Chalk and Cheese Chronicles

Doing the Happy Dance in Crocs

Enjoy this little video made by 4-year-old Chalk Boy whose chubby hand can be seen in the first few frames. My boys are wearing their beloved Crocs while the other shoes belong to our good friends from preschool Benny and Andrew, who are brothers. I love the video's perspective! Music by They Might Be Giants.

A Boy With Taiko Dreams

Ei Ya Sa Ta Ya Sa!

Ei Ya Sa Ta Ya Sa!

Ei...Ya...Sa! Don! Don! Don! Don! Don! Don!

Omiyage, how can we forget you? You are our taiko souvenir. For months and months, we'd run around shouting out this phrase like maniacs. Sometimes we'd have our bachis (drum sticks) in hand which Grandpa made for us from dowels he found at Home Depot. Sometimes, we were forced to air drum, like we did that time at the Farmer's Market when we were bored. My brother even air drummed while doing the taiko stance, which is the way you stand when you bang a taiko drum, with one leg straight and the other one bent. People probably looked at him funny, but he didn't care. Sometimes we would beg our mom to pop in our taiko DVD and try to copy everything we saw. My brother would say, "Today, I'm Maz" but I usually tried to be Michelle even though I'm a boy.

It's not always easy trying to be a taiko drummer when you're only three years old. Toy stores just don't sell taiko drums. We've smashed through all of our toy drums. But we were lucky to inherit our Uncle Russ's old taiko drum which he told our mom he'd made out of a wooden salad bowl. We think it's super neat, but wish we had larger drums like the ones we see the real taiko drummers play. So sometimes we have to improvise, dumping over our two big, round bins of toys just so we can use the bin. This drives our mother crazy, as she doesn't like to see the room a mess. We steal our little Ikea table chairs, turning them upside down so they can be drum stands. Did you know that Grandma's wooden plant stands make excellent taiko drum stands when turned upside down? They do!

Learn a new Mr. David song!

Check out my post on SV Moms.