When I started creating music for Moo & Mooey, I thought I was the one in charge.
That was adorable.
Apparently, I work for a four-year-old named Isabella.
Around our house, Bella has earned herself the unofficial title of Producer Bella, and if you’ve ever wondered how much influence a preschooler can have over a children’s song, the answer is: an alarming amount.
Bella has notes.
So many notes.
A song can’t be too fast. It can’t be too slow. But above all else, the words have to be right.
Every rhyme is subject to Producer Bella’s approval, and almost rhyming does not count. The words need to rhyme perfectly. And don’t think you can take the easy way out by using the same word twice to make a rhyme.
She will catch it.
Every. Single. Time.
Apparently, at four years old, she has already developed very strong opinions about lazy songwriting. 😂
And if she doesn’t like one of my lyrics, she has absolutely no concern for the songwriter’s feelings.
Jonah Doesn’t Know Which Way “Right” Is
While we were working on Jonah Said No, No, No!, I had a perfectly innocent lyric that used the word “right.”
Producer Bella objected.
Her reasoning?
Jonah couldn’t go “right” because he didn’t know which way right was.
He was inside a whale.
I tried to argue my case.
I lost.
The word came out.
This is pretty much how our creative process works.
The Doctor Said NO Dancing
Then we made Moo & Mooey Go to the Doctor.
At some point I apparently suggested an action that involved dancing.
Absolutely not.
“The doctor said no dancing.”
Producer Bella had spoken.
Never mind that I am the adult. Never mind that I wrote the song. Never mind that these are fictional plush cows and we technically control what their doctor says.
The doctor said no dancing.
So there would be no dancing.
The Mooey Incident
Then came Little David, Big Giant, our David and Goliath song.
Bella liked the song.
There was just one fairly significant problem.
Where was Mooey?
I had made Moo the star of the story, and apparently I had failed to consult management before leaving his little sister out.
Bella wasn’t happy.
Her little sister Elena wasn’t happy either.
So I received my instructions for the next production: it needed to be a praise-and-worship song. It needed to be a dance song. It needed to be at least three minutes long.
And Mooey had better be in it.
That is how Amen! Praise the Lord! ended up on our production schedule.
Sometimes I write songs.
Sometimes I fulfill orders from very small executives.
And Then There Are the Rankings...
Finishing a song doesn’t mean my job is over.
It then has to face the review process.
Bella has opinions about which Moo & Mooey songs are the best, and those rankings can apparently change as new evidence becomes available.
Dance Dance at the Pumpkin Patch has held the coveted number-one spot.
The battle for second place has involved Amen! Praise the Lord! and Camping Jamboree.
These are serious matters in our house.
Our own playlist plays in the house. It plays in the car. It plays again.
And again.
And again.
Bella doesn’t simply listen to her songs, either.
She performs them.
By “performs,” I mean yell-sings them with tremendous confidence, and when the tone changes, Bella’s interpretation of that change tends to be... dramatic.
She thinks she sounds fabulous.
Honestly, that level of confidence might be something we should all aspire to.
The Creation Song That May Never Be Written
But nothing—and I mean nothing—has tested the relationship between songwriter and producer quite like our still-unfinished Creation song.
We haven’t been able to get the lyrics together because Bella and I have a fundamental disagreement about the events of Genesis.
I explained that in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
Bella immediately discovered a problem with my account.
Moo was there.
I explained that Moo was, in fact, not there when God created the world.
Bella disagrees.
Strongly.
According to Producer Bella, Moo personally witnessed Creation.
And what exactly did Moo see?
According to Bella, he watched God “cook up the Earth and the people on it in a big oven.”
Well.
I have tried explaining that this is not what the Bible says.
Producer Bella remains unconvinced.
And while I admire her commitment to her version of events, I am fairly certain families looking for a sweet toddler Bible song about Creation are not expecting Moo to witness humanity being baked in a giant oven.
So the Creation song remains unfinished.
Sometimes creative differences are difficult.
The Best Part
As funny as all of this is—and believe me, living with Producer Bella is even funnier than writing about her—there’s something really special happening underneath all of it.
When Moo & Mooey began, I was creating something for my girls.
Somewhere along the way, it became something I was creating with them.
Bella and Elena aren’t sitting on the sidelines while I make these songs. Their ideas, voices, reactions, laughter, and very strong opinions have become part of Moo & Mooey.
Bella notices things I wouldn’t notice. She tells me when something doesn’t make sense to a four-year-old. She has somehow become our tiny quality-control department, checking every rhyme, catching repeated words, and making sure Mommy doesn’t get away with taking the easy route.
And occasionally she informs me that my understanding of Creation is wrong because I failed to account for Moo and God’s enormous oven.
We’ll keep working on that one.
Someday Bella may not remember being four years old and sitting beside me debating song lyrics, demanding more Mooey, rejecting my rhymes, or issuing production notes that completely derail whatever I thought we were making.
But I’ll remember.
And one day I’ll be able to play these songs for her and say:
“You helped make this.”
Even if Mommy did have to fact-check the producer occasionally. 😂❤️