This Week in Jarrah

Unlike a lot of other kids I know, Jarrah is not that discerning about music. Oh, sure, she's fond of The Wiggles and a few juvenile standards, but--at nearly four--she's never developed a taste for "grown-up" music and tends to get cranky when I put on the radio.

Which is why the following incident was such a surprise. The three of us were road-tripping (probably to the OC to see my parents) and, as is our wont, listening to a podcast. One of David's favorites (I am also partial) is called Filmspotting, and it's basically two dudes talking about movies they've seen, only now they're famous and go to Sundance and host interviews with fancy directors. Anyway, in the vein of NPR, the segments have little song bridges in between, sometimes with lyrics related to the topic, sometimes not.

A song smidgen came on, about 30 seconds of bouncy pop tune with a sprightly female vocalist. If I had to compare it to something, it would be "My Boyfriend" by The Cucumbers, which I used to play on my show back in my radio DJ days in western Mass. But I'd never heard this one, and probably wouldn't have again except that as it faded out, Jarrah announced:

"Now I want to hear my song again."

"Your song?" I asked, momentarily confused. "Which is your song?"

"My song," she repeated firmly. "Play it again."

Figuring out it must be the podcast, we rewound the iPod and played it again. And again. And again. Finally, I had to explain that in the interest of Mommy and Daddy's heads not exploding, we needed to take a little break.

Over the weekend, David did some research and downloaded the song. Turns out it's called "This Isn't Farm Life" by the Brooklyn-based band Essex Green. He surprised Jarrah by playing the whole thing in the car when he drove her to school. She was thrilled, and now demands it every day.

Anyway, I guess I need to retract what I said about her not being very discerning about music. Turns out it's the opposite--she's crazy-picky and really knows what she likes. And what she likes is one particular song by Essex Green.

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Jarrah has recently gotten interested in family. Like, when all three of us are holding hands, she shouts, "We're a family!" She also tells everyone that she has "an imaginary brother and sister, and an imaginary dog." I have no problem with this, since it doesn't involve any work for me, and she never mentions real ones.

Last night at dinner, she suddenly said (as I've mentioned, there is a dearth of segues in her conversation lately):

"I'm going to have three children when I grow up."

David and I had no response for a moment. Then I managed:

"Three children? You're going to be busy."

"Their names will be Jack, and Jane, and Unintelligible Mumble. That makes three."

"Indeed it does. Tell me, will you adopt these kids?"

"Yes. They're going to be born in Australia."

"Australia! Just like Daddy!"

"Or Indira."

"Indira? Do you mean India?"

"Yes. They're going to be from India."

You heard it here first, Readers. Jarrah will be Mom to three Indian-Australian children. Hopefully, they won't be too busy to call and visit.