Is That the Way Love Goes?

Our whole family loves music. And we truly like pretty much all varieties. I don't consider Rap music at all, and no I don't like it. Other than that, we like it all and we listen to it all. All four of us have Ipods and though they are all loaded with different music there are certainly common threads. Third Day, for example, can be found on all four. Jimmy Buffet can as well. Everyone of us has some Willie on there, though I am sure we didn't all chose the same songs.

We all lean towards Southern Rock. Duncan loves Western Swing and Casey tends to like all the Texas artists. I have a thing for 80's Country and Kelly Willis. Caroline is into the Disney artists of right now- High School Musical kids, Aly & AJ, that type of stuff.

Music plays a prominent role in our lives. In fact, the first thing Casey bought for Duncan was a portable CD player to play in his crib at the hospital. He bought those Baby Learning Cd's with Mozart, Bach, Chopin and etc. And late at night, he would take those out and play John Conlee or Merle Haggard to Duncan while he slept. And you people thought we might not be real rednecks. I am not sure what type of "programming" that it is but I think it took.

Anyway, our kids have heard the likes of Mozart mixed right in with Patsy Cline or Elton John or Waylon Jennings. I guess it never occurred to us that it all didn't go together.

So, when Caroline was 2 I signed her up for Kindermusic classes at a local church. I was pregnant and thought this would be a fun bonding experience for us. And it was fun. She loved it. And I was really enjoying going with her but then life got in the way, as it always seems to. I needed to rest as much as possible as my blood pressure was getting out of hand. Casey decided he could go to the last couple of classes with her. This would be interesting.

Not that I thought he wasn't capable. I knew he was capable. He's capable of running a very successful business and he is a great Dad. But c'mon, Casey in Kindermusic. You gotta admit, it's a little bit funny.

So, I get her all ready to go to the last class and off they go. When they return Caroline is just as pleased as ever. Casey has a strange look on his face. What happened? I can tell he doesn't really want to tell me. Seems the teacher asked all the children to go around the circle one at a time and name their favorite song and then the whole group would sing it. So they began this with children picking songs like Jesus Loves Me, The Wheels on the Bus, etc. Which is exactly what you would expect from 2 year olds, right? Not mine. She chose something a little different. When asked her favorite song, what did Caroline say? She said "Merle Haggard". What she meant was a duet between Merle Haggard and Jewel singing "That's the Way Love Goes". And for the record, it was Caroline's favorite song at the time.

I probably didn't help her out much by singing Please Come to Boston to her every night for the first couple years of her life. She could mouth the words with me by the time she was 18 months old. What can I say? I guess my children are just musically gifted.