has been limited since I had Baby Banana, because I don't listen when I go out shopping or walking anymore because I've got him with me and, after all, I wouldn't want to prevent our fabulous conversations. (Me: "What do you see?" Him: "AhgaGAgaGAGA! Uh oh!")

I wanted to use my iPod at work (I need background noise), but it's formatted for the Mac and my work computer is a PC. I've been listening to internet radio (WTMX's 80s station is great, but after 2 months, I've had enough 80s for a while). And speaker systems for the iPod have, until recently been fairly expensve things concerned with great sound quality. While that's great, I keep the volume quite low in my office, so I care very little about sound quality - I just want to be able to listen to the darned thing.

So I bought this cute little device. It's called an iTopper, Brookstone makes it (or has at least branded it), and it's perfect for a little bitty personal speaker. It plugs right into the top of the iPod into the earphone port. The sound quality is what you'd expect for something that costs $35, but it's just right for what I need it for. I've been happily using my iPod all morning to listen to music that wouldn't be broadcast on Noggin!

See? I managed to work in the kid several times.