Easy Listening

We haven't really discussed the soundtrack of Zachary's world yet. But since we posted his own sounds yesterday, and he (and therefore we) spent Tuesday night sleeping to the melodious white noise tones of a radio played at decent volume while tuned to an empty FM station of static, let's discuss his current auditory repertoire.

First, there are the sleeping sounds. That "Happiest Baby" CD we got that I was making fun of? Totally works. Well, I can still make fun of tracks 1-3, which seem like weird low-fidelity scratched record loops for 10 minutes a pop, and don't appear to have any effect on Zachary. But tracks 4 (hair dryer) and 5 (rain falling on a roof) rule. We even brought the CD to Michigan and demonstrated its use in grandma's car. On multiple occasions. The hair dryer sound works wonders for calming him down when he's upset, particularly in situations where we can't really pick him up and do the shushing that Happiest Baby prescribes (e.g. when in a moving vehicle, and therefore strapped into a car seat). And the rain falling sound helps keep him calm and even asleep once he's fully mesmerized. Granted, both of these often have to be practically blasting (often volume "45" or higher in the car -- I know volume values are pretty arbitrary, but it's darn loud). So much for conversation on the road, but at least we've found a way to soothe him without having to repeatedly pull over. That CD has also found an honored place in the nursery, where the rain now helps keep him sleeping a bit longer at night. At least he lives in the right city for that particular sound effect!

Next, the awake and active sounds. Every day Meh brings out a few more CDs for Zachary to sample and dance to. Of course he listens to our own eclectic favorites; the "chill" tracks we played to soothe him during the first few weeks were English Renaissance chant (see, we're teaching him Latin already), a CD of classical lullabies, music from the Curious George soundtrack, and a CD of famous pop-music dads singing songs for their kids (often covering each other's tunes, which seemed kind of odd). And of course he's gotten a good dose of Balkan women's music (both via CD and then earlier this week via his attendance at his very first Dunava rehearsal. Meh reports that he spent his time there alternating between sleeping and flirting/smiling with all of the singers.)

On to the actual "kids" music, the Putumayo Kids world music series has some fun ditties (some recognizable, others downright obscure, like a 1960s Italian version of Old McDonald. I kid you not). Our personal favorite thus far is an excellent Laurie Berkner (I dig the website) CD sent to us by Zachary's Uncle Brian. This singer really seems to have mastered the children's-music-that-doesn't-drive-adults-insane formula, which as far as I can tell is:

1. Peppy without being overly artificially cheerful. Like she's actually having a good time and maybe even performing as much for the parents as the kids. They're the kind of tunes where if you were awoken to them at 5 am at sleep away camp, you wouldn't possibly think of bringing bodily harm to the counselor, cuz they're just so fun!


2. Participatory - lots of silly noises and words. I bet they'd sound even better in an accent with rolled r's. Perhaps Scottish?


3. Extensible [wow, weird to see an actual, legitimate use for an overused software term.] - if the CD isn't playing and you sing the song with your kids, you could easily see yourself making up 20 more verses on the spot.


4. Repetitive, within reason - keeping the song easy to remember, but not mind-numbingly droll (and eventually boring even for the kids).


5. Mildly intelligent / humorous for the adults - One of Berkner's songs, for no reason we can discern, has different names in each verse that we realized are the characters from Seinfeld. (We were tipped off when, a few verses in, the doodlebug "Elaine" goes to see her friend "Kramer".)


6. Surprising - just when you see where the song is going, and the kids' attention might wander (see #4), the song goes off into left field. Example: Berkner's got a tune that's all about farm animals, and it's chugging along, and just when you're comfortable, she suddenly throws in a lion and an elephant. Brilliant! Kids, like everyone else, are total suckers for the big five, regardless of if they're actually at the zoo or on safari.