Merry Christmas

I finished cleaning up the kitchen after dinner last night, and went to sit on the couch relax with a little Pocket Frogs. Alex was finishing up the last ten minutes or so of Sesame Street, Matt was surfing his RSS feeds and/or playing Kingdom Rush, and Penny was playing upstairs.

Suddenly, she came down to lean over to railing. "Mom! Mom! Can you hear it?"

My allergies have been acting up and the TV is running, so no, I can't hear much of anything. "What is it, sweetie?"

"Can't you hear? My music!"

"Oh, are you listening to your CD player?"

She nodded excitedly, eyes bright.

"That's awesome, hon. What are you listening to?"

She says the name like she's name-dropping at the door of the most exclusive club in New York, casual, and yet with an undertone of Yeah, check me out! "We Own the Night."

"Is that your Selena Gomez CD?"

"Yeah." So, so casual and cool.

"Awesome, sweetie. Glad you're enjoying your music."

She disappears back upstairs. Alex's show ends and we turn off the TV, and then I can hear it, the music pulsing down the stairs. And more than that, I could hear her belting out the chorus in true Rock Band style.

A minute later, she's back, looking even more excited. "Mom!!"

"What, honey?"

She holds up her Kids Rock CD. "I love these songs! These are my favorites!" Well, that's why Matt and I Santa got it for her.

"Great! I'm so glad you like them!"

I went upstairs a few minutes later to peek in on her and found her sitting on the bed, reading through the lyric book from the Selena Gomez CD, the player cranked up to about eight. Alex, who'd accompanied me up the stairs, said, "It's too loud! I'm going back downstairs!" I'm not sure Penny even noticed his presence.

Sometimes, it takes her a little while to warm up to things. But when she does, she goes all out.