In about an hour, my daughter, Harper officially turns 4. I’ve been such a mixed bag of emotions this week. Moments of pride and enthusiasm turn into sentimental wonder and then I get all weepy with disbelief that my firstborn baby is now a little girl. Enjoy every minute they say. It flies by the say. They say it because it’s true and now I find myself dishing out the same old clichés. How does this happen so quickly?!

Last year I created a mixtape (on CD) for her birthday party favors. Like most people, we only listened to the CD while in the car. (Apologies to my friends who have been listening to Life is a Highway every morning for the last 365 days.) This year, we refreshed her playlist on Spotify. From CDs to Spotify…it’s like I jumped a decade of technology in a single year. Ha!

For those of you on Spotify, you can check it out here. If you’re not on Spotify but are still interested in the lineup, here’s what we’ve been listening to:

Wake me up before you go-go // Wham!
Twist and Shout // The Beatles
I Get Around // The Beach Boys
Let’s Get Together // Hayley Mills
A Bushel and a Peck // Doris Day
Once Upon a Dream // Sleeping Beauty
Doc McStuffins Theme Song
Yo Ho Mateys Away // Jake & the Neverland Pirates
Downtown // Kidz Bop Kids
Sugar // Kidz Bop Kids
Love me like you do // Kidz Bop Kids
Hello // Kidz Bop Kids
Sorry // Kidz Bop Kids

During my morning commute to work, our time in the car used to be a precious thing. I was always savoring every last minute with them so it was important to me that our rides together were fun. This is how the idea of their playlists came about. Now that we’re in the car a whole lot more, the playlists are a bit worn out (mostly to me) and the entire idea has evolved into a daily argument over who gets to choose which song to listen to first. (Some aspects of parenting were so much easier when the little one hadn’t yet learned to talk.)

What are your car rides with kids like? Tune it up or more like tune it out? On longer trips — as in more than 10 minutes — it seems I can’t go very far without my girls falling asleep. (They get that from their mama.) But before they do, as soon as we get strapped in, they are hollering off their song requests, eager to hit the road. And despite having to listen to Footloose for the millionth time, when they start squealing in the back when it comes on, I catch my smiles matching theirs from the rearview mirror.