Harrison loves a dance party. Watch out though, because he is suddenly as strong as a f*cking pit bull and his dance parties can easily turn into pillow fights that will leave you with a pretty serious case of whiplash.
One of Harrison's favorite songs right now is Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass." He and I go around constantly singing this song, which he sings as "I'm all-a-buck-a-bass," by the way. I don't even know what that means. I'm sure he doesn't either.
Case in point; when I was in elementary school, I had a friend (who shall remain nameless, but knows who she is) who used to sing Paula Abdul's song "Rush" as "mush, mush... hurry hurry love will come to me... mush, mush..." Like love was a sled dog she needed to "mush" across the frozen tundra.
Anyway, the thing I love about Harrison singing this song, is that A) he is learning body acceptance and B) he is cuter than anything you've ever seen when he is wiggling his hips (in his ninja turtle underpants) and singing into a transformer figurine for a mike. But let's get back to the body acceptance issue for a second.
I won't pretend to believe that my sweet baby boy will never see porn in his lifetime, but I think the more we dialogue about what real men and women look like, the more prepared he will be for a healthy view of sex. Lots of real girls have "bass." His mama sure does. I think it's great for him to know that sexiness is relative. There is no one acceptable body norm. Or even one
sexuality norm.
He needs to start understanding that while we are inundated with images of what "normal" looks and acts like, there is no such thing. We are all normal. I don't want him to judge his body by Abercrombie & Fitch standards and I don't want him partner shopping based on media standards of what is attractive either.
I hope that as he grows, more celebrities will rail against absurd photo shopping, and that there will be more "real body" campaigns. I hope he hears a lot more songs about body acceptance. I hope that when he does finally see some porn, that he will ask me or his dad "Hey... so... people don't really bleach their butt-holes do they?"
Maybe by then he will feel like he can look any way he chooses to, and love anyone he wants, and they can have whatever kind of sex they want to have, and that will be ok.
He probably doesn't realize that we are covering this territory when we have our little dance parties, but we are. Right now I have to go because Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" is on and we have boogying to do.
You can read me at http://raisingharrison.blogspot.com