Saturday, January 9, 2010

family: rock-a-bye, sweet L. J.....

Music is important to me. Both my parents sang and played ukulele, and M's mother has a nice singing voice as well. I love music and at one point played guitar for hours daily. We've sung to the girls regularly since they were born, and as explained earlier, K never took to it quite like L has.

At some point some months ago, I started singing while dressing the girls after a diaper change: "One leg at a time, we put our pants on one leg at a time." M dubbed me "Opera Man," a name the girls took to.

me (getting L back into her leggings, post-change): How do we do this?
L: One leg at time!
me: Yes. One leg at a time, we put them on one leg at a time!
L: It's Opera Man!!

Small pleasures.

Lately L has taken to singing to herself as she plays, something that always makes me smile. She'll be working on a project at the small table she and K share, drawing on scrap paper as she sings: "Rue-dof with your nose bright, you guide my sleigh night."

And a couple of nights ago, as I started in with the standard "Baa Baa Black Sheep" as I laid her in her crib, she shook her head.

L: Not sing that!
me (slightly sad, slightly relieved): No?
L: No. Sing cowboy song.
me (pleased): There is a young cowboy who lives on the range...

When I reach the part about singing out a song that is soft but is clear, L generally raises her pacifier if she's not too tired and says "I have clear one," and I say "Yes you do, but that one is light blue" and she tucks it back into her mouth and looks up and listens while I finish. She's never asked about the "dreaming about women and beer" line.

K, she's never wanted to deviate from "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and "Jingle Bells."

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