Okay, Popular Music, I Give In
I’ve been traveling a bit more for work recently, and because I’m too lazy to load up some songs I like on my iPod and take it with me, I’ve been listening to the radio more. Jenny likes to educate us on good music these days (yes, “these days” like I’m an old lady) by playing through the Top 100 songs on iTunes. Or on Amazon’s music store since we’re mad at iTunes. When we did a quick run through the list this evening, these are the songs that I gave in to. I admitted I like them. And they’re the same songs that cause me to stop flipping through radio stations and listen. And maybe sing a little. So I’ll share them with you to start your week off right.
My two favorites:
Bruno Mars, “When I Was Your Man” – It’s just beautiful, okay?
And Rihanna, “Stay” – It’s so sad and pretty. And it makes me think she’s just stuck with Chris Brown and can’t help it. Even though I think she can help it.
And a few other songs:
Lumineers, “Ho Hey” – It’s fun and happy. And the version I really love is the one from Nashville! I was so proud of Rayna’s girls that I wanted to cry.
Taylor Swift, “I Knew You Were Trouble” – This song is amazing. And everyone in my house loves it. (I also kind of like “22.”) And if you really want to laugh (and get a weird version of a song stuck in your head), watch this version.
Daft Punk, “Get Lucky” – It’s clearly from the 70s. And awesome. Last week it came on the radio when I’d run out for an errand, so when I pulled up to the house it was still playing. Reagan asked me to roll down the window to listen to her. So I rolled down the window, blasted this song and danced and maybe embarrassed her in front of her friend. True story.
Demi Lovato, “Heart Attack” – I don’t particularly like or dislike Demi. And I don’t think her voice is distinctive. But I’m loving this song. And so are Lee and Jenny. Because we’re winners.
Justin Timberlake, “Mirrors” – I’m not a fan of “Suit and Tie,” but I have totally given in to this song. I love it.
Robin Thicke, “Blurred Lines” – I haven’t actually heard this one on the radio, but I have heard it on that Radio Shack commercial, and we’re big Robin Thicke fans now because of Real Husbands of Hollywood (which you should definitely watch if you haven’t). I love it.
And this song basically sums up my feelings about this whole post:
Icona Pop, “I Love It” – I don’t care. I love it.
There’s actually a lot of other music I’ve been enjoying in recent months, particularly the more folk-y and fun songs like fun., (though I can barely handle that punctuation), but really that’s more expected of me, I think. I’m actually kind of glad I’m not yet too old to enjoy some popular music. Though I’ll freely admit there are a lot of songs on those Top 100 lists that I can’t stand.
What songs have you been enjoying recently?
Boy Genius #iPPP
Oops – looks like it’s been a week since I last posted. I’ve been busy, but not with anything more exciting than work and an allergy attack, so there’s not really a story to tell about my last few busy days.
I will, however, tell you that I’ve decided that Brinkley is going to be a genius. You may not think so since he’s 2 years and 3 months old and he still doesn’t talk, but I think he’s just not interested in talking yet. What he is interested in? Is the keyboard. So obviously he’s going to be a musical genius.
Reagan’s new keyboard is conveniently placed at the perfect height for Brinkley. He ignored it for awhile, but he recently figured out how to turn it on, and he absolutely loves to play music on it. It’s very cute – and who knows? Maybe he really will be a musical genius.
On a quick unrelated note, you may notice in the keyboard picture that Brinky’s t-shirt from last summer is looking a little snug. It’s not as obvious from the back, but trust me, it looked like a cute cropped top from the front. So we all headed to a consignment sale Monday night for a few new items for the kids’ wardrobes. Brinky’s included these new shorts and shirt that I just think are so cute – and make him look more grown up.
Isn’t he cute?
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
Memories Captured: Piano Girl
My parents gave Reagan an amazing keyboard for her birthday last month, and unlike most of the toys she’s ever received, she’s still in love with it a month later. We’ve been fortunate to have a young neighbor with a lot more musical talent than anyone in our house who thought it would be fun to teach Reagan how to play the keyboard and the guitar she got for Christmas. She’s really doing a good job with Reagan, taking her time, and teaching her the fundamentals.
My memories captured post this month is Reagan’s first song on the keyboard, Alouette. She’s mostly mastered it at this point, and it’s wonderful. Though the rest of us might like it if she learned another song because we’ve heard this one just a few times.
Obviously she looks like a pro, but I also took a quick video so you can hear how she sounds. She’s still learning, but she’s making major progress!
Linking up with Alison and Galit for Memories Captured:
Quality Time #iPPP
As a working mom, I sometimes forget that I need to make an effort for my time with my kids to be quality time. Sometimes I come home and I’m tired, and I just want to sit on the couch and play on the computer or watch TV (or both). One, two, or three of my kids may be in the room with me, but I’m not making an effort to focus on them like I should. I think that’s okay sometimes if I am particularly tired, but not every night. So last night I decided to have more quality time with my family, though it may not take a form that some people consider quality.
Most of my quality time with Brinkley occurs early morning, like this morning:
He likes to run into our room when he gets out of his room on the morning and climb up onto the bed. (He is wearing his sister’s shirt in this picture. I’m not sure why – I didn’t put him in it.) I’ll admit there’s not always a lot of quality to our time together these days, but last night I did spend more time with him playing and trying to get him to point to his body parts or ever talk. That sort of thing. I want to research a bit more what we can be doing with him to try to get him learning more and talking because he’s still not there.
After he goes to bed – and we’ve been trying for earlier because I think he sleeps better then – I can do a better job of focusing on the girls. We’ve all learned how to focus while Brinky is up in his bedroom running around like a crazy person until he goes to sleep. It involves jumping on the bed and constantly opening and closing his dresser doors.
Oh, and turning on his bedroom light so he can see what he’s doing. He does this for a while, but when he’s ready to go to sleep, he climbs into bed and goes to sleep.
So what did we do with the girls for quality time last night?
Reagan likes to look at funny things with us, so…it was BuzzFeed time. Only with age appropriate posts. Like these:
29 Pictures of ’80s Culture at the Reagan White House – bonus for including her name
If Pop Stars Were Birds, These Are The Birds They’d Be – celebrities + animals = funny
32 Pictures That Prove Vladimir Putin is Only Human – more for Lee than Reagan, but she enjoyed it
14 Things You Missed from the SAG Awards – because we love some awards shows and celebrities in this house
We kept going, especially with cute animal related posts. Those are her favorite. And of course, we read Honest Toddler’s newest post. She loves when we read Honest Toddler together. So for Reagan, quality time often involves reading and laughing at things together. It’s fun!
When Reagan decided to move on and read for a little while before bed, Lee and I started looking at iTunes because we wanted to check out the 69 cent songs – especially since we had an iTunes gift card to spend. Of course, music drew Jenny into the room. She had fun (and stayed up past her bedtime, but so did we, so it was okay) giving us her opinion on different songs and getting to choose a couple for herself. I talked last week about how music brings my girls together, but generally it can bring our whole family together, especially when we decide to listen through clips on iTunes. Jenny’s favorite thing is to go through the top 200 songs on iTunes and see which ones we know. Last night’s answer? Lee and I didn’t know any songs in the top 10! Jenny’s so much cooler than we are. And I can’t even tell you how much time Jenny spent smiling and laughing (which is becoming more rare these days) while we listened to music.
And for inquiring minds who want to know (also known as my brother), these are the songs we felt compelled to buy last night:
Daydream Believer – The Monkees because who doesn’t love this song?
Old Enough – The Raconteurs never heard this one before, but it sounded like something I’d like
Whatcha Say – Jason Derulo a Jenny choice
The Remedy (I Won’t Worry) – Jason Mraz I loved this song, okay? And the girls love Jason Mraz now.
Can’t Stand It – Never Shout Never Jenny again
Save the Best for Last – Vanessa Williams another one I loved so much – in high school
Cradle of Love – Billy Idol Lee loves this one, and somehow didn’t already own it
Bitter Sweet Symphony – The Verve Lee and I both realized we like this one and didn’t own it
Absolutely (Story of a Girl) – Nine Days another one I used to really like that we discovered Jenny also loves
Friday I’m In Love – The Cure seriously, we didn’t own this already?
D.A.N.C.E. – Justice I was so excited to see this in the 69 cent songs because I love it so much on Just Dance
And now that I’ve already made this post so long, I’ll also add a list of the songs the girls bought with their money last week after about a week of planning precisely how to spend their $25.
This Is My Paradise – Bridget Mendler
The Call – Regina Spektor
Sk8er Boi – Avril Lavigne
Take A Bow – Rihanna
You Found Me – The Fray
The Story of Us – Taylor Swift
Stuck Like Glue – Sugarland
Beauty Queen – Ben’s Brother
Best Friend’s Brother – Victorious Cast
Lucky – Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz
Fallin’ for You – Colbie Caillat
Mine – Taylor Swift
Realize – Colbie Caillat
Safe & Sound – Taylor Swift
I Won’t – Colbie Caillat
Ours – Taylor Swift
Bleeding Love – Leona Lewis
It’s Time – Imagine Dragons
Too Little Too Late – Jojo
You Belong With Me – Taylor Swift
Beautiful Girls – Sean Kingston
Never Say Never – The Fray
Bubbly – Colbie Caillat
Replay – Iyaz
The One That Got Away – Katy Perry
One last bit of information: we spent a lot of time listening to music, and I still ended the night with this song:
The girls bought it a couple weeks ago, and I think it’s been stuck in my head about half the time since then. I said that I kind of didn’t want to like it because Taylor Swift can be annoying, but I think it’s good. And Jenny said, “Yeah, I know, I don’t want to like Taylor Swift, but she’s actually my favorite artist and I love all of her songs.”
Linking up with Greta and Sarah for #iPPP:
Music = Togetherness #iPPP
My girls fight more often than not these days, so I was happy to see them join together this week for something very important to them. A quest to buy new music. They’d been working on a plan of pooling their money and selecting songs they both agreed on from iTunes, and it was hard work. When Reagan got an Amazon gift card for her birthday (thanks Aunt Lisa, Uncle Dustin, and Lucas), I suggested that they use it for their music.
Side note: how awesome is it that a lot of songs are cheaper on Amazon MP3 and still import into iTunes and on to iPods? Jenny was very happy that they were able to buy three more songs because they saved money by buying from Amazon. Though she initially acted like that was the stupidest idea ever. She did actually thank me for the idea later and admitted it was a good one, which rarely happens with always-right Jenny.
Anyway, they worked hard on their list of music, working and reworking it and checking the math to be sure they had enough money for all the songs they wanted. Jenny had it all written out in her journal.
So we got to work ordering the songs. Even though on some songs we made comments like “Really? You actually like that?” we bought everything they had picked out. Up until the last year, we’ve generally only bought music for them that we like too, so it’s been a definite shift recently towards them having their own (sometimes bad) taste in music and spending a lot of time listening to music. Jenny always has her headphones in while she’s reading. And she was excited about getting up at 5:30 for school this morning so she’d have more time to listen to her new music!
Look at the two of them together working on this. They were actually being nice to each other. I love how the music brought them together. Even though there were a few songs they disagreed on and bought with their combined money anyway (Avril Lavigne’s Sk8r Boi for Reagan and stuff I’ve never heard of from the Breaking Dawn soundtrack for Jenny). Brinkley was so excited about it that he decided to get out of bed way after he should have been asleep, but much to his disappointment they weren’t even playing his favorite song, Party Rock Anthem.
(Unrelated, if you’re wondering what’s happening on the walls behind them, they were on the computer in my husband’s office and he has his notes for the book he’s working on pinned to the wall.)
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