Meow That Tune

While Krishelle was visiting Palau the best part of the day was when Daniel and I would go and wake her up at about 6:45 in the morning. I was sleeping in Daniel's room while she was here so she could have my bedroom to herself. Daniel's bedroom has big windows that face the sunrise so as soon as light pierces the sky in the mornings, it becomes pretty impossible to stay unconscious and not sweat oneself into a dehydrated eternal sleep.

The way we would wake Krishelle up was by pretending to be six to eight cats. We would sneak to either side of her and start gently pawing at her arms and sounding high-pitched "meows." We would add limbs one by one and increase the frequency of our meows to make it appear as though half a dozen cats were all around her, pawing at her to wake up and play with them. So, for example, I would paw one hand at her head, the other at her arm, and then would use my foot to paw at her leg, all the while meowing rapidly as Daniel did the same on her other side.

KRISHELLE IS SO LUCKY THAT SHE GOT TO VISIT US FOR TWO WEEKS.

Krishelle would usually just roll her eyes and mutter some variant of "what's wrong with you two? Seriously. How are you even still alive?"

While this was all fun and games (and sometimes really serious) it very unfortunately gave birth to a new game that Daniel INSISTS on playing for probably no less than ninety minutes each day.

"Meow That Tune."

The way meow that tune is supposed to be played is that one person meows the melody of some song---any song---and the listener has to guess what the song is. That's it. That's the whole game.

I engaged in this the first couple of times Daniel wanted to play it, mostly just because I was scared, taking turns being the person who had to meow the tune. But I got sick of this game REALLY quickly. Daniel, however, did not.

This is now his favorite thing to do. And since I no longer take turns with him meowing a song, he just does every song himself.

Every time we get into the car:

Daniel: Meow meow meow meow meow etc.

Every time we are cooking dinner:

Daniel: Meow meow meow meow meow etc.

Every time we are brushing our teeth in the morning:

Daniel: Meow meow meow [spit] meow meow [gargle] meow etc.

He won't stop and move on to a new song until I name the tune of the one he is currently doing. What makes this difficult is that Daniel isn't really what you would call "musical." I mean, he's not tone deaf or anything. But he can meow a very well-known song for ten minutes and the whole time I won't have any clue what it's supposed to be. So I'll give up several times and frustratingly yell, "I don't know! What is it?!" And he won't tell me. He'll just meow it louder and nod encouragingly like I've almost got it.

I don't almost have it. Ever.

This morning he was driving me to work, unusually quiet.

Daniel: Hmm. Sigh. Phh. Grrr.

Eli: WHAT.

Daniel: Hmm? Oh. Nothing.

Eli: What is it, Daniel?

Daniel: Well, I just feel like I'm always the one who has to meow that tune and you always get to be on the guessing end.

Eli: Seriously? You're upset about this?

Daniel: Well. It just doesn't feel like an equal distribution of labor. That's all I'm saying.

Eli: I guess I haven't done any songs for a while BECAUSE YOU HAVE ALREADY MEOWED EVERY SONG THAT HAS EVER BEEN WRITTEN.

Daniel: That is so not true! The reason this feels so unfair is because I'm really good at guessing the tune but I feel like I never get to demonstrate that.

Eli: You think you're good at guessing the tune?

Daniel: I'm way better than you are!

Eli: EXCUSE ME?!

Daniel: You heard me. I could guess any song you choose within seconds.

Eli: No you could not! It's a lot harder than it looks!

Daniel: Try me!

Eli: Fine. Meow meo--

Daniel: PARTY IN THE USA!

Eli: Damn.

~It Just Gets Stranger