Oops, I Did It Again...

Yeah, that's right. I picked yet another wonderful birthday gift for Anna. Anna mentioned about 3 months ago that she wants to be a rock star when she grows up, and has shown some interest in playing the guitar (John made her one last year out of cardboard and string). We aren't seriously encouraging the whole rock star thing, but we are taking the opportunity to encourage playing an instrument, since neither of us play one and we really wish we did. Is that wrong?

Anyway, I saw a Barbie guitar on sale at Target and scooped it up. She almost discovered the dang thing, hidden under our coats in the cart, except we were able to explain the peeps and twangs by saying Nana's cell phone was going off, as Nana's cell phone is apt to do. *snort* Turns out that one of the little snot balls in her pre-school class has one, and brought it to show and tell one day. It's all Anna could talk about for a week, and inside I was screaming "YES, I rock!". Well... ok, I did say it out loud a few times to John, just to remind him that paying that much money for it was worth it. And the fact that I ROCK.

The guitar itself is pretty cool, John enjoyed playing with it for about 10 minutes and has decided that when he gets his guitar that he is going to learn how to play the riff that Anna can play on her fabulous new pink guitar.

The only problem, if you got the hint from the title of this post, is that one of the songs- and Anna's favorite song that comes with the "instrument of my destruction"- is, YUP you guessed it, Oops I Did It Again. Once again I have a song stuck in my head! Actually two, the instrument also plays She Will Be Loved by Maroon 5. Luckily, the agony is counteracted by the charming way in which she plays her guitar. It's so darn cute! I don't know how she has learned all the moves, but she looked so natural, and even channeled a little bit of Robert Palmer's video Addicted To Love.

Mostly she likes to sing along with those songs while she strums, the guitar is programmed to play complimentary chords. Sometimes though, she totally rocks the mike, singing in almost a punk style. Her lyrics don't make much sense but you got to give her credit for style. The last word of each line rhymes at least. Last night I had the joy of a one time performance(I hope), ala MTV Unplugged in my very own bathroom. While I took a shower. I was so excited and surprised I managed to cut myself shaving where I had previously thought impossible, on the back of my thigh. She patched me up though, with a Blue's Clues bandaid.

Her birthday party was fun, by the way. We managed to encourage our relatives to humiliate themselves by trying to drop clothes pins into a Mason jar by using their chin (or in my case, chins), for dollar store gifts. I was amused, and I am hoping to continue the humiliation next year.

Emma was surprisingly calm and laid back during the party, she enjoyed a good bout of people watching. She did perk up when it was time to open presents, she made sure to carefully inspect each and every gift for her sister, and even gave the wrapping paper a thorough once-over. She took a few steps and waved "bub-buh" to Melinda (John's cousin's wife), but not until she had actually walked out the door.

We are going to an indoor water park today to make up for the fact that neither John or I wanted to try to tackle a party with all 20 of her pre-school classmates. Anna is very excited, and so am I. Last year we took Anna as a special trip for the three of us 2 weeks before Em was born, so naturally I was unable to go on the water slides. Hopefully Emma will feel comfortable enough to hang out with daddy or Nana so that Anna and I can get some slide time. Should be fun!