on kids, music and batteries

we had what i like to call a music night at home this evening. basically all that means is that david or i put in a cd and turn it up and the three of us all jam. do people jam anymore? does that make me a dork that i said jam? oh well. tonight it was keane, a great british pop band. the lead singer has stunning vocals, it makes me love him. david got out the guitar, so of course eliot went running to the play room to get his little guitar. they did some strumming and collette and i worked on vocals. silly, huh? we used to play a lot more music around the house, but i think being busy with two babies has made us forget fun, simple things like that. well no longer i say! eliot has an affinity for bjork, which pleases david to no end. he particularly likes a triumph of the heart, which is a wonderful song. it is fun to see a three year old shake it to techno beats. i forget how musical eliot is. well, the dang kid has a guitar, a mini drum set complete with cymbals (thanks grandma...) and now a keyboard that he got for his birthday from his aunt. he is digging the keyboard right now. it has a microphone, and his favorite song right now is what we call "the hot song". very simple actually, he likes an uncluttered sound. basically it entails him turning on the keyboard, punching the techno beat preset, shaking his booty for a few minutes. this followed by turning off the beat, picking up the mic and saying "haw-T, haw-T" with a hard t sound. very hip. tonight i decided to finally change the batteries in another one of his toys. its the only way we parents truly wield power. he has this rocket shape sorter thingy that plays music and spins around and all this other junk. the batteries were going out on it, which i was pleased about, hoping to push through the tortured sputnik phase of gurgling electronic sounds to the sweet silence of defeat. but tonight i felt guilty and got out some new batteries. i flip the thing over and its one of those battery casings that open with a coin. what is the deal with those things? first of all, the stubby finger with the spinning coin illustration doesnt really do much for me. i pretty much just skip right over it and look to see if it takes a flathead or phillips screwdriver. but the sight of that extra wide opening just fills me with a vaguely confused anger. who are these people that dont have screw drivers? do they use coins for other household chores? do they prefer the thickness and heft of a nickel over the extra gripping power of the quarter? do they ever, ever use a dime for anything? tonight it happened that the only coin i found on the top of the microwave was a penny. i was dubious as to its effectiveness. i thought it much too thin for the job, but was surprised that it did indeed open the battery casing by fitting itself in the slot at about a 15 degree angle. seriously, would it have killed the manufacturer to make a thinner slot for a flathead screwdriver? i just dont get it...