Children’s musicians Erin Lee and Marci bring us the next of their regular posts with thematic recommendations for kid-friendly music, plus activities to make the songs an interactive experience for the whole family.
This month’s theme was particularly apt, as my own son lost his first tooth recently. We’d been belting out Erin Lee and Marci’s own loose tooth song (see below) for a week or so beforehand, hoping to encourage it. Wouldn’t you know, it fell out when he was visiting my grandparents. Luckily, they’d had plenty of experience with that sort of thing. (If his next one falls out when he’s visiting them, though, I’ll begin to suspect they’re getting kickbacks from the Tooth Fairy.)
Look for Erin Lee and Marci here on the first Monday of each month, or visit their homepage, www.gottaplay.org.
I’ve created links to Amazon for the full albums (click the album image or name), plus links to Amazon MP3 downloads, when available, for those who want only the singles. (Click the song name.) I’m also trying something new this month, with a widget after the jump that will let you preview all three songs without leaving Mombian.
Our friend Alice lost her very first tooth at school — hooray! Then there was a fire drill . . . and the tooth disappeared. This prompted a major discussion about Tooth Fairy Rules and Regulations, which are very confusing and seem to vary from region to region. Erin Lee remembers getting a tooth pulled out at the dentist’s, only to have the dentist — a professional, mind you! — LOSE the tooth. And that tooth would have scored extra Tooth Fairy Points as she was deprived of the incredible joy of wiggling it around and grossing out her friends. Anyway, these are the songs that we recommended to Alice to commemorate, celebrate – and commiserate – this important rite of passage.
“Loose Tooth
This is a live concert version of one of singer/songwriter Monty Harper’s best story songs. He gleefully describes all the glorious grossness associated with a loose tooth — only to plunge into confusion and worry when the tooth itself plunges into a giant vat of chili. Monty has a school-aged daughter who helps shape his very sound approach to music for kids in grammar school — however, on this tune Monty is so delightfully icky that he sounds just like a big kid himself.
“I Lost The Tooth I Lost
Poor Justin is totally stressed out – his newly lost tooth has skittered away and has quite possibly been swallowed by the family dog. Will the Tooth Fairy come if he can’t find his tooth? Will she write? Will she call? What is the protocol for this kind of situation? Justin Roberts has a real knack for making everyday occurrences into major events, and you will be totally rooting for him to get it together and find his tooth.
“My Tooth Is Loose
This hoedown is our salute to loose teeth and the delights of anticipation. We’ve never met a kid who has a loose tooth who hasn’t been compelled to wiggle it, push it, poke it, and play with it, emotionally teetering somewhere between squeamishness and elation. We hope that our wiggly celebration will have you as excited about your child’s loose tooth as they are!
Get this song off the iPod and into your life: Make up a wiggle dance! Don’t worry if you don’t have a loose tooth; just wiggle your whole body! We do this at almost every concert and we all wiggle ourselves back, forth, up, down, left, right and into an exhausted heap. Have fun!
PS: That isn’t either Erin Lee OR Marci that you hear singing the verses on the recording. It’s our friend Jennifer Barnhart of Between the Lions and Broadway’s Avenue Q!
[Ed. note: We also like adapting “My Tooth Is Loose” to other household situations, singing “My Shoe’s Untied” or “My Dinner’s Done” or whatever else seems to fit the meter. —Dana]