Family Cool.

On the Morning Rush today, Chico and Delamar were counting down the Top Ten Signs that Someone is Cool. Here's the text entry which I was supposed to send, squeezed to fit one txtmsg:

"I alwys thot dat my wife was musically chalenged but 1tym when our kid couldnt stop crying & get to sleep my wyf sang him a rock song & d kid dug it. Cool huh."

Didn't quite capture what I had to say and would've cost me P2.50, so I thought I'd just as well blog it here for free. The full skinny:

When the Little Boy was about a year and a few months old, he would sometimes wake up and cry in the middle of the night. The only way to get him to stop and sleep again was for me to pick him up, dance and sway him side to side while singing a song he likes (usually a nursery rhyme or a lullabye, but sometimes a pop song does the trick.)

One night, maybe because of a particularly bad dream, no amount or manner of dancing or swaying or singing could soothe him. He was bawling, well, like a baby and pretty soon I wasn't so much dancing, swaying and singing a lullaby as jogging and twirling while rapping the chorus of "The Thong Song".

Seeing the futility in my performance, the Wifey stepped up the plate and took the Little Boy from my numbing arms. People always say she has quite a singing voice and I thought she'd tranquilize the baby with one of her famous ballads or pop schmaltz -- the only kind of music she liked and listened to. But instead, she belted out what I thought was the vocal equivalent of a rock riff.

It turned out to be the intro to "All Day and All of the Night" which she started to sing and jig to with the Little Boy in her arms. I did a double take and asked, "What the hell are you singing?"

"The Kinks!" she said.

"I know it's The Kinks but what the hell are you doing singing it?"

"Ssshhhh!", she shushed and kept on singing.

Pretty cool when the wife you've always known to be a regular Celine and Mariah kind of girl shows you she's got a Kinks side as well. Coolness of all, the Little Guy approved and was fast asleep by the end of the second chorus.