Tiny Dancer

The Monkey is finally finding his groove!

I don't know what it is about toddlers dancing that brings a smile to everyone's face, but I just can't get enough of it!

Monkey has become a big fan of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cartoon on Playhouse Disney. Well, let me revise that statement: Monkey has become a big fan of the opening and closing songs of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - the actual cartoon, he could care less about!

If you've seen the show, it starts with Mickey Mouse inviting the kids to come to his playhouse, then cuts to an empty field. Back to Mickey Mouse, who tells the kids that first they have to say the magic words. A couple of Mickey-centric magic words later, and poof! The clubhouse begins to pop out of the ground, and all of the other characters appear. Alex watches the first part intently, right up until the clubhouse begins to appear, at which point, without fail, he turns to me with a big smile, like "here comes the good part!" Then the song starts, and his attention is 100% focused on the TV. But in the past few days, he's added a dance!

Actually, the first time he did it, I wasn't sure he was dancing, as it kind of looked like what he does when he's losing his balance - kind of one foot forward, one foot back. But then he kept going, and added some side steps as well. He's working up to hand movements, but for the most part it's just him stepping around to the music. After the song ends, he tunes out, and goes back to whatever he's doing, up until the closinig "Hot Dog Dance" comes up, at which point it's time for a reprise! I have got to get this on video...

Oh, and he's a bit of a singer, too. I'm a little worried about this, however, as we've yet to determine if he takes after me or my husband in the musical department. You see, I am somewhat musically inclined - I took piano lessons for 8 years, and was active in chorus and musicals during high school and college. My husband, on the other hand? Well, let's just say he's tone deaf and leave it at that - there's no need to get insulting, right?

Anyway, my husband will just do a "ah ah ah ah ah ah ah" sort of singing scale (kind of a "do re mi fa mi re do," minus the pitch), and Monkey has started to imitate it. So far, he's about as on pitch as his Daddy, but what can you expect when he's just mimicking what he hears? Perhaps we're raising a future musician? I may need to intervene before the musical training goes much further, to make sure we keep him on an audibly pleasing path...

In all seriousness, though, I do hope he has inherited my love of music. I'm merely an appreiative listener at this stage of my life, but I couldn't live without it. I listened to it a lot when I was pregnant with him, in the hopes that he would find it as entertaining, calming, and comforting as I do. I even have a "baby" mix on my iPod that I used to play while I waited for him to make his arrival. But I've recently noticed that I listen a lot less than I used to now that Monkey is here. We need to work on changing that, even if for now that just means some quality time listening to the Wiggles or Sesame Street CDs. :-)