Paul Huff (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} phuff) wrote,@ 2007-10-13 23:47:00 |
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The Surreal Old McDonald.
So, lately Caleb and I have been doing a little ditty I like to call, "The Surreal Old McDonald."*. It's not surreal as in involving lame, old-school B-list celebrities but surreal as in surrealism. Like the art movement.
Let me tell you how it goes: I start singing, "Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o. And on that farm he had a ___" and I wait. This is the part where Caleb chimes in. When we first started singing our little chantey together, at this point Caleb would always say, "duck." No matter how many times we'd sung the song with his participation substituting animals in, he loved to put the duck in there. He was, apparently, enamored with Old McDonald's ducks. So the song went a little something like this:
Me (singing): Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o. And on that farm he had a....
Caleb: Guh [Caleb's word for duck]
Me (singing): Ee-i-ee-i-o.
Me (not singing): What does a duck say?
Caleb: Gah Gah Gah! [Caleb's word for quack quack quack]
Me (singing): With a quack quack here, and a quack quack there, ....
You get the idea. Pretty standard stuff. Eventually we convinced him to start substituting in cow, or doggy, or whatever. Not too shabby, I thought. Our son is participating in singing!
Lately, however, Caleb's true artistic genius has come out. Tired of that old standby the duck, or even its slightly more edgy successor, the cow, Caleb has begun a bold new Old McDonald movement. This is an example of how the song now goes:
Me (singing): Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o. And on that farm he had a....
Caleb: Ba ba dra ba. [Not Caleb's word for anything.]
Me (singing): Ee-i-ee-i-o.
Me (not singing): What does a "Ba ba dra ba" say?
Caleb (exhaling quickly, with his lips pressed together tightly): Ffff.
Me (singing): With a ffff ffff here, and a ffff ffff there, ....
Other examples of animals of whom Caleb thinks Old McDonald is an expert caretaker include: Ssssss (which sometimes says "ffff" also, but often says a shortened version of it's own name, just an "ss"), ghra, also likes to make some of those fricative noises, apparently, and the loveable and incredibly huggable, (guttural h, here) hah, which is a big fan of making another guttural noise as it's primary means of intra-species communication.
How many animal names does Caleb know, you ask? More than 5. How many animal noises does Caleb know, you ask? More than 10. (Pandas say, "Bamboo, please." Bet you didn't know that, now, did you?) However, Caleb doesn't choose any of these, because, well, folks, that would be, well, too realistic for such an artiste.
*(I only have called it "The Surreal Old McDonald" in my head up until now, but I've been doing that for a few days now....)
So, lately Caleb and I have been doing a little ditty I like to call, "The Surreal Old McDonald."*. It's not surreal as in involving lame, old-school B-list celebrities but surreal as in surrealism. Like the art movement.
Let me tell you how it goes: I start singing, "Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o. And on that farm he had a ___" and I wait. This is the part where Caleb chimes in. When we first started singing our little chantey together, at this point Caleb would always say, "duck." No matter how many times we'd sung the song with his participation substituting animals in, he loved to put the duck in there. He was, apparently, enamored with Old McDonald's ducks. So the song went a little something like this:
Me (singing): Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o. And on that farm he had a....
Caleb: Guh [Caleb's word for duck]
Me (singing): Ee-i-ee-i-o.
Me (not singing): What does a duck say?
Caleb: Gah Gah Gah! [Caleb's word for quack quack quack]
Me (singing): With a quack quack here, and a quack quack there, ....
You get the idea. Pretty standard stuff. Eventually we convinced him to start substituting in cow, or doggy, or whatever. Not too shabby, I thought. Our son is participating in singing!
Lately, however, Caleb's true artistic genius has come out. Tired of that old standby the duck, or even its slightly more edgy successor, the cow, Caleb has begun a bold new Old McDonald movement. This is an example of how the song now goes:
Me (singing): Old McDonald had a farm, ee-i-ee-i-o. And on that farm he had a....
Caleb: Ba ba dra ba. [Not Caleb's word for anything.]
Me (singing): Ee-i-ee-i-o.
Me (not singing): What does a "Ba ba dra ba" say?
Caleb (exhaling quickly, with his lips pressed together tightly): Ffff.
Me (singing): With a ffff ffff here, and a ffff ffff there, ....
Other examples of animals of whom Caleb thinks Old McDonald is an expert caretaker include: Ssssss (which sometimes says "ffff" also, but often says a shortened version of it's own name, just an "ss"), ghra, also likes to make some of those fricative noises, apparently, and the loveable and incredibly huggable, (guttural h, here) hah, which is a big fan of making another guttural noise as it's primary means of intra-species communication.
How many animal names does Caleb know, you ask? More than 5. How many animal noises does Caleb know, you ask? More than 10. (Pandas say, "Bamboo, please." Bet you didn't know that, now, did you?) However, Caleb doesn't choose any of these, because, well, folks, that would be, well, too realistic for such an artiste.
*(I only have called it "The Surreal Old McDonald" in my head up until now, but I've been doing that for a few days now....)
