AhOOoohhh....Bop Bop Bop Bop

Some things in life are personal and immutable. What flavour toothpaste you like. Whether you like Vegemite (the non-food) or Promite (something approaching the consistency of real food and therefore occasionally edible). Whether you're a morning or an evening person (believe it or not I am a morning person). Anyway, the point being, that the music you like tends to be a little hard-wired. Harry, as we know, seems to be inclined towards the musical theatre side of life. God help us all, but enough of that. She also seems to really enjoy good ole-fashioned girly frock rock. And for that, one need look no further than Joni Mitchell. Of course.

In the car we have a mixed cd that James made up for Harriet in anticipation of what she may enjoy in a vain attempt to broaden her musical horizons. The first song is Big Yellow Taxi. Now after knowing that she loves Closer to Fine this was no real musical leap, but what a relief when she proclaimed to love it! And you know a song is a real classic when you can hear it at the repetition rate of a child and still enjoy it. Yesterday afternoon we were all enjoying it a lot. So much so in fact that about half way through the song a third voice in the car piped up with "Boh Boh Boh Boh". Yep, Ted decided to sing along - and not only that he was pretty nearly in time and not only that but he came in and stopped at the right places! So so cute, as was his little self-appreciative clap at the end. Of course when I asked him to repeat his performance I was met with the cold blank stare of one who is not a performing animal.

Harry's other favourite cd in the car, much to James' horror and (almost) my chagrin is Club Hoy. Now there are few things funnier than hearing your four and three quarter year old singing along tunelessly "Houuuuuse on fie-eer". Actually I think there is - hearing her sing along innocently to lyrics such as "I'm crawling on your shores" and "swinging hot spot". And how atrocious is it that I can't find a video on youtube for House on Fire? And how could I not have ever seen a Club Hoy video clip until I just linked to that one just now? Shame, shame.

All help for Harry may be lost on the musical showtunes front however. Thanks to a chance encounter with a clip from the Mary Poppins movie at a friend's house the other week, Harriet is now singing such classics as supercalifragilisticexpialidocious which I remember LOVING as a child. I also practised saying it backwards as well, which just goes to show you what a nerd I was/am. But we have our fingers crossed that she will eventually return to the fold, since after Big Yellow Taxi on the card cd, there is Only for Sheep. I went to skip it the other day and she exclaimed, "NO! Mama, I really like this song!". *phew*

But it is safe to say that Teddy may not be following in his big sister's frock rock musical preferences. The other night James turned from ABC702 to the metal show on Triple J when teddy was having a late night jaunt. This little guy turned his head up, his eyes lit up and he started bopping away with those knees of rock love. NOOOooooooo...James is hereby on metal duty if this child is going to be one of THOSE teenagers. Harriet and I can be off plaiting daisies in our hair and singing folk songs in the paddock, while Ted and James sit in a horrid, dark room with metal posters on the wall listening to one drum solo after another.

Ted does have a left knee that seems to find the beat of its own accord. At the moment one of his favourite songs is Met My Match. Actually it's not the whole song per se, but the bit where it all just goes off. In that clip it's at about 3.25 or so. I have a feeling that I should invest in one of those stereos that have an inbuilt parental volume control. Please tell me they exist.

And just for fun, this is a photo of Harriet with her friends from school. We all go to the playcentre at the nearby shopping centre on Tuesday afternoons so they can run around and let off a bit of steam. They all have a ball! How cute do they look here, the little gang of four. Oh and *ahem* that is not what Harriet was dressed in for school. That's a spare t-shirt I had in her bag (in case she gets hot) and the skirt was in there in case she had an 'accident' at school (required by the school). On this day she managed to contrive to have said accident, as well as get overheated - hence the belly-dancing appearance of her outfit. Still cute as hell though!