Rent.

Growing up, I was never/rarely exposed to musical theater. Granted, we had tickets to the Children's Theater (and don't get me wrong, the kids who put on those productions work really really hard), but I think it was a way for my parents to get me and my brother to sit still without fighting for a couple hours every month than to really expose me to the world of theater.

It wasn't until post high school where I learned or Rent, and explored Broadway (I use the term "explore" very loosely, as I've really only seen one Broadway show, Hairspray, and locally seen Rent a few times).

The first time I saw Rent I was utterly disappointed. The sound techs had effed everything up, so it was very difficult to follow. The second time I saw Rent, I cried.

Where am I going with all of this? Well, I'll tell ya! I've got most of the soundtrack of Rent burned onto a (rather) large MP3 disk...and I play it in my car quite often...with little man sitting in the back seat.

This weekend, he actually started singing lyrics to some of the songs*. He seems to enjoy them (almost) as much as I do...but then I have to stop myself and think: Am I a horrible parent for allowing my near four year old to listen to music that makes drug and sexual references? As selfish as this might sound, listening to the Rent soundtrack really cheers me up...and I think little man feeds off of me being excited about the songs....so for now, I think I'll still listen to Rent, with little man in tote...but maybe not quite as often as this past weekend.

*I busted him singing "honest living, honest living, honest living" from the Christmas Bells song...as well as "Follow the man, follow the man..with his pockets full of the jam."