Believe it or not, the nurses, doctors, and midwives over at Luther Hospital have allowed me to bring home a human baby – for the second time. I’m pretty sure they based their decision on my wife’s parenting ability, because so far, my fathering skill set mostly consists of successfully fighting my daughter for the “Clipo” pieces I need to complete my Awesome Battle Tower with Giant Cannons and Grappling Hook Launchers. So I’m glad my wife was around to swing the vote.

Yep, now I’ve got twice the kids. And so far, Kid Number 2 has been just as amazing as Kid Number 1. This time around, the household is a lot more relaxed, allowing us to focus more on the fun stuff. For example, with Kid Number 2, I’m more preoccupied with the cute little faces he makes whilst releasing an epic fart than I am with holding his head in EXACTLY the right way so he won’t fumble from my hands and fall into a 200-foot deep crevasse which just suddenly formed in my living room floor. Stuff like that.

After Kid Number 1 was born, I noticed a leap in my concern over the place we live. And, despite its embarrassing lack of Space Needles, I’m happy to say the Chippewa Valley seemed like a terrific place to raise a kid. It still does. But sitting here and now, three years after my first child came along, there’s definitely some stuff I wish was different – and I hope it changes by the time my new kid is potty trained.

Like what? Well, I’d kind of hoped that many of the things science had mapped out for us in well-researched dissertations, like the film script for Back to the Future, would have come to fruition while I was young enough to enjoy them. You know, the usual stuff like jet packs and laser guns and garbage-powered, time-traveling, flying cars. But since I’m not entering these words via brain beams into a MindWriter from the spacious patio of a hover café as I sip a Space Latte, I guess I’ll just sigh a disappointed sigh and hope that my kids will get to do all that stuff at some point in the future.

Perhaps more realistic expectations can be expected from the local music scene. Like what? Keep reading.

    A few years ago, I wrote an article for Volume One’s Kid Culture section about local children’s musicians. And I realized that the local kids’ music scene was pretty sparse. Besides one extremely active songstress and a few folk-style singers who basically play at schools, there wasn’t much going on. In the article, I was kind of critical of the quantity of local music – especially live music – for kids. Some friends who read the article thought I was being a little harsh, and they wondered why I should expect more than one active children’s musician in an area the size of the Chippewa Valley. To which I thoughtfully replied, “You people are friggin’ crazy.”

Good, live music is just as important for the kids around here as it is for the adults. Maybe more so. And honestly, the “kid audience” of a given region is probably way bigger (and potentially more lucrative) than most of the other local music audiences. The Chippewa Valley’s kids’ music scene seemed like an untapped market to me.

Well, two years later, it’s the same story – new, local kids’ musicians have yet to appear. This makes me a little sad for my 3 year-old. Yes, she can appreciate a lot of “adult” music, but most adult shows are too loud and just not geared for people her age. If you think about it, there really aren’t a lot of places kids can go to hear music. So I guess we need more kid-friendly music venues and then we’d get more kids’ musicians. Hopefully, by the time my new kid is old enough to enjoy a live show, they’ll actually be more than one happening every two months.

Sorry if this seems like it’s coming out of left field. The whole “we need more children’s music around here” concept isn’t the most profound idea I’ve had since Kid Number 2 came along, but after a few weeks of late nights and early mornings, it’s the most cohesive thought I can muster. Well, that and some mental plans for my next Awesome Battle Tower. (It’s gonna have more cannons.)