The little clip we taped after the Martino TV show is up!
And, don’t forget to enter to win these products over at Mile High Mamas!
Monthly Archive for March, 2010
Page 2 of 3
Last night, Claire had a boy staying overnight in her room. Although they were really well-behaved, I eventually had to tell them to stop giggling and whispering, and then I took away the camera.
Oh, who am I kidding? My sanity has been gone for a while…
I don’t know what it is about Daylight Saving Time that I despise more: going to bed earlier or getting up earlier. The combination of the two just throws us all for a loop.
Last night, Claire says she’s not tired, and she doesn’t understand why she has to go to bed.
Neither do I.
This morning, Claire says she’s still tired, and she doesn’t understand why she has to get up.
Neither do I.
Here’s to Daylight Saving Time…helping mothers and daughters find common ground.
I suppose it’s too late to move to Arizona…
“Momma, sing me this song,” Claire says.
She often asks me to sing songs for her, and I try my best. Sometimes, I’m really good at it…and other times, not so much.
“Which one, sweetie?” I ask, wondering what it will be this time. Beyonce? Oasis? Man in a Box? Lump? What. Anything is possible.
“Hallaline a chanchaline,” she says.
“Halla what?” I ask.
This isn’t the first time she’s requested this song. The other day, she asked me to sing this song, and I couldn’t figure it out. When we’re not trapped in the car, I can pull them up on my iTunes or Youtube if I don’t know how they go. As this wasn’t an option at the moment, I was able to distract her by singing a different song. She forgot all about her original song request, and so I had I…until now.
“Hallaline a chanchaline,” she says again. “You know, the one on Rock Band.”
That doesn’t really narrow it down. We have a lot of songs on Rock Band.
“Say it again,” I coax her. She’s usually really good at pronouncing words, and there are very few times when I don’t understand her.
“HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE,” she says, exasperated. “It goes, ‘Hallaline a chanchaline. Hallaline a chancheline. Wouldya like time. Wouldya like time.’ Ya know? Come on, Momma. SING IT.”
Uhh… “Hallaline a chanchaline” I sing, matching her tune.
“No, sing ALL of it,” she says. My trick hadn’t worked.
The tune and the words are distorted as they travel from her four-year old brain out her mouth, but she sings it the same way every time. Now, she’s signing it over and over, the exact same way every time, hoping that I’ll finally understand it.
I don’t.
Soon she finds that singing it louder doesn’t help me figure it out any quicker.
“Okay, you said it’s on Rock Band. Which one? The first one or the second one?” I ask. Maybe she’ll give me a clue.
“The second one. Duh! HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE! HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE! WOULDYA LIKE TIME. WOULDYA LIKE TIME.”
“Okay, calm down. We’ll figure it out. Just give me a second,” I say as I’m wracking my brain. I love puzzles. I’m good at puzzles. Most normal, sane people would be amazed at some of the things I figure out, even on the smallest of clues.
Normally, I can Name That Tune in two notes, Jim, or knock Twisted Lyrics for 1,000 out of the park, Alex.
But not this time.
Hallaline a chanchaline? Wouldya like time? The second part (that she’s now shouting) sounds vaguely familiar.
“Rock Band 2?” I say, stalling.
“YES,” she says. “HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE! ON ROCK BAND TWO! It’s the one where the cars are racing, and then they crash! And he’s bald! The guy singer. He’s a man! He’s singing! And he’s bald! And the drummer guy is drumming! And they crash! But they keep singing! And they go whhhhhoaaaa, and they fly! And they keep singing!” She’s showing all the animation for this, of course.
She’s describing the opening song/animation of Rock Band 2, so I know we’re on the right track.
“Okay, so it’s on Rock Band 2,” I say. “Is it the song they sing during that opening or is it on into the game?”
“HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE!” she sings again. “They play it! Hallaline a chanchaline. Wouldya like time. Wouldya like time.”
Luckily, we’re at home, close to youtube. I could go downstairs and get Rock Band all set up to see exactly what the opening song is, but I’m sure I can find it online. I can picture the opening in my mind, but the song totally escapes me, what with all the Hallaline a chanchaline being shouted at me.
Sure enough, we find it, and she’s thrilled!
“THAT’S IT!” she screams as Cheap Trick‘s, Hello There starts playing. “HALLALINE A CHANCHALINE!”
Want the translation? Hallaline a chanchaline is “Hello there ladies and gentlemen,” and Wouldya like time actually sounds exactly like that to me, but is technically, “Would you like to.” (As in “Would you like to do do a number with me? Would you like to do a number with me? Would you like to? Would you like to?”)
So, the mystery is solved. We listened to the song a few times, and then I shut youtube and started to go about my day.
“Sing me a song,” she says.
“Okay, sweetie. What would you like me to sing?” How about Lump, I think to myself. I love singing that song, and I know the tune and all the words by heart.
“Hallaline a chanchaline!” she says with a smile.
At about this time last night, Claire was begging to put her coat on RIGHT NOW and leave RIGHT NOW. Time was creeping by so slowly that it was painful for both of us.
What was going on last night?
Thanks to Mile High Mamas, I had four free tickets to Disney On Ice! Claire and I asked one of our friends and her daughter to go with us, and none of us could wait. (Daddy was traveling on business and did a good job of pretending not to care that he wasn’t invited to our Disney Adventure.) 
It was magical.
It was spell-binding.
How could it not be? It was Disney.
The seats we had were excellent, and Claire was enthralled.
I’m not sure which was more magical for me…the show or watching Claire’s face as she saw all the magic unfold in front of her.
Now, if I could just get the songs out of my head…
Click here to read the review AND for a chance to WIN A FREE copy!
I’ve posted over at Mile High Mamas today! Go check it out!
We have some longtime out-of-state friends coming to stay with us, and the last time they were here was March 2006.
Imagine my delight in looking at the photos from that month…four years ago now.
Look at my smiley girl!
Has it really been four years!?
Well, Birthday Week is officially over! I had a fantastic week, and our trip to Crested Butte was phenomenal. You can expect some more posts about that.
In the meantime, here is a little recap of the highlights:
- We LOVE roadtrippin’, and the weather was perfect for the drive down. The views from here to there are some of my favorite in the whole entire state of Colorado. We had dry roads, blue skies, white-capped mountains. It doesn’t get much better than that.
- I also got to eat an entire meal while chatting nicely with my husband. Neither one of us were interrupted, and we almost weren’t sure what to do with ourselves. AND, I got to go to the bathroom when I wanted to. It’s the little things really…
- When I booked the room at the B&B in Crested Butte (more on that later!), I’d struggled with justifying the more costly room with the claw-foot tub and the private balcony. Since we were splurging on other things, I decided to go with a more modest, yet awesome room. When we got there, we found out we’d been upgraded…FOR FREE…to the room that I’d really wanted. Our mountain getaway was off to a fabulous start!
- Claire did such a great job without us that she didn’t even care to talk to us on the phone. Grandma made her.
- I did great without being around Claire! Truth be told, I almost cried when she didn’t want to talk to me on the phone, but I got over it. Plus, Grandma made her.
- My husband had a fabulous time skiing, and the total rejuvenation package I did at the spa was beyond words.
- I was able to totally immerse myself in writing my book, and I made real progress. Just thinking about that makes me giddy, and I can’t wait to get more written. Writing in the midst of the real world won’t be the same as writing in seclusion, but the momentum is there, and I can’t wait to harness it!
- We found out that the awesome sushi restaurant in town was having all you could eat sushi on my birthday. It was fate.
- At one point, I’d realized that four of my last five meals had included bacon. There isn’t this much bacon in the real world. Who needs the real world?
- I forced my husband to go to a movie on the weekend it opened, which violates numerous codes and treaties. However, seeing Alice in Wonderland in IMAX 3D was worth it! …and he only whined for a little bit. I dare say we liked it better than Avatar, which we didn’t think would be possible.
- Today, the built-in-babysitters grandparents left, so Claire and I had a full day at the pool scheduled to keep her mind off of that. We had lessons in the morning and then swam with various other people afterwards. We were there for hours. We were both so exhausted that when we got home, we BOTH took a 3-hour nap.
I realize that the real world is relatively baconless and only 3D at times, but I’d like to petition the Naps Department to see if that part can stick around for awhile.
Despite evidence to the contrary, it is good to be back!
More later!
Did you see the review I posted on Mile High Mamas, the Denver Post‘s parenting blog? It’s a really cool product…and we’re also running a contest to WIN one for yourself!
We’ll be back on Monday with an update from our trip! Have a great weekend!
Happy Birthday to me!
I was born on the only command of the year: March Forth!
Fourth.
Forth.
Get it?
No, I haven’t taken things to Literally on my birthday…it’s nowhere near Crested Butte!
I hope you have a fabulous day. I know I will!
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