Come on Cat, Squooshy Cat

My youngest sister is a beautiful singer. She's always been the most musically talented (okay, the only musically talented) one in my family. She's been singing since she could talk. She had a remarkable ability to memorize all the lyrics to songs, even at a very young age. Well, sort of. She has also been notorious for seriously misunderstanding the lyrics, and creating some strange versions of her own. One of her lyric mix-ups has become notorious in my family, and we've repeated it for years. The lyrics she sang, at about 2 or 3 years old were "Come on Cat, Squooshy Cat." No one could figure out what on earth she was singing, until one day she sang along with the song from which she derived the lyrics. It was a song by the Beach Boys that was popular in the mid 80's called "Let's Cruise." (It was on the same album as Kokomo, if you remember that one.) So, she sang "Come on cat, squooshy cat". . .the actual lyrics are "Come on, let's cruise, you've got," (nothing to lose. . .) We have been laughing about it ever since. I mean, what kind of brain hears a pop song and thinks "Come on cat, squooshy cat" is a viable option?

Well, apparently, I have a child with the same kind of brain. My #2 child, Nick, seems very musically inclined. He has also been able to pick up lyrics to songs since he was about 2 years old. He sings all the time, he loves music. He also knows the theme songs to his favorite shows, and the jingles to commercials (the ones aired frequently on Nickelodeon.) I particularly love it when I catch him singing pop songs, like recently I heard him singing a new Rihanna song, the "yea, yea, yea it's so hard, oooh yea, yea, yea it's so hard." Well, like my musically inclined sister, he is also notorious for misunderstanding lyrics. One of his famous songs, he calls "Po, po, Nay, nay." It is derived from the song "Bombs over Baghdad", by Outkast. How he got "Po, po, Nay, nay" from "Bombs over Baghdad" I will never know. But anyway, he's got a new one that has me laughing still.

Nick got a penguin toy in his happy meal yesterday, so he started asking for the penguin song. Huh? What's the penguin song? I asked him to sing part of it, and he sings "Should I just keep chasing penguins. . ." If you haven't guessed yet, it is the song "Chasing Pavements" by Adele. I've been listening to that CD regularly for the past year, and my kids love to sing along. I didn't realize, until last night, that he thought it was "Chasing Penguins." Oh, but it gets better. So, I laugh and say, "the song says chasing pavements." So, he asks to hear the chorus again. He listens a couple times, and then says, "Mom it isn't chasing penguins, it is chasing payments." I say, "No, actually it's chasing pave-ments", emphasizing the v. No, he looks at me like I'm the idiot, and shakes his head and very condescendingly enunciates "CHASING PAYMENTS." End of discussion. He will not believe it to be any different.

So, now I laugh, because as I listened to it as "Chasing Payments" and it became really hilarious to me, because I've decided that it is the ballad of a discouraged bill collector. "Ohhhh, ohhh, should I give up? Or should I just keep chasing payments? Even if it leads nowhere. . ." It's also really fun if you put in the words, "chasing penguins." Like a really depressed antarctic wildlife researcher:

"Ohhh, ohhh, should I give up, or should I just keep chasing penguins? Even if it leads nowhere. Or would it be a waste, even if I knew my place, should I leave it there?"

Oh, I love it. Thank you, Nick for making me laugh. His song lyrics are way better than his compliments--(ie. I only love you when you're wearing make-up.) And I have to post a random picture of this little character, because he is so darn cute and frequently hilarious.

Nick, and his first ever self-portrait.