the singing house

I think our household has turned into a full-fledged singing house – like Audrey Wood’s The Napping House, but substitute snoozing for belting tunes.

Before baby I did sing freely at home and in the car, but never did I pick up tunes randomly and frequently, whenever they flew into my head. Now I do. And now I even purposefully scan my brain pulling out those long-ago tossed out camp songs that seem to spring from nowhere and everywhere at once. It’s funny, once I remember the first few words, I’m golden … with the chorus.

If you walk into my house during an average day after I’m home from work, you’d probably see me bouncing on my exercise ball with Cal singing parts of Mary Had a Little Lamb, trailing off, then picking up with another favorite, B-I-N-G-O, which was his name-O!

One day recently I noticed that Shaun had printed out the words to Hush Little Baby. I thought this was adorable and hilarious, but I didn’t want to crush his humble efforts at song singing with my sarcasm, so I kept mum. A few days later I noticed him singing the song effortlessly and flawlessly. Whenever I try to sing it, I can never remember what comes after “And if that diamond ring don’t shine, momma’s gonna buy you a …” so I stop to think about it and resume with something that does not rhyme, or make sense, thereby ruining the song. After making fun of him in my head, I now think Shaun had it right all along – learn a few songs, sing them well, and you will look like a professional parent and not a scatterbrain like me. Too bad I haven’t really applied that lesson.

A song that I love to sing (albeit poorly) is Happy Together by the Turtles. Which in practice sounds like “The only one for me is you and you is me … and me and you and you and me” a bunch of times then to show I know the song, I add: “So happy togetheeeeeeer, how is the weatheeeeer!!!” I think of it as our anthem – Cal and I and I and Cal. Our version of that song anyway.

Although singing introduces babies to language and also rhyming and repetition, I think it’s really more medicine for us. I mean, I sing to get me into the playful mindset and to connect with Cal through language. But I also sing because it’s just plain enjoyable and it truly eases my busy bee mind. Plus, I forgot how much fun little kid songs are! And there are so many new ones …

This was highlighted yesterday at a performance at the local opera house. Through a mommy group, Cal and I got to see a one man performer who led us through a bevy of kid songs. I listened closely and even picked up (parts of) a few new songs. One of my new faves is the Beaver Song.

I’m not sure when we turned into a singing house. Besides our pitchy performances, I like the fact that we sing so much. In fact, I’m itching to sing right now.