Friday, December 03, 2004

Blog: This is a blog. Really.

OK, many people have been blogging for some time now. You are in fact now reading a blog, a.k.a. a web log. (Start your own right now!) Turns out that more people looked up "blog" in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary in 2004 than any other word, according to an NPR article I heard this morning. So we can probably all agree it's a darn good thing Merriam-Webster has finally decided to add it into their dictionary!

Next word they need to look up: Wiki or Google. They best look now, because these kind of tools might very well put them out of business.

Jingle Halloween song

Here is Cady's first published (and most original!) song: Jingle Halloween. It's an MP3 format file, so hopefully you won't have any problems playing it. The lyrics are, "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Halloween." Imagine Amelia's and my surprise when we originally heard it this morning!

In this recording, Peter is singing to a completely different drummer in the background. Hey, at least it's not me singing! We recorded this in the mayhem of getting our morning cereal, so it's not studio quality. To record this track, we used our recently aquired MP3/FM radio/USB flash drive/audio recorder gadget that is the size of two or three fingers.

Regarding Cady's original lyrics, I couldn't help but think of recent talk I've heard on NPR of greeting cards merging various holiday sentiments, such as Christmas and Hanukkah: "Merry Chrismukkah!", "Merry Mazeltov", and "Oy Joy." Even large card makers like Hallmark and American Greetings are making such cards. And here's Cady, at three years old, managing to neatly bridge seasons and thus going beyond the limited, tiny thoughts of those adults who think they're really breaking new cultural ground!

Grumpy old troll.

In the morning, as I get dressed, Cady will often take my belt and form a gate between the bed and wall, trapping me on my side of the bed. She stands guard at the gate and declares, "I'm a grumpy old troll". Where does she get these ideas?!