chomp chomp

this weekend we took a drive down to a place called the eagle's nest, which is basically toddler nirvana. for five bucks you get to watch your kid zoom around a room full of huge padded playground equipment, until they finally fall to a happy heap on the floor. Quinn discovered her bliss in the ball pit. once she entered it, she refused to leave. we were only able to get her out by promising food, and even that was a stretch.

the other big event of the day also happened at the eagle's nest....ladies and gentlemen, we have a biter. yes, it's true. our sweet little Q has developed a territorial streak that runs deep. she was playing with something and another little girl came along to check it out--bad move. this poor kid never saw it coming, but unfortunately i did. i was sitting across the room and it was just like slow-motion. i ran over there with a big "noooooooooooo" but the damage was done. Quinn had a big smile on her face and the other kid had 20 little teeth marks neatly pressed into her hand. this did not go over well with the other kid, as you might imagine. we had to go sit in the corner for a few minutes, after apologizing profusely of course. oh the SHAME!!! any suggestions are more than welcome, but please don't tell me to "bite her back!" she isn't even two yet...

goodbye, monkey song...you will not be missed.

i already posted on this in another group blog i participate in, but i am overflowing with joy about this discovery so i have to write a little more about this here...let me preface by saying that for some reason blogger is not allowing me to use exclamation points (huh???) so just know that despite my seemingly blase attitude here, i am super happy about this. yes, that's right. SUPER happy.

many of you who know me know that i am somewhat of a music nerd and that i love finding new singers and bands to drag geoff all over town to go see live. i also happen to be a parent, and this creates a bit of a problem, considering that 99% of all kids music is wretched. it either contains references to licensed characters, or preaches about healthy eating and/or sharing. sometimes both. (oh the horrors...dora the explorer moralizing in her squeaky spanglish---ayudame.)

i've been on a mission since baby Q was born to find good music that she and i could both enjoy...ok that sounds nice but really i've just made her listen to my stuff. middling success here...she is now a certified beatles fan, but i haven't been able to sway her on the sultry tones of suzanne vega. she'll groove to certain trip shakespeare songs, but is holding firm on her "i hate the decemberists" stance.

it's not to say i hate ALL kids music. i've tried to expose her to some old chestnuts--wheels on the bus, old macdonald--they have their place in the musical annals. but you can only sing these so many times before you start feeling like you've got early-onset alzheimers. so you get creative. old macdonald might have a zebra on his farm one time. then the kitties start appearing on the bus, singing meow-meow-meow...hey, i'm not proud of this, but i make no apology. when there's 12 minutes of road between you and home, the official line between Things I'll Never Do When I'm A Parent and Please Please Make It Stop, I'll Do Anything You Want Just Stop Screaming Already can start to get pretty blurry.

so yeah. it's not as bad as "the wiggles" or (shudder) "the doodlebops", but i fear the slippery slope that i've started down. you don't believe me? i give you exhibit A: the monkey song. nothing, and i mean NOTHING gets baby Q moving like "the monkey song". i have to put it in quotes because it's not actually a real song. "the monkey song" is...are you ready for this? it is "you are my sunshine", with every other word replaced with the word...monkey. the monkey song is pretty much the gold standard in our house--it can fix just about any problem, be it the classic "we're all out of milk", or "the cat doesn't want you to body slam her anymore, honey", or even the worst of all---"i'll be RIGHT. BACK." like its fellow miracles, penicillin and clearasil, the monkey song was discovered by a lucky accident. in the middle of the night, sheer exhaustion led me to mix up my "you are my sunshine" and my "old macdonald" (the jungle version). it made her stop CRYING already, so now we sing it about 452 times per day.

that is to say, we USED to sing it 452 times a day. i have now discovered Wonderground Radio. (please note the reverential use of correct capitalization here, folks). Wonderground Radio is a side project the geniuses over at minnesota public radio launched about a month ago. it is "non commercial music for kids and their grownups"...ahh. even typing it makes me happy. we found this gem 2 days ago and haven't listened to anything else since. the catch is that it's an HD station, so unless you have an HD receiver or 200 bucks to buy one, you'll have to listen on the web like me. but hey, it's free. i have no problem turning up the volume knobs on our tiny computer speakers so i can hear it in the living room or the kitchen. if it ever stopped being available online i would buy the 200 buck thing in a heartbeat.

Wonderground Radio is a nice mix of old and new, with lots of local stuff mixed in. just like the current (mpr's excellent non-commercial "adult alternative" station) but 100% kid friendly. they jump from james brown to mason jennings and back to the jackson five. oh and now the pixies just came on. holy mama this is good stuff.

please check this thing out and tell me how much you love it...just google Wonderland Radio and you'll find it. i'm so excited to be a Wonderland Radio missionary.


i have composed a short list of new slogans for Wonderground Radio--if anyone over at mpr is reading this and wants to use one, feel free.
*Wonderground Radio plays kid friendly music that doesn't make you want to shoot yourself.
*Wonderground Radio: because your kids don't HAVE to listen to crap!
*if you are sick of barney-induced auditory diabetes, try Wonderground Radio.
*Wonderground Radio is music for people of all heights.
*Wonderground Radio: throw your wiggles cd away, lady. you won't be needing it anymore.