Deklan B Rappin'

Deklan has always been a music lover. He was soothed by Nick's guitar from the day he was born and whenever he heard it, his attention was focused on it and hearing his dad sing to him. His dancing skills became evident as soon as he could stand up and spin around, bouncing and waving his arms to Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys. (That's the only way I got him to smile and pose for his Halloween picture as Dopey at 18 months.)

Baby Einstein was one of his best friends and he soon favored the video that taught all about orchestra and instruments. He knew more about which instruments were which than I did. He used his imagination and would come up with different household objects to use as trumpets, saxophones, clarinets, flutes, trombones, and especially drums....bass drums, snare drums, tympani drums...he knew them all and would find appropriate looking, and sounding items for each. Last Christmas his only desire from Santa was for a drum set- WITH A SYMBOL! It was hard not to urge Santa to forget about drums and deliver a much quieter toy. But this being the child's main, and almost only interest made the request of drums hard to deny. Santa pulled through. Deklan got a drum set. (Which of course went on sale as soon as Christmas was over...) He loves his drum set and quickly learned to play along to his favorite artist, Taylor "Swiffs".

There's his music background. Now for the present. This child is quite technilogically savy. (He gets that from his Mom.) He has been playing computer games for years, navigating his way around Nickelodeon's site and using the mouse and keyboard better than his Dad. (Not the toughest competition.) We were reluctant to allow him to use the iPod Touch when he was 3. But after giving him a practice run on Uncle Luke's Touch one day, we realized it was great for keeping his attention in long car trips, and he handled it with ease. (Thanks Luke ;o) He now has more apps downloaded for him (and his sister) on there than I do. But more important than the games to him, is all the music. He's never been one to love toddler songs and kids singing and much prefers the real thing; rock n'roll, hip-hop, country...the list goes on. He swipes his finger along and finds his favorite songs in seconds and knows all the words (he thinks.)

Here's the predicament....he currently LOVES Eminem, Britney Spears, and Taio Cruz to name a few. These artists obviously don't record their music with 4 year olds in mind. Even the "clean" version of Taio Cruz's "Sexy Bitch" is "Sexy Chic"....still not something he should be singing....but he does. In the last week, besides the usual conversations I usually have with him, most of the words I heard coming out of his mouth consisted of singing"...just gonna stand there and watch me burn, but it's alright because I like the way it hurts..." and "baby, baby have you seen Amy tonight...is she in the bathroom...is she smokin' up outside..." "boom boom pow" and "we gonna rock this club, we gonna go all night, we gonna light it up like it dyno-mite..." I explained how some of these songs say naughty words and he cannot repeat them, or even sing along, but he explains he really likes the beat of the song. The only time so far that I have heard anything naughty come out of his mouth, from these songs, is when he said "Mom, that guy says 'shit'. But don't worry, I won't say that, because that is shitty." You can blame Eminmen...or his mother for that one.

So....do I deprive the cute, little 4 year old from these "awesome" songs that he loves? Do I shut down the fist-pumping from the high-back booster seat in the back? He tells me he's going to be an astronaut or a rock star when he gets big. I think searching for his songs on the iPod is actually improving his reading skills...he can already pick out the words 'Eminem', and Sexy Chic (the "forbidden" one) in the play lists.

No matter what becomes of Deklan's love of music or his future potty-mouth, one thing is for sure: he is a tough critic. After looking at Britney's album cover picture on the iPod while listening to one of her songs, he stated "Mom she sure is beautiful......but her voice sounds like a bug."