A Lasting Obsession

This morning I am not feeling too good. The last couple of days I've had quite a bit of sinus pressure and a little nasal congestion, accompanied by headaches. And it would seem that some time between last night and this morning some of my sinus issues decided to take a trip to my ears to wreak havoc. It doesn't help that something went wrong at the dentist the other day and in the area where they worked my gums are inflamed and really tender and sore (to which they suggested I gargle with warm water and salt a few times a day - which doesn't seem to do anything... except make my hurting mouth taste gross and it also makes me feel really thirsty but I can't drink anything because I just gargled the salt water and that would be counterproductive). But I digress.

Basically my whole head hurts:
Headache? Check.
Sinus pressure? Check.
Congestion? Check.
Ear ache/infection? Check.
Mouth hurts? Check.

Nothing's wrong with my eyes though, so that's good.



Anyway, it's not fun. So I've been trying to lay low a bit so the various infections floating around in my head don't get worse. The kids and I were hanging out in our room this morning playing. I was sitting on our bed with Luke playing with some of his toys and singing songs with him, and Audrey was sitting on the floor with her toy laptop typing letters and repeating them. There was a moment when she looked up at me and Luke so I invited her to come play with us. To which she responded by giving me crusties and sticking her thumb in her mouth. Not sure what I did to earn that reaction, but no matter. I held out my arms and asked her to come to me. Then she walked out of the room and into her room. I called her name. No response.



I called her name again. No response. I called and I called. No response. Oh, except her closing her bedroom door.



That is, officially, me told.



I sat thinking of what I could do to lure her back into the room and me back into her good graces.


Then I had a stroke of genius inspiration.






The one thing that Audrey simply cannot resist.




I got my laptop – which was sitting on my bedside dresser – turned it on and went to you tube. I typed in the letters: “bey” and the automatic suggestion list appeared. I selected the one I wanted and made sure the volume was high enough that Audrey would be able to hear it behind the closed door of her room; the instant the opening notes of the song started I heard the jiggle of her door knob. The next second Audrey was racing into my bedroom with a huge smile on her face. (And not a stitch of clothes on, I might add. She went into her room with a dress, pants, and diaper on. She came out with absolutely nothing. No clothes. No diaper. The kid just loves to be naked.) She came over to me and immediately started to do her version of Beyonce's dance – with just as much sass and attitude as her idol.


That's right - when all else fails, Beyonce does not. Her Single Ladies video is Audrey's bad mood Kryptonite. And has been for a very long time.


How did this begin? You ask.

Well, I'll tell you.



Audrey first saw it one night after Justin Timberlake helped SNL parody Beyonce's video - Adam and I looked it up on you tube and thought it was so funny. (My personal opinion is that as funny as the dancers are, Paul Rudd is even better with his comments - "Don't worry about the other dancers, B Town." "Beyonce that was B-rilliant." "What's the beef BK?" If you haven't seen it, you must. Embedding was disabled on this video, so you'll have to use this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBC7pilGoPc


Audrey seemed to like it too. But since neither of us had seen the actual video that the parody was based on we looked up the original.


Audrey was mesmerized. Absolutely entranced by it. Have you seen it? (That's a pretty silly question given that it has something like 80 million views and won Beyonce all sorts of awards... but in case you haven't, here it is:)





After that ONE time of seeing it, Audrey began to ask to see it by saying "Uh-oh" (because that's in the chorus). She was only one year old.




This is Audrey when she was one - in fact, this was taken on her birthday. She wasn't even walking yet but she knew how to ask to see Beyonce's Single Ladies video.
It was her very first little obsession. Before Little Mermaid and Cinderella and Mary Poppins and Bolt Audrey loved Beyonce. And she still does. Only now she can say "Beyonce" and she can dance along too.




This is what it looks like when she's watching Beyonce - no break in her concentration, nothing will deter her from trying to memorize all of the dance moves. Not even her mom calling her name, making funny noises, or flailing her arms everywhere to get her to look over. It's a tough dance, but Audrey's up to the challenge.



And I'm just glad I have my bad mood Kryptonite.



On another note: Don't you think this phrase would look lovely cross-stitched on a pillow?

When all else fails, Beyonce does not.

Catchy, no?