The pandemic caused weird stuff to happen, some of it utterly beautiful. This is definitely a deviation from my usual photography blogging, but the series of events that lead to my then 3, now 4-year old having the biggest girl crush on Katy Perry is nothing short of amazing.
Kids are always doing and saying hilarious things – it’s funny probably because they’re so darn sincere about their misuse of a phrase, or understanding of how something works. These days, my daughter asks me questions like “is Katy Perry a real person?” and “Can you put on some kids music – you know, like Katy Perry music”. Now I LOVE Katy Perry’s music but in listening to some of the more sexy lyrics over and over, I do find myself wondering if I should be catering to this adoration – luckily she hasn’t asked me what a birthday suit is yet, or why Katy Perry wants to get someone in theirs – but on the whole the music is pretty empowering and what could be better than a 4-year old singing Roar?
The Beginning
So how did this obsession start? Primarily with Build-a-Bear. You know, those loveable snuggle bears that kids can stuff themselves, dress up in fancy clothes, and cart around in a cardboard house. In 2020 / 2021 my sister was sending care packages on the regular to our family. In one said package, arrived a rainbow “kitty bear” dressed in a rainbow tutu, headband, and roller skates. A hand-me-down from my niece. My daughter squealed with joy at the sight of this stuffed animal – certainly the fanciest she’d ever seen, let alone had for her very own.
Shortly after receiving Kitty Bear, as we lovingly call this stuffed animal, my kids (age 3 and 5) noticed that she played music. A birthday song! So they played “birthday party” – a LOT! They both got dressed up, setting out cake and cookies from their play kitchen, and celebrated Kitty Bear, or whoever’s birthday it happened to be that day (real or imaginary).
Poor Kitty Bear worked hard for months celebrating anyone and anything my littles could dream up. Then one day, she quit. It happened slowly, first the recording inside Kitty Bear became deeper and slower, as these recordings do when they lose their charge. But after a week, no sound was left and my kids were a bit in despair.
Alexa to the Rescue
Enter Alexa. Now Alexa saves the day often even though there are plenty of stories of kids getting into some sticky spots ordering up who knows what from Amazon, but my kids only ever used Alexa for music at that point. Naturally, they did what they could think of and one morning I hear Katy Perry’s Birthday Song blasting from my daughter’s room. When I walked in, I saw that they were having a birthday party, with Kitty Bear – smiling away and impressed with their ability to get a birthday song to play.
Some days they’d try and then come out to me saying Alexa wouldn’t play the right song. On one particular day, forgetting Katy Perry is what they were hoping for, I asked Alexa to play happy birthday. Foolish mistake, she played “The Happy Birthday Song.” “Wrong, Mom!” my kids shouted, “that’s not the one, we need the Kitty one.” At that point I recalled how Alexa will make cats sing happy birthday. Still wrong. I don’t know why it took my several minutes to realize what they wanted, or how they’d stumbled upon Katy Perry music in the weeks prior.
I asked my son “what did you ask her to play before?” and he told me – “play the Kitty Birthday Song.” Now Alexa is a genius, but listening to a 5-year old is hard, so naturally she played Katy’s Birthday Song. Got it. That was over a year ago. I educated my kids once or twice that it’s “Birthday by Katy Perry” and now Alexa never gets it wrong. But it didn’t stop there.
Katy Perry All Day Long
Sometimes they just ask for Katy Perry music, and I happen to own a CD (remember those?) that I put on in my car’s CD player (remember those?!?) and now they ask to listen to Katy Perry all. the. time. Then Katy Perry did some work for Lego which just amplified her clout with my kids. They were enamored with her clothes, her nails, and her personality. It was great.
Last week my daughter told me, after asking me for the millionth time if Katy Perry is real, that she wants to be Katy Perry one day. I asked for some clarification and she’s happy to dress as her for Halloween. I asked what she wears and I think my son recalled the Lego video, but it totally tracks – “bright clothes and rainbows like Kitty Bear.” He went on to tell my daughter she could wear her rainbow tutu and a very colorful shirt she already owns but she said no she wants REAL Katy Perry clothes.
So now I have about 9 months to find some authentic 4-year old appropriate fun and fancy Katy Perry clothes so my daughter can be her idol for Halloween! Maybe something from this list. Feel free to leave a comment if you have any ideas on where I can procure such a thing.
In the meantime, we’ll be over here jamming out to the Prism soundtrack wherever we go.
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