This post will make you jump jump

Lily likes to “hop” around the house.

I put the word “hop” in quotes because Lily’s version of hopping doesn’t involve her feet ever leaving the ground. She’ll squat down low on the floor and then thrust her body up while yelling “hop!” She looks more like a turkey than a frog. It’s pretty cute.

But I’ve been getting the sense that she knows her hopping isn’t quite right, so last week when she was “hopping” around the kitchen, I decided what she needed was some entertaining demonstrations.

So I introduced her to Jump Music.*

First, we watched kid-friendly Kriss Kross:

And what do you know, those Krazy Kids and their backwards clothes worked! She was mesmerized by the people jumping (and the random car with hydraulics) and even got her own feet off the ground (each time she jumped successfully, she looked at me in shock, a huge smile on her face). She wanted to watch more jump music so I found the lovely Pointer Sisters:

Again, she was transfixed. Every time the guy does the long jump she shouted out “look mama, he’s jumping!” But that still wasn’t enough Jump Music.

So I found House of Pain …

… which she refused to watch all the way through. I’m not sure what about “Jump Around” Lily dislikes … maybe the creepy funeral scene at the beginning of the video, maybe the bagpipes, maybe all the Celtics fans. Who knows? When this song started, she said “No mama, I want another Jump Music?” So it was back to Kriss Kross and Pointer Sisters.
Now, every day, several times a day, Lily asks for Jump Music. Although she doesn’t really jump while watching Jump Music, there’s a noticeable improvement in her jumping. She’s more sure of herself, less surprised when both feet leave the floor.

She has strong opinions about Jump Music, too. LIke I mentioned earlier, House of Pain didn’t go over well, nor did “Jump On It” (Fresh Prince version, of course). She likes to sing along with the Pointer Sisters and imitate some of their dance moves. And she’s made it very clear to me that I’m not to dance or sing during Jump Music, something that is very difficult for me because Jump Music, by nature, is very catchy.

“Mommy, please stop dancing,” she’ll say, every time I start busting moves Hugh Grant-style to “Jump (For My Love).” When I attempted to rap along with Mac Daddy (or was it Daddy Mac?) she told me to stop singing, too.

And then I introduced some new Jump Music, just to preserve my rapidly depleting sanity:

I wasn’t sure she’d go for it at first, since it was outside of the usual lineup and she’s nothing if not a creature of habit. But she watched it without complaint — maybe she was impressed by David Lee Roth’s amazing scissor kicks (I didn’t even know legs could do that!) or Eddie’s yellow zebra print coat or maybe it was that everyone’s gigantic, frizzy hair reminded her of me — suffice to say it’s now officially in the rotation. What’s not in the rotation, at least at Lily’s request, is me donning a side ponytail and bopping my head along with the song (technically, not dancing!)

“Mom. Don’t do that.”

The whole thing has left me a little depressed. I mean, she’s 2 and already I’m embarrassing her — and in the privacy of our own home at that. This doesn’t bode well for the future.

Now I’m having flashbacks of all the times I teased my mom for singing — which totally explains the day I found her sitting in the car in the driveway in front of our house, speakers blaring “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion, and belting out the chorus … “You always make fun of me when I sing in the house,” she told me when I asked why she was in the car.

I guess what goes around comes around. Sorry mom.

*No, this post was not at all a ploy to put all of Lily’s Jump Music on one easy-to-navigate-to page. Not at all.