Here We Go Loopty-Loo

My daughter loves music. I'd like to think she gets it from me and my piano-playing, handbell-ringing and choir-singing, but it could just as easily come from her dad and his love of CDs of all genres and styles. We try to encourage Petunia's interest by giving her instruments (maracas, rhythm block, triangle, tiny cymbals, tamborine) and by letting her plunk on the family ivories when she wants.

She also has her own boombox and a growing collection of CDs. What started off as a mix of classical compilations with names like "Beethoven for Babies" and "Sweet Dreams" soon blossomed into a stack of toddler playsongs. Which Petunia loves to listen to. All the time. In the living room, in her room, in the car. As background music, as dancing music.

We have created a musical monster.

I think we have a decent collection of kiddie albums: all four volumes of the Disney Children's Favorite Songs Collection, sung in a simple folksy fashion by Larry Groce; several of the VeggieTales* Sing-a-Longs (On the Road, Campfire Songs, O Veggie Where Art Thou and Silly Songs with Larry); Lisa Loeb's Catch the Moon, which came tucked into a board book of the same title (the CD is a pretty pleasant acoustic experience, the book is painfully bad); and these two bargain-bin numbers of slightly off-tune Canadian kids singing every song/nursery rhyme you ever heard of and some you've never heard of.

*(The VeggieTales CDs are a little more evangelical than the Judeo-Christian-ethic-pushing DVDs, but the high-quality production and funny characters go a long way for my listening sanity. Really, I never stop laughing at the background chatter between Pa Grape and Mr. Lunt during 'On Top of Old Smokey.')

But it's time for some new additions.

Yeah, I'm starting to go a little allworkandnoplaymakesJackadullboy from hearing the same CDs over and over. And over. And. Over.

So we've started looking for things to add to Petunia's music collection. It's a hard balance, finding things that don't make me want to stick sharp things in my eyes and yet still make her want to dance and play.

I'm thinking there have to be some good classic Sesame Street CDs out there (picking up on the threads by both Florilegium Suburbanum and Dahlberg Central last week); I have enough Elmo in my house these days, thank you very much to my mother and mother-in-law.

And my husband found a great collection of children's folk songs from the Smithsonian Institution, which has my daughter's new favorite Spanish melody, "Los Pollitos Dicen." We'll be ordering that soon.

Is it possible that adult artists have made decent kids CDs? I was sorely disappointed in Mary Had a Little Amp (though I still appreciate the friends who passed their extra copy our way). It is way too clubby for little Petunia's taste, though I think it makes perfect background music for trying to convince our childless friends that having a baby hasn't made us any less hip.

"Hey, is that a new Moby CD you've got?"
"No, it's actually my daughter's CD, and Moby is on it."
"Cool. I might have to pick up a copy of that for myself."

Anyway, I'm sure we'll be on Amazon shortly, listening to 30 seconds snippets and trying to imagine whether the tracks will make us cuckoo after the 88th time around. So if you've got any recommendations, pass them my way.