Our Five-Year-Old Gleek

There's no doubt that Mali, like me, is a third child. I watched the entirely inappropriate Fantasy Island and Stir Crazy (we had one of the first VCRs in town, with bootleg videos to match), she watches Glee and Lord of the Rings. But whereas I longed to be best friends with Loni Anderson and learned to swear like Richard Pryor, she (and her big sister) are learning to love music from multiple genres, and learning geek lore and cred that will benefit them forever.

Here is one of Mali's latest bursts of enthusiasm:



It reads, "My favorite Glee songs: Bust the Windows, Hate on Me, Defying Gravity" and then has drawings of Mercedes ("Mrsadis"), Kurt ("Kirt") and Rachel ("Ra," she ran out of room).

The most fun part of having two Gleek girls is introducing them to the songs under the Glee covers. After watching Rachel nail "Don't Rain on My Parade," Iz spent hours on YouTube, watching Barbra Streisand videos (she is also starting to imitate Celine Dion's spangled dress sense, but we're working on that). Mali tends to like Mercedes's songs, so I showed her Jill Scott's original take on "Hate On Me"



She watched the video, then turned to me with saucer eyes and gasped, "She's AMAZING!!" And now, when she draws flowers, she likes to give them "Jill Scott hair."

I'm so pleased that she likes music beyond the kiddie tunes. It makes our car time especially so much more pleasant.

As for LOTR, I caught her reading the Two Towers last night (the movie photo guide) after lights were supposed to be out. She didn't fuss when I took the book from her, but did insist that I give her back her "Precioussss," as she is calling her stuffed cheetah.

Oh yes, raising them right.