Evolution of Lullabies (through my children's eyes and ears)

I love to sing. I've been singing for as long as I can remember. So when I had Maya I knew lullabies would be sung every night (ok, almost every night). The first time I remember singing her a lullaby was in the NICU of El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA. I was singing her "Cradle Song" (by Sandi Patty) and she promptly threw up on me after the first verse. That was the first of many interesting things that happen during the lullaby portion of our bedtime routine.

Maya "seemed" to love lullabies. When she was a baby, she would snuggle in my arms while I sang her songs (Dark Brown is the River, Cradle Song, Ugoy ng Duyan, All the Pretty Horses - pretty standard lullaby fare). Daddy sang the more contemporary songs (or should I say more modern? I mean how contemporary can Patsy Cline be? Definitely more contemporary than Brahms' lullaby I guess!). Daddy sang Crazy (song made famous by Patsy Cline but actually written by Willie Nelson), You Belong to Me (can you spot a trend here? Daddy loved his Patsy Cline music).

Aidan heard very few lullabies at the beginning of his life. That's because he hardly stopped crying for me to even finish one. He was also more restless in my arms and moved around quite a bit. Even now at 16 months, he still barely finishes one whole song (he'd either be up in arms or fast asleep after the second verse of Ugoy ng Duyan).

Maya on the other hand seemed to look forward to lullabies. Even now as she is almost 3 years old, lullaby time is almost well, like showtime! Mommy sings a song. Maya sings a song. We all clap afterwards! Yay! Lately it's been Jesus Loves the Little Children and Jesus Loves You. Afterwards we both try to sing Somewhere Out There (Maya loves to sing the first few lines and goes off on the next octave on "Beneath the pale moonlight" - it is so unbelievably cute, lol). She used to belt out Tomorrow (from Annie) even after I've put her to bed. Then there's You (Carpenters song Tito Peter sung at Tito Dave and Tita Anne's wedding) - we do this song complete with action. The most current song I've been singing to her which she absolutely loves is Martina McBride's "In My Daughter's Eyes" (especially the part "When she puts her hand around my finger...").

I don't think I'll ever stop singing songs to my kids. It is one more expression of how much I love them and I am happy that I can share my interest in music even at this very young stage in their lives. We haven't started cooking or baking lessons yet or playing catch with a softball mitt - all things in their own good time (to paraphrase slightly from Ecclesiastes). But music is something we all share and cherish right now.