The Big, Purple Earworm...

Nightmare or sanity saver?  You decide.

It's 2:37 am, and you wake up. The baby is asleep. The older kids are asleep. Your spouse is asleep. Nature, however, makes a call, and you tiptoe to take care of it. Unfortunately, you find you have a sound track. A really annoying soundtrack. An earworm, that threatens your sanity and your ability to fall back to sleep after the deed is done. And there is a singular purple dinosaur (or a wiggly band of musicians, perhaps) that is to blame. You can escape!

I was one of those stay at home moms. I chose the path of least resistance in the car. I was more than willing to let the kids choose the CDs we listened to on trips, as long as the melt-downs were kept to a minimum. I learned the words to so many Barney and Sesame Street songs. I even learned several verses of the Poke-Rap song that named all 150 original Pokemon. I even survived the Pokemon movies IN THE THEATERS that had the psychedelic shorts at the beginning that proved that the Poke-folks were on something pretty strong. LSD? Mushrooms? Vileplumes? who knows.

If you don't know this fella, I am way cooler than you.

By the time I found out about groups like They Might Be Giants, Barenaked Ladies, etc. and their kid-centric music, my kids had moved on to pop, classic rock, and other hum-able stuff. In an effort to prevent at least one adult from having a brain-melting relationship with kids music, we have decided to draft a couple of real parents of real kids to audition a few CDs. Ok. Draft kind of indicates a choice. We sent a few CDs to Brent's sister and niece, and my sister-in-law and nieces and nephew. Niece #1 is all of 3 years old, and really knows what she likes and does not like. Needless to say, her mom, Brent's sister, will have to do the typing [And her review is here.  Thanks Betsy!!] . My nieces and nephew are in 2nd, 4th, and 7th grade, and will most likely do a lot of their entry themselves. Just for giggles, my daughter, age 16, will also be drafted to comment on this, too. I haven't told her yet, so we will see if she is actually reading this blog, right?

TMBG in 2013.  We inflict them on family.  Aren't you jealous?

We chose to start with They Might Be Giants. As the family's reviews trickle in, we will share them with you. And of course, we are not 100% sure when we will get them.  Or if we will - after all one of the precious commodities of parents of young kids is time.  Do you, our wonderful readers, have any suggestions for kid friendly tunes? It doesn't have to be specifically "kids music" if it appeals to the audiophiles-in-training, it just has to be engaging and be something you don't mind hearing back from a three year old. In church, or the vet's office, or the library. At top volume. Share your hidden gems with us and with the rest of our music-loving parental units. Please! Before we lose the sanity of another parent! Until then, you have my sympathies if you are stuck with the Clean Up song or some other nasty earworm on your next nature call.  We're hoping we can help - and get some reasonable music into your hands so you don't need to go through what I did!