Mixmaster Drake
When my two-year-old son Drake woke from his nap this afternoon, I heard him whimpering, with distress in his voice, “Where’s ’something unintelligible that might have been Mom’?” I rushed up to get him out of bed, and found what he was crying for was his new favorite item, the remote control.
We began to let Drake have the remote for the CD changer, and we may have created a monster. When he wakes in the morning or from his nap, he either demands the remote control or to hear his favorite song, which he calls “Hop-Hop”, more accurately The Hoppity Song by John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting, off Drake’s favorite CD For the Kids. Drake has memorized the number of each track of this CD, and has learned how to locate this CD in the changer, as long as we leave it in slot #3. If we ask him to put in a certain song, he can program it. If song number X comes up on another CD, he’ll remark sadly, “Not the X song,” meaning not that song number from For the Kids. When we read Hippos Go Berserk by Sandra Boynton the other day, not only was he naming the numbers, but he recited the name of the corresponding For the Kids song. Also, he’s picking up the names of the other artists we have in our changer, so he’ll announce excitedly with a lisp, “It’s DJ Shadow!”, “It’s Bob Mould!”, “It’s Christmas!”, or “It’s Dog Train!”, which is the new book/CD by Sandra Boynton and friends.
While this is adorable, there is one major problem. Drake does not feel compelled to listen to the entire song, and will often play a song’s first few seconds over and over. I found this particularly distressing on a Christmas mix CD from a friend. I wanted to hear Low’s Just Like Christmas. Drake, however, would only listen to the first 15 seconds before re-starting the song or switching to another one. Over and again I’d hear, “On our way from Stockholm….” and then no more. So we’re encouraging Drake to listen to the entire song, with only sporadic luck thus far.
January 5th, 2006 at 1:35 pm
As the mother of 4 kids (one who is autistic and can do that repeat thing for HOURS), I have advice: do yourself a favor and get a small, portable cd player for you kid. We now have 2, $10 each, and the kids can repeat to their hearts content in the other room. Also, cheap headphones with a long chord can be a mom’s best friend if you don’t trust Drake in the other room by himself. This very music habit was how my little autistic guy taught himself how to read when he was three. Maybe while you’re nursing the new baby Drake can just teach himself how to read?
January 12th, 2006 at 1:04 pm
You’re not the first mom who’s suggested this, and it is on the list for if/when him playing with our stereo gets out of hand. Our main floor is really one big room, though, so there’s really no escaping unless one goes to the basement or upstairs where the bedrooms are, and I’m trying to keep those dedicated to sleep, not play, and have thus far succeeded. But headphones are a great idea, though I wonder if he’d wear them.