Mason 365: Day 8

Chi-Baba Chi-Baba Chihuahua

Anyone besides me familiar with Chi-Baba, one of the best, cutest, most entertaining baby songs ever?

If not, either take your pick or *sigh* miss out and skip to the bottom:

Perry Como

Mini History Lesson: In 1947, this is what was considered "pop" music. It spent 12 weeks on the Billboard Chart and was #1 for a couple of them. In other semi-relevant news, Perry Como grew up in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania which is under an hour from where I grew up and a little under half an hour from our first house in Bethel Park. There's a big statue of him there and I remember them having at least one big parade in his honor.The "video" is just a picture of a pretty cool, ancient record player as, unfortunately (perhaps) Perry didn't quite make it to the age of MTV.

The Wiggles

Love The Wiggles. I can see myself "jamming" to them in the car long after my kids are grown up and listening to... well I'd rather not even think about what. Maybe I'll get lucky and pop music will have turned the old 180 back to 1947 by then, but somehow I doubt it. At any rate, some 60 years later, they seem to have also missed the MTV boat as the only Chi-Baba "video" I could find is an audio recording with a picture of the album cover. (Which could be helpful if you're in the market for a cute album for the kiddos. "Murray Had A Turtle" is equally close to our hearts.) 

So... looks like it's a listening day here at Cereal Mom Blog. Enjoy!

Having absolutely no knowledge of the Italian culture apart from what can be learned at Pizza Hut, I had originally assumed that the song was written in Italian. However, following some strenuous Internet research, I've become somewhat convinced that the song's official dialect is, in fact, complete and total Gibberish made up, to some degree, to emulate traditional Italian.
After all, Chi-Baba is supposed to be an Italian lullaby. And what more appropriate language to sing to a baby in than their native Gibberish?
Interesting Side Note: I once read that before babies start to specialize, their 'babble' actually comprises every sound from every known language spoken on earth. Almost makes me wish they didn't have to choose...
So the long and short moral here is: don't think about it too hard.
It's a weird but sweet song and my little ones love it.




Julianne was a bit later for school this morning than I had planned because just as we were about to head out the door, Logan decided that Mason was in desperate need of a driving buddy. His buddy of choice was this pet chihuahua that he can't sleep without.
Logan's previous nighttime companion was this adorable duck baby blankie that I got at Babies 'R Us on clearance when he was a couple of months old.

Duck had a good run, but last May we were garage saling (don't question my terminology - "garage saling" is clearly beyond reproach) at one of the neighbor's houses when he was displaced by "Doggie" the beanie chihuahua.
Shameful Admission: When Logan talked me into purchasing Doggie at the garage sale, I was definitely convinced he was a kangaroo.
He looks nothing like one.
Zach had to straighten me out.

I wanted to find a picture of Logan with his duck blankie, but sadly,
I couldn't, so I uploaded the two next best things:
A picture of Logan with a  duck...
June 2, 2009
18 months old

And a picture of the actual duck blankie
that I found on Google Images -
minus the name Jacob embroidered on it.
They don't offer those kinds of
services in the BRU Clearance section.

Now here's where the photography finally comes in to my "photography" project...

I didn't have a lot of time to take this shot and the flash didn't go off,

so I wasn't sure whether or not it would turn out to be out of focus.

It is, but just a little, so I thought I'd take the opportunity to try my hand at some actual photo editing technique.

Anyone have a favorite?

This is the original.

Cropped.

Black and White.

Logan was so excited to share his prized pet chihuahua with his baby brother.
When we returned from the preschool run, Logan actually got him to truly hold it in one hand, facing forward, so you could tell it was a chihuahua... or a kangaroo.
That's the first time I've seen him really grip on to something like he actually wanted it, rather than it just having been placed there between his two hands.
Logan's even been working on a sleep schedule so that Mason can have some sleepovers with Doggie and some of Logan's less acclaimed bed buddies as well. I tried to explain to him why that wasn't really necessary at Mason's age, but he insisted.
Logan doesn't give up bedtime with Doggie for anyone.
It's impossible to foresee what kind of relationship my boys will have with one another in the future,
but I hope that one day, Mason, you'll have a chance to read this and see just how much your big brother adored you :)
At 5, giving up your bed buddy is the ultimate sacrifice.



Oh, and in case anyone's interested, the "real" (if you consider Gibberish real) - maybe I should say 'correct.'
A-hem. Starting again. The correct spelling of the Chi-Baba lyrics is: "Chi-Baba Chi-Baba Chi-Wawa."
Ahhh. "Clever Girl..."