Up until a few months ago I loved singing to, and with my kids.
One day Cuyler wanted to hear no more of it. I don’t know why. I can (somewhat) carry a tune and I love belting out songs that I think I can sing.
What? I don’t sounds exactly like Sinead O’Connor singing Nothing Compares 2 U?
Or the Dixie Chicks singing Landslide? No? Well that’s your opinion…
Or the Dixie Chicks singing Landslide? No? Well that’s your opinion…
Anyhoo. So yes. Me singing. I miss singing to my kids. Especially the songs that I had been singing to them since they came into the world.
For the boys it was “You Are My Sunshine”
A simple song that says so much. You can sing it loud and happy during playtime or soft and calm while putting them to bed.
A simple song that says so much. You can sing it loud and happy during playtime or soft and calm while putting them to bed.
With Eva – the night she was born all I had in my head was Isn’t She Lovely by Stevie Wonder after a nurse said just that, “Oh…isn’t she lovely!” Appropriate as it’s a song that was written for a baby girl born to smitten parents, just as Eva was. I would just sing the first 2 verses because I couldn’t remember the rest of it (courtesy of postpartum brain and the child sucking the life out of me, quite literally).
What song(s) did/do you sing to your kids? What are your favourites to sing to your little ones?
all i do is sing to Will – it drives my friend Molly to the brink of insanity. Now that he’s talking, he sings along to everything and I LOVE IT! Yesterday he belted out Dorothy the Dinosaur with his new maracas! As a little baby though, I’d dance with him to You Are the Best Thing by Ray Lamontagne or anything Bob Marley when our night nurse was over…
Kim I loved Hush Little Baby also but always forgot what you buy next so I’d end up making up my own words!
Ha ha! Ang – I remember how Sarah used to sing it! “HOME! Home on the range…”
She had a distinct way of singing it!
Hey Christine, remember singing Home on the Range to Myles. I only ever knew the first verse but he didn’t mind. I sang that verse and gently stroked his eyebrows every night until he fell asleep until he was almost five. With Sarah it was Row Row Row Your Boat. When she was a toddler she would sit in the baby bathtub and we would “row” her all around the living room. She also loved to dance to that song “Jump”. I can’t remember who sang it. Jump, Jump, Jump – Jump Around”. I’m sure it was highly inappropriate for a two year old but it got us exercising in our living room on those cold Winnipeg winter afternoons. Aaah – the good old days!
I’m glad that my kid isn’t the only one who won’t let mom or dad sing!
It sucks because he also hates when Sean plays guitar. He’s SOO good…
That’s hilarious about Billy Joel! I gotta ask – how did you figure that out? Why was it playing the first time she heard it???
Another great Bruno Mars song to sing to your kids is “Count on Me” – it’s very much like a lullabye. Sweet song.
Aww so sweet.
I love to sing. I can not carry a tune and was very anxious to first sing to my new daughter. Feeling like a complete knob. I got over myself knowing she didn’t care. I sang Hush Litte Baby. I discovered one day that she knew all the words when I paused for some reason and she finished the line. So I sang the next line and paused and from then on she sang the last word in every verse after that. My youngest one prefered Over the Rainbow. I also did a 2 verse Leaving on a Jetplane. Sometimes they would request all three songs but I’d have to alternate each night weather Hush Little Baby or Over the Rainbow was the last song if they were sleeping together. 😉
Magnum gets upset when we sing to him but loves listening to music with a good beat because he loves dancing. Abby makes us sing Rock-a-bye Baby every night over and over while we rub her back. She’s also a huge Lady Gaga fan right now but prefers to sing to us lol.
I didn’t have songs that I sang “about them”….like Isnt she lovely…but I had songs that would stop them from crying that we sang over..and over..and over! Ome Pa Pa from Oliver for Keigan…and My *Molly* Lies Over The Ocean for Molly Dolly! We would walk and sing those songs for hours at a time when they were wee.
Keigan would also stop crying the minute you put on We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel…! Litterally…as soon as she heard the *swoosh* from the fire…silence! I now know every word to that song and proved it one night at karaoke! 😉
All three of my kids got “You are my sunshine” (though have you heard some of the later verses…very depressing) and each had his/her own song, too. With my eldest I’d sing Emmylou Harris’ “Waltz Across Texas” or an a capella version of Bon Jovi’s “You Give Love a Bad Name” (he needed the strong beat), my middle guy got Springsteen’s “Pony Boy” (and I still call him Pony Boy) and for my daughter it was Elton John’s “Your Song”. Lately though, I’ve been singing Bruno Mars’ “Just the Way you are” to her and the lyrics are so perfect for a little girl.