The 20-Minute Blog

Andrew has 20 minutes until it is time to begin dinner and he challenged himself to a 20-minute blog. All ideas, typing and editing was to be done in the allotted 20-minute time frame. The fun begins. . .

The misses and I are cooking steak tonight, a favorite of ours. In a strange way, I’ve been looking forward to this evening all day. Although, today has been pretty awesome! Let me explain.

Sweatpants. I have been in sweat pants all day, well all except for 90 minutes. There was a 90-minute stretch today I took Jadon out of the house to view some toys, in order to get a better idea what to buy for his birthday (April 7 for inquiring minds). Funny story, we ended up buying this incredible Hot Wheel toy that shoots out 6 Hot Wheels at once, really fast! Toys for kids today are the coolest. Everything I had as a kid, Jadon has – And then some! To think what my grandkids will have.

Jadon and I then went to Burger King; a favorite of his. In the midst of our extravagant lunch Jadon turned to the table next to us and said in the most adorable 2 year old voice, “Hi. I Jadon!” He then proceeded to dip his finger in ketchup.

I came back home, put Jadon to bed and enjoyed 5 quiet minutes with Ceila. We began watching How I Met Your Mother, which by the way is one of the funniest shows on TV today. The reason we had 5 quiet minutes is because Hailey decided to get incredibly vocal. When she wants to, that girl can display a deep set of lungs. I really enjoy getting a rise out of her; I will yell in a high pitch soprano voice, various combinations of baby babble, and she will reply back to me, fully comprehending what I said. I don’t even know what I said today, but Hailey was passionate about our conversation.

I can’t speak for anybody else, but I wonder what goes through my kids’ mind. Celia sings all kinds of songs to Jadon and Hailey. Over the last few months, Jadon has become so familiar with the songs that Celia is now a live karaoke machine to him. Jadon loves music but the short list of his songs would be:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

The Wheels on the Bus

ABC

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Baby Bumble Bee

Any Imagination Movers song – Playhouse Disney (A personal favorite of Hailey’s too.)

Music is everywhere we go. Music is in the supermarket, in the car, at restaurants, and on TV. It is practically impossible to avoid music in today’s society; even the simplest of jingles can get stuck in your head.

I have not been in the United States for 2 years now; consequently I have not seen a US commercial for 2 years. I remember many years back that FreeCreditReport.com had this jingle that instantly was in my mind for a week. It ended something like, “free credit report dot com baby.” It was so awesomely annoying, but it worked. Now I wonder this, are these songs stuck in Jadon’s head?

Does Jadon ever ride in the car, glance over at Hailey and begin nodding Twinkle Twinkle Little Star? I wonder if he ever approaches his Baby Sissy and says, “Man I can’t get the ABC’s out of my head!” Hailey shouts back, “Agghchg, zuhhuh pah duhhdaah,” which of course translates to, “You think that’s bad, that Mom and Dad don’t stop blowing on my belly!”

I guess what I’m saying is every time I hear a Gwen Stefani I think “I aint no holla back girl” for the rest of the day, easily. Do Jadon and Hailey fall asleep thinking the same thing? Are the Imagination Movers consuming their thoughts at night? "Everybody shout what's the big idea? Hey! What's the big idea!" I don’t see how the two of us could be any different.

And that friends is my 20 minutes.

Deuces!