God Loves A Terrier

It's official -- I'm becoming my mom.

I think that for most women, this revelation comes when they find themselves saying things like "clean your room or no TV for a week" or "I'll take the orange lipstick and an embroidered holiday sweatshirt, please," but for me, it came in a more sneaky way. A sort of musical way.

My mom has always had a thing about making up songs. She doesn't just willy nilly go around singing about any old thing, but I don't know if she's terribly selective about her subjects, either. I remember very well when I was little and we got our first microwave oven, and for weeks, she went around singing, "ohhhhhhhhh! I love my microwave!" in an almost operatic fashion. And when I was 17 and we got her a dog for Mother's Day, she gave him his own theme song, the lyrics to which were, "everybody loves my dog. People really seem to like my dog."

Well, people seem to like my dog too, I guess. Or at least I do, because after less than three months with Stella, I already have enough songs about her to make an album. Not a good album, but still.

I didn't realize just how many songs there were until last night, when my husband interrupted a chorus of "Piggly Wiggly Girl" to laugh at me for making up songs. I then began to list them, and the list is pathetically long.

There's "The Peanut Girl Theme," which is a take on the Spiderman theme: "Peanut Girl, Peanut Girl, living in her peanut world. She's so good and so cute. I love her, yes I do. Look out, here comes my peanut girl." There are more words, but they just get more embarrassing.

There's also "Hello, Peanut Girl, Goodbye Heart," an homage to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

I have an original composition I call "Stella Bella Peanut Girl," which is basically the words "peanut girl" repeated over and over. A B-side version of this is "Smooshy Smooshy Smooshy Face." Same tune, slightly different lyrics.

And let's not forget "Beautiful Stella" the tune of which was taken from "Beautiful Dreamer."

I know, I know. I'm certifiable. And I'm quite likely well on my way to becoming "crazy dog lady." Although I think you need at least one dog figurine and a tee shirt with your dog's face on it to truly qualify for that title.

Ah, well. If it's good enough for Mom, it's good enough for me. And for my piggly wiggly giggly jiggly piggly wiggly girl.