More Fun Than Allowed…with Kids

I won’t get any parenting awards for my behavior yesterday, but boy did we laugh and have fun. 

A friend sent me a youtube video that I knew the kids would enjoy.  We jumped on the web through our Wii so it could be on the “big screen” rather than us all loaded up around my laptop.  The kids cracked up at the video and wanted to see more.  We stayed in the general vicinity of the original video and clicked “relevant” or similar videos.  Some had to be played more than once.  It was early in the morning, Hubster wasn’t up yet.  When he did come down, he gave me that look of “Is this really what we want to teach our children?”  I smiled, the kids were rolling, and he started to laugh himself.

Here’s the video that got us started

Now click over at the right and enjoy some good clean (they’re in the tub, right?) fun.

If you get to the “singing hippo” as my daughter calls it ( singing Lion Sleeps tonight)…oh, never-mind here it is

She ran around all day singing the dogs part and insists it’s singing ”Window Butt”.

Like I said, it won’t get me Parent of the Year, but they may as well get all the laughing over body functions now,  while it’s still appropriate.  As for Hubster and I?  We were merely laughing at the kids laughter…I swear!

I recently became aware of a new music video site just for kids, although I rather enjoy it myself, (don’t tell the little ones).  Jitterbug.tv is a music community delivering classics from our favorite movies (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) as well as new pop songs by artists like Barenaked Ladies and Dan Zanes.

I had the opportunity to check out some videos with my 2 year old and she was all about Elmo and Chris Brown singing the Signs song.  I loved Elmo and Norah Jones.

The community allows you to join for free and suggest and rate videos for the site.  Instead of looking all over the internet, you can make Jitterbug.tv your one stop for new music videos to enjoy with your children..

There’s a great interview with one of the founders over at Out With the Kids.com.  Great insight into a vision of two parents to help make music for children more readily accessible.  Check out the interview, then go directly to Jitterbug.tv.  You won’t be disappointed.

We are a family that loves to watch movies.  We also love to share with the kids the shows that we enjoyed when we were little. Both kids LOVE Tom and Jerry, all the Disney movies, and the classics like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Wizard of Oz.

While they (at least Puddin’ Pop at 2.5) are a little small for “game night” we’ve started a new tradition of Friday night Movie night.  We get pizza for dinner.  It’s the one time a week that the kids get to drink soda (pop, where I come from) and we settle in for a good movie.  When we finish eating, we all snuggle up on the couch and enjoy the bonding time.  I also try to make sure we have brownies or cookies on hand for our sweet tooths.  Nothing goes better with pizza then a dessert of warm brownie topped with ice cream.

We let the kids stay up late. and hope they sleep in (which, of course, never happens).  It’s a tradition I hope we can keep for a long time.  I know it won’t be long (it won’t seem like long, anyway) before the kids have lives of their own.  Slumber Parties, and interests other than us, will get in the way of this precious time we have together.  I want to hold on to it as long I can.

When I was pregnant with my son, I was driving to work one day and heard the song “A Moment Like This” by Kelly Clarkson.  I started to cry.  I know the song is about love, and what greater love is there than between mother and child. 

I had waited my whole life to have a baby and the lyrics, “Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this, Oh I can’t believe it’s happening to me..”  That is exactly what I was feeling (and the hormones didn’t help)

So, that became our song.  My precious unborn baby and I had a song. 

I have played the song several times for my now 5 year old son, and each time I tell him how it made me cry when I was pregnant with him.  How having him was the single most precious moment in my life and how the song will forever remind me of him and the love I had for him even before we even met.

We were in the car the other day and the song came on.  I felt my eyes sting with the tears of earlier times and before I could say anything my son, in the back seat, said “Hey mom, isn’t this our song?”

“Yes baby, it is.”