I don’t have a lot of concrete memories of my childhood. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a lot of photos to solidify the memories, I’m not sure. But one of the most vivid memories I have is sitting in a line in the library at my school when I was probably in Junior High…and doing Criss-Cross Applesauce with my friends. I think every girl had similar routines they did, but it seems like they vary across regions. Either way, it was a combination of a nursery rhyme, and a back rub, all in one. I remember really wishing I could sit in front of one girl in particular in that line because she always had the BEST nails, but if I remember correctly everyone wanted to sit in front of her…so I think maybe we had to take turns or something. Either way, it’s quite a vivid memory in my mind.
I’ve used the same little song/backrub routine on my kids as just another game we play together. All of them love(d) it, of course. Who wouldn’t? It feels great! But AndyZ? Who I just introduced to it recently? Is totally addicted. I said something the other day about Ross from friends and he looked at me and said, “Mo’ Applesauce!” and came and sat down on my lap. If he hears anything even remotely sounding like “Applesauce” he freaks out. I decided to get LilZ to video it the other night. Please ignore the clutter in the background. Our bedroom is the last room in the house to get redone and is therefore the “Storage Room” for all sorts of crap.
Mo’ Applesauce! from zoot on Vimeo.
That is just to precious for words!
Love it! It’s the little times we spend with them that somehow end up being the most cherished.
This is a great video. I can see how much you adore him … and he adores his Mom!
cuuuuuuuuuuuute!
That is too cute!
How could you ever say no to that sweet little “Mo Applesauce?” request. Awww.
Happy to see you don’t do the part we did as kids:
“Stick a knife in your back, let the blood run down, let the blood run all around.”
SERIOUSLY. How GRUESOME is that?!
He’s adorable.
Awww, so cute!! And that’s LilZ’s voice?! WOW! I thought it was MR. Z until I read the post!
ya’ll have the cutest accents.
Soooooo cute… And you have been doing that forever… I remember that from when HMac and LilZ were in preschool….
ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!!! And I want to just smoosh his precious cheeks!!!!!!
i love it! and that totally takes me back to us always having to do that over and over to the kids!
TOO CUTE! I love it! Believe it or not, I never heard of that and I don’t know what “our” version would be up here in the NJ.
*melt* I think I’ve seen similar things but not all combined like that.
Adorable! AndyZ looks so stinkin’ snuggly!
That is just adorable!! =) And ditto Randi – I cannot believe that’s LilZ’s voice! I thought it was MrZ. He sounds all grown up!
you are so awesome…and Andyz is so big!
OMG, I’d forgotten about that game! I got shivery chills watching the video… LOL!
AndyZ is too cute. 
Wow. That was just so cute. It is so hard to resist isn’t it when they ask so adorably?
I have read HOP ON POP probably 20 times a day because I couldn’t resist my baby’s little “more” sign.
I know an almost exact same version of that from when I was a kid. All the way up here in Canada! Amazing how these things travel
Aw, that’s adorable. And now I want someone to do that to me! I looove those kinds of back rubs
.
And true story to Alex, we played that game, but it was called Concentration. The lyrics were like “concentration, concentration, people are dying, children are crying, concentration…there’s a knife in your back and the bloods dripping down…” it was (obviously?) more of a scare game though, and you’d end it with telling them to concentrate while you told a story that ended in something scary, usually them jumping off a cliff or something.
I want some applesauce too!
Adorable (both of you)!
i’m still doing it since you taught it to me 14 (15?!) years ago! and i still say “chris ross, applesauce…” haha!
Totally did this as a kid and had since forgotten. I think our words may have been a little different, but pretty darn close to your version. His little voice is so precious!
So cute!!!
My little boy, T, is just a year and when I watched this, it really struck me how much AndyZ liked it, so I tried it with T yesterday. He LOVED it! He’s not talking yet, but he’d come and sit in my lap, lean up against me and just wiggle, giggling each timme I did it for him.
THANK YOU so much for sharing this. You have web-friends in Texas doing this now, too!