Punk Rock Baby

I had full transportation rights to E today. K left a little earlier this morning and left me in charge of making sure the runt got to and from daycare this morning.

I would make a joke about him making it there in one piece, but bloody, except that I do this kind of thing all of the time and I get a little pissed off when people make comments about me babysitting when I'm taking care of the kid by myself. I'm the child's freaking father! Why the hell wouldn't I be watching him when K can't?

That being said, I do let K do as much of the work as I can. I don't like giving him a bath (as much from my worries about giving him an ear infection from being too lazy to sit there and let him play in the tub after a 45 second scrub down. I'm not sure why, but I get really stressed out about the idea of being in charge of the bath). I also have lately let her do most of the tucking in duties, but that's actually because I'm working on masters classes during that time usually. Before my classes started, we split this chore evenly. Despite being slightly manly in my attitude toward parenting, I'm actually a very active father, the only one I ever see at daycare. I honestly wonder if some of the other mothers think I'm a closeted homosexual. I've heard that the gays are really good with kids, you know? What kind of real man does any child-rearing work besides teaching them how to play sports?

Except the pedophiles. They do plenty of child rearing, but not the kind I'm talking about.

Anyway, I had my mp3 player plugged into the car sound system today and was blasting a mix of The Gits, TV on the Radio, Beirut, Social Distortion, and The Killers, the latter being a bit of a guilty pleasure. Apparently E really likes this type of music. He spent both the trip to daycare and back home today swaying in time to the music or waving his hand in the air like a tiny blonde conductor. This shouldn't be all that surprising, I guess. I've never allowed K to play kids' music in the car while I'm in it and we rarely drive apart. To be fair to her, she's never asked to play kids music in the car, but I have caught her tuning the TV to the kids songs Sirius station. Basically almost all of E's musical exposure has been with the music that I like. K doesn't care as much about music as I do, so my tastes predominate in what we play in the car. E's two lullabies are "Twin Falls" by Built to Spill and "Malaika," a Swahili folk song (click the link to listen to a version of the song). K may sing some more traditional songs, but I don't. Mainly because I don't know any and I don't see the point in learning them now.

So what music does E like the best? He likes the punk with its driving beat and uptempo sound and perhaps its simplicity. He's been head banging a lot lately, although usually not when there's any music playing. Perhaps he has his father's really good internal stereo. He also really dug The Killers today, probably again for the strong beat. He's a really big fan of KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" as well, which is one of K's contributions, but someone I definitely don't oppose, either.

And if you follow non-Top 40 music at all, I'm sure you've already heard about TV on the Radio. Apparently they're all the rage with the music critics right now. Dear Science isn't a bad album, but what I'm more impressed with is Beirut at the moment. I haven't listened to more than a handful of songs, but the orchestral quality of the decidedly indie-pop songs is really appealing to me. Try "Elephant Gun" for a sample if you don't have time to explore on your own.