Dear Mai,
So this past week I've been participating in this Facebook thing that you are supposed to post one of your favorite songs every day for seven days. I'm dying to know what the internet is going to be like when you are able to read this. If Facebook isn't around anymore I'll explain then, for now just know that it is largely a giant time suck but it's kind of fun keeping up with friends and family.
Anywho... So I've been posting some of my favorite songs and writing a bit about what each song means to me. It has been fun. I love music Mai. It moves me spiritually. Some of these songs bring me back to what my life was like when those songs were first becoming a part of me. It's good for the soul Mai.
So anyhow, I get home Monday after listening to The Verve's Urban Hymns album and I'm in an ecstatic mood. That isn't even close to their best album but it moved me listening to it on my bus ride home. I open the door and start singing some of the songs at the top of my lungs and decide it's music time! I turn it up and turn it on and immediately you say "Let's dance Daddy!"
Over the course of the next hour or so we listen to all kinds of music. We listened to the Verve, Selena, Linda Ronstadt's "Canciones de me Padre" album and a bunch of other stuff... and we danced the whole time. We danced so much I was sore the next day!
I remember listening to that Linda Ronstadt album growing up. I don't know if it was Grampa's album or Aunt Rosie's or Crazy Aunt Linda's but we listened to that a lot. Listening to it with you has been... well words can't describe. I'm speechless it makes me so gosh darn happy. You call it the princess album where daddy yells "Y UPA!"
So every night since that night we've had a dance party. We've moved on to ballet music because you are about to start a ballet / dance class next week but I love our music and dance nights. Here is some footage of you "dancing" that first night. I'm not sure you have the rhythm yet but that's okay. Let the music move you baby, the rhythm will catch up.
Of course you already think you're a perfect dancer. We might be too encouraging. We probably have to get more real so you can learn the hard way! :)
You're a little stink butt sometimes. You have this funny little dance / interpretation thing you do to TLC's waterfalls song. This is the kind of nonsense I get when I try to capture it on film. You had just done it like 3 times in a row prior to this.Maya: (while we were listening to Selena's Baila Esta Cumbia off her One's album) "I want to dance and sing all the time!"
Daddy: "You know what? This girl right here, Selena. When she was your age she said the same thing. When she grew up she was going to become a great singer and dancer! You can do that too Mai. You have to practice as hard as she did though. It's a lot of work"
Maya: (silent for a few seconds) "Daddy. I don't have to practice or get older. I'm already a great dancer!"
Daddy: "Oh. Is that so? What about a great singer? you have to practice for that."
Maya: (gives me the most displeased look) "Daddy. Of course I'm already a great singer too. Watch"Daddy: (Witnesses one of the most off-key renditions of "Let it go" I've ever heard. I think you are "blessed" with your Mama's vocal "talents" - sorry Mommy)
I hope we continue our little dance parties mija. I hope music has a place in your heart as much as it does mine. It seems like it will and I hope we can continue to create a music filled environment for you to grow in. I'll leave you with Ms. Ronstadt singing one of my favorite songs off her album, La Charreada. When Mommy and I first started dating we went to Cabos San Lucas Mexico. While we were eating dinner at a waterfront restaurant, the owner's wife and a roving mariachi band played this song. I don't think I connected it at the time but now listening to it I remember that evening in Mexico. So now when I hear that song I have childhood memories of my daddy and my sisters, Mommy and I in Mexico and now dance parties with my beautiful little girl.
Love,
Daddy