Lullaby

So, I put a sitemeter on this ol' blog last week and lo and behold...there are a few folks out there who stop by every once in a while. And here I've been thinking I was writing all of this for my husband and for Dani (and, uh, for myself). In any case, it's made me feel like I should be making more of an effort to get posts up here at least every other day. My public needs me. (Also! I found out that I show up as the only result for a particular Google search. Go me.)

I am typing this while I am putting Jonah to bed and he is having me sing his current favorite lullaby, so if lyrics from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" should filter into this post, you know why. [Some years ago, when my sisters were in elementary school, they taught me a version that includes little responses--such as "Had a very shiny nose/Like a light bulb!". Does anyone know the origin of this?] I am such a multitasker.

Right, where was I? Sitemeter. Public! Post more frequently. Then all the reindeer loved him.

My children have had some pretty bizarre favorite lullabies over the years. Around the time she turned a year old--when she was just starting to watch television--Hannah would ask for the theme to "Elmo's World" (you know, "Lala lala lala lala Elmo's world") over and over again at bedtime. And how could I not succumb to her drowsy "pleeeese sing lalalmo"? Especially since the song was so very effective at getting her to go to sleep. When we moved her out of her crib and into the toddler bed (when she was about 18 months old), John took over the putting-to-bed duties and before long, Hannah's song of choice was a version of "Down By the Bay" long on current events and short on rhymes. This was a wonderful way to recap her very busy days and make mention of her favorite friends, toys and places as she was falling to sleep. I made fun of quite a few of the lame-o lyrics John made up on the spot, but I sure do wish I had written some of them down because it was really a sweet, sweet thing.
There was a Pete Seeger song about a bullfrog jumping "from bank to bank" that was the sole soundtrack of our lives for a while. And then the Bonjour! song that opens Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
By the time Hannah was 20-ish months old, she could sing all of the lyrics to "Baby Beluga", the song she was requesting from me at every nap and bedtime (as well as at any other time of the day, typically several times a day). This one's stuck around. She still asks me to sing it whenever I put her to bed. Through countless repetition over the years, I've gotten to where I can sing it several times in a row without paying any attention to what it is I am singing. Jonah frequently requested it as a bedtime song as well until he became enamored of Rudolph and his shiny nose and his saving-of-Christmas back in December.

From a squeaky red monster to a red-nosed misfit--I wonder what they will remember of all of this, how every night they'd fall asleep to the sound of one of their parents singing whatever it was they wanted to hear.