Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Behind the Seed + Be Bop My Bunny Down

I'm fascinated by the alternate realities that my boys inhabit. Elliot is practicing being a socially graceful adult telling his grandpa, "Grandpa, I really like your coat. It looks good on you. I almost bought the same one when I was at Costco." He tells some really elaborate fictions about his daily life such as a 15 minute exposition about his adventures while walking to school all by himself (which is 2 miles away).

Asher sings two original songs besides standard repetoire of "dayenu", "habby birdday to me" and "I've been working on the railroad." One is called, "Behind the Seed" which goes "Be-hind the seeed, Be-hind the seeed, Be-hind the seeed" and the other one is "be bop, my bunny down, be bop, my bunny down, be bop, my bunny down." Both are repetitive, no melody except for the ennunciation of the drawn out vowels. I suppose it's insight into his alien universe. Where did it come from, what does it mean, what does it say about him? I asked Elliot to translate the songs for me. I always thought it was behind the sea and be bop my bunny drown. Aparently not. Is it nonsense? He's been singing them for a year now. I'll have to record them. I hope he remembers these songs in 5 years. He'll get a kick out of it.

I can see Elliot entering into the adult world. The other day he was reading The Week magazine in the bathroom, and he came out to show me a picture. "Who's this girl mom? Where is she from? I mean what country is she from? Or what continent, what city?" I said, "That's Scarlett Johansson, she's an actress. I think she's from the US. Why do you like her?" He balked, "What do you mean like her? I don't even know her. What movies was she in?" Then he wanted me to read the article about her, it was totally inappropriate all about her love life, so I read him an extremely abridged version about her nyc upbringing, tolerance and love of all types of people. Elliot said, "She sounds really nice mom."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

ok, keep it coming. I'm fascinated the alien universe of Asher and Elliot, too.