Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Milky One

I should say, in all fairness to Munchkin, that she has been, lately, a delight: charming, snuggly, hilarious, polite, smart, and co-operative. You know, because I tend to write posts when these conditions do not obtain.

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We have begun the singing of Christmas songs in the wind-down to bedtime. We are easing into the repertoire, but have begun with a doozy: Santa Claus is coming to town. The song is both melodically tricky (don't start too low: it gets a lot lower! Then goes up abruptly!) and plot-heavy (retelling, into baby ears, the basic parameters of the Kris Kringle contract: behave, and there will be toys. You are under constant surveillance!). Munchkin is rapt.

Monday, feeling limited by our two song rotation (Rudolph is the other guest of honour at our song banquet) I threw in the preamble to the Santa song: "I just got back from a lovely trip, along the Milky Way ... I stopped off at the North Pole, to have a holiday ...")

"No!" Munchkin shouted, "The Santa song!"

Last night, though, out of the blue (in the dark) she snuggled into my chest and asked in her sweetest voice, "Sing the milky one, Mama? The milky one?"

So I did. And lo and behold she knows all the words already and I think she's heard it twice. She hummed with me and popped the words in where she can.

I've written before about my singing. I have to say, two years later, I still love to sing to her. It brings me a lot of joy to sit in the dark with my girl, so big she hardly fits into my lap any more, to sing to her and with her, by request, songs that fill her imagination with dreams and her heart with the sound of my voice, echoing through my chest wall where she's pressed her head in tight. She pats my arm in time, I whisper in her ears and smell her hair.

7 comments:

Jenifer said...

What a lovely image. I don't sing very well, but I know kids don't care about that...right now my girls play their own CD's and there is music constantly in our house. I find it very reassuring somehow.

Melanie D. said...

I like singing to my kids too. And love that they don't mind that I am a horrible singer!!!

Beck said...

We're a singing family - except for my husband, who is stricken with paralyzing self-conciousness. The Baby and I happily sing away, walking down the street hand-in-hand. Whether people are quite so happy to hear us is entirely another matter.

crazymumma said...

you gotta teach her jingle bell rock.

I never thought I had voice until I started singing to my babies.

amazing what love can bring to a song.

Bon said...

i love to sing to and with my kids, because - to them alone - i feel like my voice sounds beautiful.

she's got quite a memory for lyrics, huh? i'm loving discovering this in O, noting the funny little mispronunciations, the way he interprets meaning.

hoppytoddle said...

'amazing what love can bring to a song'

Lovely sentiment.

MiniMe is currently VERY upset that the whole world is singing Jingle Bells wrong. She thinks that the protagonists are riding "ina oonhas loopin" sleigh. I've told that while a oonhas loopin sleigh does sound really fun, they actually didn't have those at the time Jingle Bells was written. She is terse about it.

I broke into tears at hearing Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas today. I miss my dad. MiniMe knew that was what was making me cry. I heart my kid.

Run ANC said...

I totally use that song to make the Boy behave. Does that make me a Bad Mother?? OH well. Too tired to care these days.