American Idol 2021

Jonathan has seen bits and snippets of this season's American Idol. Once daylight savings time started, it became a little harder to get him in bed starting at seven o'clock. (I tried, but after our snuggle he looked at me and said "It's still light out, Mommy.") So every now and then he's caught the first two or three performances.

He really liked Sanjaya, whom he dubbed "the orange man." (I knew Sanjaya was leaving when Jonathan wandered off, bored, during his last performance.) He's not fond of the divas or their power ballads - Jonathan likes a tune you can dance to. Since all the clips are available on YouTube, I thought it would be fun to show him some of the highlights.

Well, Jonathan loves them. He's especially fond of the beatboxing Blake and his version of "You Give Love a Bad Name." Jonathan calls the beatboxing "making the noise" and he asks me again and again during the first minute when the man will make the noise. When the bridge comes, Jonathan dances and tries his own version, saying "uhn shh shh uhn." At the end, when Blake is clapping his hands over his head like he's doing jumping jacks, Jonathan tries to copy him. Unfortunately, his arms are too short, and he winds up smacking the sides of his head repeatedly. It doesn't look quite as cool.

Still, Jonathan's determined to be a rock star. He likes to sit on the diaper box, hold the baby monitor in front of his mouth, and sing the ABC song. Yesterday, he picked up his popper, slung it across his hips, and told me it was his guitar. And he's seen Sanjaya's version of "Bathwater," featuring the infamous ponyhawk, about thirty times. He's starting to sing along, about half a measure behind, the same way he recited "Olivia" as he was memorizing it. His solo can't be far behind.

Alex is still sleeping well, but is a little cranky with what appears to be teething. Like Jonathan, he's started getting teeth before he's developed the means of getting anything to his mouth for relief. So once again, we're all offering our knuckles to be gnawed on.