Thursday, January 29, 2009

Singing A Lullaby Never Felt So Good

When I had my first child almost four years ago, I didn't realize that singing would be part of my mommy duties.

It wasn't a duty that I took to very naturally. To be honest, I'm not a very good singer. Everyone said that it wasn't about how well you sing but just that you connect with your child. So I gave it a try even though it felt really awkward.

I remember the first time I sung to him. He was only a few months old and when I started singing You Are My Sunshine his eyes lit up and he stared at me with such concentration. Wow, this singing stuff really works, I thought. I was completely shocked. Now I had to come up with a few more songs to add to my repertoire.

You would think it would be easy to sing songs to your child but I found it quite challenging. I couldn't find songs that I knew the words to that a child would like. I had to actually look up songs on the Internet. How lame is that? I finally settled on a few classics (Hush Little Baby, the Wheels on the Bus, etc.) and sung those over and over (mostly making up my own words for the second and third verses). After a few months of singing, I transitioned singing into reading books and my son loved the books and never went back to wanting songs.

I was relieved. I could put an end to my singing career!

For some reason, I ended up not singing anymore, even with my second son. I guess we read so many books that the reading replaced singing for all such occasions.

So when my youngest son, who is a little over two, started wanting songs a few weeks ago, I was a little surprised. Ever since he was a baby, we had just put him in his crib and said goodnight and that was enough. But now every night when I say "OK, sweetie, it's bed time" and start carrying him to his room, he says "it's song time mommy?" And I reply "Yes, sweetie, it's song time."

Even though my singing voice is not great, I've loved singing again to my little one. There is no feeling in the world like sitting in a rocking chair singing sweet lullabies to your baby as he's draped across you with his head on your shoulder and his arms around your neck.

I'm so glad that he helped me resurrect my singing career!