My Little Pop Stars

My boys have become somewhat obsessed with pop music. It started with what they call the "Say-a-nay-o" song (Dynamite by Taio Cruz), an upbeat tune with a racy youtube video. P asked to play it for him one night and proceeded to entertain me with his wicked moves. It was one of the funniest things I had seen him do and was afraid to get the camera because I feared the authenticity would be lost. For four minutes, the boy was in his zone, savoring every moment. However I could not resist the urge to at least TRY and capture it on film the next day. Here are his moves, a bit toned down from the original performance.

[VIDEO WON'T UPLOAD -AHHH!]

In an effort to expand their musical horizons, I started "Fun Friday" when home with John. We listened to reggae, zydeco, dance, and 80's (of course), and had a dance party in the kitchen. This past week Fun Friday was resurrected, but I let the boys choose the music. After the obligatory Dynamite, they picked Beautiful by One Direction. I will admit, it is a catchy tune and good for dancing. While in Cape Cod Paul discovered a copy of Teen Beat (seriously, they still have that magazine!) and was often found reading up on the comings and goings of the newest boy band. I briefly wondered to myself when he became a teenage girl. Speaking of which, their all-time favorite song for the summer of 2012? Firework by Katy Perry. Yes, it is not a "new" song, but it is one of my husband's favorites because, as he puts it, "How can you not feel good after hearing it?" A few weeks ago he took the boys to see Madagascar 3, and on the way home they requested "that song from the movie". He stuck in his Katy Perry cd (a gift from Santa Claus) and they rocked out with the windows down, entertaining many a passerby. On our trip to the Cape, we played it several times and I managed to catch some of it on video. Again, not nearly the amount of enthusiasm seen without a recording device, but you get the general idea.

Underpants

Here's a post I started on vacation and had to stop short when we went out.
Lately I have been working on letting things go. Okay, once you have stopped laughing, read on. We are on vacation with the boys this week, which to many moms is more stressful than an average day. While the family gets to relax and enjoy the beach and various tourist attractions, mom has to organize, pack, plan meals and activities, and make sure everything flows smoothly. Don't get me wrong, I get this weird pleasure out of preparing for events despite the fact that I generally appear to be completely stressed out (another trait I inherited from my mom). There is something strangely invigorating about making sure we have everything we need and I felt well-prepared for our trip to the beach. But once we got here I started to get anxious. John skipped his nap the first few days and came completely unraveled. Then we foolishly fed them ice cream before going out to dinner and witnessed the all-out madness that ensued. While dragging my boys to the bathroom as they were literally bouncing all over the place, I passed by a table with five children under 10 all of whom were sitting peacefully and enjoying their meals. Jealousy raged through me. Why couldn't my children behave like that? My husband chastised me for not being able to relax. The next day we left early for a long bike ride through the woods and I tried really hard to relax. And yes, I see the irony there. But there was something about that ride through the woods that released my anxiety. I started thinking about the fact that while my children have a tremendous amount of energy that never fully expends and often exhausts [ME], they are also incredibly smart, funny and creative and I wouldn't change that for anything. They are who they are. Later in the week I set them free with new water guns and bubbles. My husband graciously filled up a bucket with water to refuel the guns, and after about 15 minutes I noticed that the boys were completely soaked. They had quickly moved from innocent battle to all-out, dump empty bubble containers full of water on each other's head warfare. I started to get upset when hubby pointed out that it was me that sent them out there with the guns and bubbles. Oh, and they are boys. It's what they do. They get their underwear soaking wet and think it's funny. I guess I need to start seeing the humor in it too.