Music for Lucia

I haven't written about the kid in a while. I guess that whole month of nothing but Lucia was even too much for me. Not to worry, though. I still give her lots of attention (even if I haven't written a letter in a while).

One development in Lucia's...er...development is her love of music. I've always played records for her and sang to her, but she has really shown an interest in anything musical lately. Besides playing instruments and singing her own "songs", she dances to anything on the radio. During transitions on NPR, she'll dance to the ten seconds of music they play. She's really tuned into the music.

As I said before, I sing certain songs to her, but I also play a ton of videos on YouTube. The following is a top-10 of her favorite videos. Some we sing to her at night. Others are just to be enjoyed on YouTube. Either way, she likes them all...

10. The Beastie Boys - "Hey Ladies"
By accident, I discovered Lucia's love for old school hip-hop. Then I discovered she particularly liked the Beastie Boys brand of hip-hop.

9. Feist - "1 2 3 4" (Sesame Street version)
I always thought this would be a great Sesame Street song and Feist pulls it off with ease.



8. MIA - "Paper Planes"
This track had Lucia shaking what her mother gave her. That was the correct reaction.

7. Guided By Voices - "I Am a Scientist"
We discovered Lucia's love of GBV the same day she discovered hip-hop. I have no idea how that works, but that's what happened.



6. "Clap, Clap, Clap"
I will never forget the morning we woke up to jazz on the radio. R snapped her fingers to the beat. Lu - for the first time ever - clapped her hands. Soon after that momentous occasion, I discovered this little video.



5. Dan Zanes - "Jump Up"
There isn't an indie geek/alt.country fanatic around who doesn't play Zane for his/her kid. Never mind the hair. You have to admit it makes you tap your feet.



4. Kimya Dawson - "The Smoothie Song"
This is a family favorite. The video doesn't do it much justice, but you get the idea.



3. Pavement - "Cut Your Hair"
She is my daughter. I've sung this song nearly every time I've put her down to sleep and she knows it like few others. I recently showed her the video and Lucia liked it even more.



2. "Mah Nà Mah Nà"
This is an absolute classic. This was also the first song Lucia recognized in another as it played with various instrumentation on NPR.




1. Kermit the Frog and Debbie Harry - "The Rainbow Connection"
We discovered this one while searching for Muppet and Sesame Street videos. I couldn't resist this classic moment on The Muppet Show. Both R and I sing this song to Lu whenever we try to put her to bed or soothe her. She dances to this video no matter how many times she sees it. Notice how loaded Debbie Harry seems.