SKANKIN' TO THE BEAT

The little guys are getting older and they're starting to develop their own musical tastes. This is hardy news. Before he was even born, Nate reacted strongly to hip hop, electronic music, and anything with a strong bass line. Will jumped around in the womb to soul music, especially with female vocals.

Now they're branching out even more. I'll tell a story about Nate later this week, but Will took the music spotlight this week.

In my ongoing efforts to keep the kids as far away from children's music as possible, I've been playing different kinds of music for them at mealtimes. One day, it was time to try a little second wave ska. When Will heard "I Just Can't Stop It" by the English Beat, he went nuts. While he's never seen such a dance, the kid started skanking. When each song ended, he looked at the stereo and said, "more, more." And when the next song would start, he would squeal with delight.

Efforts to document this have been difficult, as getting out a camera immediately alters any scene in our home. So I tried to get a short video of Will dancing when he was strapped into his highchair. It was only marginally successful. The 30 second clip below features shaky camera work as I tried to coax Will into dancing, then an explicit plea for him to do so. In the end there's about 10 seconds worth of dancing.

But still, it's something. And every day I've got him and his brother listening to the English Beat is one more day that they haven't had to listen to those damn Wiggles.