In/Appropriate

Mr. C has discovered my iPod, which means that now -- in his opinion -- my iPod is HIS iPod.

It's actually been kind of convenient, since he is perfectly content being plugged into it.  This means he will quietly sit in the living room, the car, or a shopping cart for long stretches of time . . . so long as he has his iPod.

Actually, I lie about the 'quiet' part.  He likes to blare the songs so loudly that we can hear them through his earphones when we're across the room.  And, while this makes it easier for me to identify the song when Mr. C inevitably asks what it is, he will be unable to actually hear my response over the noise.  This results in an amusing/obnoxious exchange:

Mr. C:  (from seat of shopping cart)  MOMMY!  WHAT IS THIS?

Me:  (distractedly browsing the cereal aisle) What's what?

MR. C:  WHAT?!

Me:  (louder)  What's what?

Mr. C:  (parroting what I often say) SAY AGAIN: I CAN'T HEAR YOU!

Me:  WHAT'S WHAT?  ARE YOU ASKING WHAT SONG IS PLAYING?

Mr. C:  WHAT?!

Me:  TURN DOWN THE VOLUME!

Mr. C:  WHAT?!

Me: (stomping over and removing earphones)  Are --

MR. C:  NO!  GIVE ME BACK MY EARPLUGS!

Me:  Just wait a minute!  Are you asking what song this is?

Mr. C:  Oh.  Yes.

Me: (after listening more closely for a second)  "Sex On Fire"

Mr. C:  (readjusting headset over his ears)  OH!  SUCK ON FIRE?

Me: (returning to ceral-browsing) Sex On Fire.

Mr. C:  SUCK?

Me: Sex.

Mr. C:  SUCK YOU SAY?

Me:  NO!  SEX!  SEX!  SEX!

Mr. C: (blissfully unaware of dirty looks from other shoppers)  Oh.


(silence)

Mr. C:  WHO SINGS IT?

Me:  (sighs)

Mr. C:  (amazingly managing to get louder)  MOMMY!  WHO SINGS IT?

Me: (grumpily giving in)  Kings Of Leon.

Mr. C:  WHAT?!


So perhaps you can tell that not all of our iPod interactions have been positive.

And now Bee has bequeathed his portable speakers for Mr. C's iPod use.  This has been nice for when we're bike-riding, since I no longer have to deal with Mr. C screaming because the earphones keep slipping off his head or won't fit under his helmet.  However, the speakers add to the challenge of keeping Mr. C from blaring my music so loudly that everyone within a five mile radius can hear.

Sometimes it's not too bad to share our music with others.  I'm sure it's kind of cute to see a mother and toddler biking down a park path on a sunny Saturday morning amidst the be-bopping refrains of Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream".  The grandparents we pass tend to smile indulgently at us.

But their smiles freeze in shock as the next Katy Perry song comes on and Mr. C starts singing (at full volume, I might add),

"I WANNA SEE YOUR PEA-
COCK!  COCK!  COCK!
YOUR PEA-
COCK!  COCK!"

Which has sort of been my hint to change the songs on my iPod.

The problem is, I don't want to listen to "Baby Beluga" any more than does Mr. C, so I'm not about to import a bunch of kids' songs onto my (OK, his) iPod.  For now, I've settled for removing Katy and anything by the Black-Eyed Peas.  Hell, I even grudgingly took off "Baby's Got Back".  In fact, all I have on there right now is some country music.  That ought to be safe enough, right?

Yeah: right up until Mr. C starts yelling "SAVE A HORSE: RIDE A COWBOY!" at Wal-Mart.