Episode 73: Dance Dance Revolution

I've got some good stuff lined up for you in the near future, but the new computer just came in yesterday and I need a week or so to get all of the images and video transferred over- and to figure out how to use the thing, myself. Yeah, I could probably do all of that in a day, but you have to remember that my computer time is limited to afternoon naps and after the baby goes to bed, especially since I am holding strong to my "the baby doesn't touch the new computer" rule. This pretty much means that it stays locked away most of the day. A small price to pay to keep all of the keys on the keyboard, I think.

So, I apologize that I don't have any hilarious video to accompany this post, I'll throw some up as soon as I figure out how to get it off of Monica's Flip cam and on to the new computer. Ever tried to watch your grandmother use a computer? Yeah, that is pretty much what it looks like when I have to learn how to do something new with it, too. Right down to the squinting to read the screen.

Moving on.

Along with her endless, nonsensical babbling, her hilarious animal noises and her bizarre tendency to to start laughing out of nowhere, at nothing, for no reason, the baby has now started to dance- which I will say is a welcomed addition to her ridiculous daily performance. Lately she has been in to absolutely everything, and has developed an attitude about it, so the dancing and other funny things that she does are often times the only thing keeping me from taking her down to the shelter and trading her in for another cat. Seriously. It is like she is 14 sometimes, only instead of being mad that I won't let her go to the mall with her new car-driving boyfriend she is upset that I won't let her play with the trash, or try and drink the cat's water.

The dance itself is still in its infancy, and at this point is little more than an up and down leg pump. Kind of like she is doing the behind the couch elevator trick, only much quicker. Eventually, she tries to move her feet, which typically results in a stumble or an unidentifiable side to side movement. Av's upper body doesn't really move during the dance, which makes it all the more funny, and it never really lasts for more than a few seconds. Interestingly enough, Monica compares it closely to the way I dance after a few beers. I refute this notion. I have much more leg movement and I make cool faces.

Now, obviously every kid dances, usually poorly and hysterically, especially when they are as tiny as Av- just watch an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba, or America's Funniest Home Videos. What makes Av's dancing more funny to me is when it actually takes place. Unlike most kids, it is never really prompted. She won't do it on cue, rather, she will just spontaneously break out in to dance any time that she hears a song- or noise- that she likes. Sure, she does it plenty when her loud toys play kid music (she has an aquatic-themed turtle jukebox that plays about 50 different instrumental versions of kid songs like 'Twinkle Twinkle' or 'Home Home on the Range'), but it is much funnier when it is prompted by something else.

Sometimes during the day a jingle from a TV or radio commercial will prompt a spontaneous moment of dance, and other times it will be just out of the blue with no sound at all, but I think my favorite time that it happens is in the car when a song she likes comes on the radio. I like the car dance for two reasons. First, she is sitting down and strapped in, so instead of dancing she will just put her feet up in the air, shake them and laugh. Second, the songs that she chooses to dance to make absolutely no sense.

Music to me, like a lot of people, is a pretty important thing. It gets a lot of us through the day- even when you are hanging out with a baby. I am, by my own admission, a music snob. I like the music I listen to and I hate the music that you listen to. Unless we listen to the same music, in which case, we should hang out more because I haven't met very many people like you. Because of this, I have made it a point early on to play a lot of music when I am around the baby. I think that it is important that she listen to various kinds of music, aside from the "enriching" classical music and the ridiculous kid songs that those "child experts" insist on jamming down her throat. I'm not saying she shouldn't listen to that stuff, I'm just saying she gets enough of it from her toys and her videos, and even a 1-year-old needs to rock out a little sometimes.

In any event, I find her taste in music to be very curious. Through months of experimenting, I have found that her taste really lies in the classics. The older the song, the more chance of getting a leg shake. Favorites include the Police (probably because of Sting's cartoonish voice) Talking Heads (who doesn't love 'Burning Down the House?') and Jimmi Hendrix. She has also been seen leg shaking to the Animals (the most curious of them all given how dark most of those songs are), Boston, Tom Petty and Neil Young, but it usually depends on which song it is. When it comes to more modern music, her taste becomes more selective. I have found that she is not at all a fan of hip hop, even the really good old school stuff, and she can take or leave modern rock. I just don't think that it is fun enough for her. The one group that she does really love is an obscure experimental/ instrumental rock band called The Octopus Project. Each song is essentially 5-8 minutes of strange space noises set to a beat. She loves it. Dances to the whole catalog. What does this all mean? Probably not a damn thing. Or maybe I am going to spend the next 18 years living with a hippie, which given how much her and her mother are already alike is a pretty strong possibility. As long as she washes her hair and doesn't start listening to Phish I guess I don't care.

Deep down I know that I am going to have little or no influence over what my daughter eventually starts to listen to, so for now I am just going to endure whatever it is that prompts the funniest dance. Hopefully the leg shake and the elevator dance evolve a little bit so that I can film it and win the $100,000 grand prize on AFV. The last kid who won laid down some solid moves, but I have confidence that Av has it in her to break out something better than that kid's air hump.

Sorry again about the lack of video. I'll get one up in the next few days. Stay tuned.