John Denver

When we were in DC, I was putting Dolly to sleep one night and asked her if she wanted to hear a song about an airplane since we had just been on one.  I sang her John Denver's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" - or as much of it as I could remember, which was the first half of the first verse and the second half of the chorus.  Every time I put her down after that, she requested "the airplane song." 

After we got home, I thought I should learn the words a little better, so I googled "John Denver Leaving on a Jet Plane" and pulled up a YouTube video of John singing it.  And so began the biggest John Denver obsession the world has ever seen.  I showed the video to Dolly, and she wanted to watch it over and over.  "Again!"  I told her it was John Denver.  I pulled out my John Denver Biggest Hits CD, and she began to demand the airplane song all day, every day.  She didn't want to listen to any of the other songs.  "No 'Annie's Song'!" Eventually I got her to allow the CD to play through, although she still asks for the airplane song.  Every time I sing to her before I put her to bed, she only wants the airplane song.  If I try to sing something else, she interrupts me:  "Airplane song." 

We had the TV on once while we were playing the CD, so a picture of the album cover appeared on the TV: 

After that, Dolly started asking for John Denver's picture.  When the TV hibernates and the picture goes away, she asks for it again:  "John Denver picture." 

When I ask her what she wants to read before bed, she sometimes says, "John Denver book."  We don't have one of those (yet), but a girl can dream. 

She knows the words of the first verse and the chorus pretty well.  I tried to capture her "dancing" and singing along.  This was the best I could do.  I edited out a second that I ruined with horrible singing:

 

Dolly's favorite pastime is the "run away" game.  She tells Daddy to "run away - couch," and she chases him around the room a few times, and then when he gets a big enough lead he hides on the couch, where she finds him.  (Once in a while she doesn't tell him where to hide, and that makes the game a little more exciting.)  Sometimes now she tells me she wants to play the run away game with John Denver - "John Denver run away."  It's too bad a) he's gone and b) he never would have played the run away game with her anyway.