Check-In & Playlist: October 14, 2011

Last week Hank, my three-year-old son, decided that the baby on the cover of Nirvana's Nevermind album was, in fact, him. We have the 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Nevermind lying around the house, and upon seeing it, apparently, it brought back memories of that time we submerged him in a pool and dangled a dollar bill in his face. That in itself was adorable, but now he's actually listening to the album. At some point yesterday he took the CD, put it in his "record player" (I have no idea how he knows of record players), cranked it up and starting singing at the top of his lungs. This is a significant leap, because the last album we got him was the soundtrack to Jake and the Neverland Pirates. (I suppose there's a physical similarilty between the words "Neverland" and "Nevermind," neither of which are, of course, actual words. Also, the Jake soundtrack sounds a lot like Flogging Molly, who do not sound like Nirvana, but are definitely closer to Nirvana than, say, The Wiggles.) The sucker's already outstrode the cultural advances I made at his age. Jeez -- he's already ahead of where I was when I was seven. And we have not one ounce of Ritalin in our house. Parenting's great!

I don't know what Hank's favorite Nevermind song is yet, but judging by the progress of his toilet training, I like to think it's "Territorial Pissings."

Playlist:
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming, M83
Heat Treatment, Graham Parker & The Rumour
One Kiss Leads To Another, Hackamore Brick
The Whole Love, Wilco
Eraser, The Knux
The Less You Know, The Better, DJ Shadow
Servant, Kuedo
Ashes & Fire, Ryan Adams
The Sound Of His Own Voice, John Wesley Harding