I always knew that being an aunt would be cool, but I had no idea just how cool it would be.
Today I had some one-on-one time with my niece V, who turned three last November. We had the following conversation.
Me: I love wild girls. I'm a wild girl, and you're a wild girl.
V: Kiki burps and I burp!
Me: V dances and I dance!
V loves music, and she's got a really tight sense of rhythm, both in song and dance. So I brought up YouTube on the computer and we rocked out.
First up: "Hit the Road, Jack," vintage Ray Charles. V loves that song, although she's been known to sing "Hit the road, diaper!" instead of the original lyrics.
Then I tried a couple new (to her) songs on for size. She listened politely to Little Milton's "We're Gonna Make It," but only because I told her it was a song that she and I had enjoyed together when she was a tiny six-month-old baby.
"Piece of My Heart" by Janis Joplin seemed marginally acceptable; at least V moved to it. I thought she'd like it because, much like her aunt, both V and Janis have deep, husky smoker's voices. Or maybe whiskey drinker's voices. (Obviously only two of us actually do/did those things, but give V time.)
V seemed bored by both Def Leppard's "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and the Public Enemy/Anthrax version of "Bring the Noise," but didn't object. She then requested "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Ice -- I cringed but complied. She's got to have her own taste, after all, much as I might like to influence her.
I like to joke with my sister that she had my baby for me, because V and I are so much alike.
I can't wait to watch her as she continues to grow into her own fabulous self.
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Kiki,
ReplyDeleteAlthough it saddens & shocks that "Bring the Noise" did little to move her, clearly V has (unlike other members of her family, I might add: JMO, KM, CLH) impeccable taste as well as modesty by eschewing "Pour some sugar on me" by DL.
Equally important is her obvious sense of creative license. Although panned and ridiculed out of the business as Milli Vanilli were, V recognizes the avant-garde when she hears it with her choice of "Ice Ice Baby" (V's mom may back me up on this).
Whether or not the young mix master chooses to follow in the older/wiser/whiskey throated footsteps of her music mentor, I must congratulate the mentor on the well balanced mix of genre and historic referents that this musical walk down memory lane must have been to Vs fresh ears.
Yes indeed. Give her time. And may the gods have mercy on us all.