Speaking of music.

We listen to a lot of music in the car. Up until about four months ago, I don't think Nora quite realized I had control over the radio. She let me listen to "my" music as much as I wanted to. She has CDs of her own, but until then we had only listened to them at home. Then one day I wanted to hear a song from Music Class and I popped in the CD. The first song on the CD, "Johnny Giraffe," became an instant favorite and from there on out she wanted to listen to Music Class and only Music Class all the time. I can only take so much Music Class. Not that it's bad, but I have my own taste, too! We took turns picking the music, and slowly she grew to like some of my music.

I think it's really cool that Nora can now recognize singers and bands by their voices and musical stylings. The first Dar Williams song she took to was "The Baby-Sitter's Here," which is an obvious choice for a kid I guess. She used to tell me, "Turn it off! Play Music Class!" when I tried to listen to Dar, but I sang "Baby-Sitter" to her a few times lullaby-style and now she digs it. Now if she hears another Dar song, she says, "That's from 'The Baby-Sitter!'" Ben Folds is "That's from 'The Grinch!' (a song Folds sings on a Christmas compilation we played a lot in December). She has also taken to asking me, "What's that song about?" which is a pretty hilarious exercise. I do tend to like folky music, and many of the songs I like are "about" something, which is helpful, although that something is not always easy to explain succinctly and in two year old terms.

• "Diner" by Martin Sexton. That one's easy. "It's about a diner, which is a type of restaurant."
• "Two of Us," a John Lennon song covered by Aimee Mann and Michael Penn. "It's about friends."
• "This Is Not the House That Pain Built" by Dar Williams. "It's about... uh... a house."
• "Trouble In the Fields," covered by Sarah Harmer. "It's about people. Who are having a hard time."

Now when "Trouble in the Fields" comes on, Nora shouts, "This song about people havin' a hard time, Mommy!"

I think I underestimated how difficult it would be to indoctrinate my child into my musical taste. I always assumed that she would like what I liked because it would be the only thing she ever heard. I thought parents who listened to Raffi 24-7 weren't trying hard enough. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And by the way, Raffi isn't as bad as I used to think he was. I've heard worse.