I don't know if its just the way that I parent, or if its a universal habit of parents of small children, but I find myself singing a lot these days. Actually, I've been singing a lot for roughly the last two and a half years. Many of the activities that we are involved in on a day-to-day basis somehow become little musical moments. And it varies, from moment to moment whether they are original songs or existing tunes that we've changed the lyrics to. For example, the old Spiderman theme works well for almost any situation. Something about those first three syllables. You can fit so many actions in there: change your bum, wash your face, eat your peas, brush you teeth. You see what I'm saying? And today the Little Dude was running around during his little brother's bath time shout/singing at the top of his lungs We Will, We Will WASH YOU! (to the tune of Queen's 'We Will Rock You', of course). But sometimes we just make up our own songs too. The Little Dude is getting particularly good at this lately, and has regaled us with such original songs as 'construction hat', 'big digger' and 'courtesy flush' (don't ask).
But the songs that hold the dearest place in my heart lately are the lullabies. I like to stick with a few of the same ones over and over, hoping that they will create an association of calming and soothing with their repetition. I also like to think of them as a signature song, belonging specially to one child. With the Little Dude, I sang this one song over and over, pretty much from the day he was born.
Its called 'Down In the River to Pray'. I first heard it in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, so that's the clip I've chosen to post here, as I really do like this version, and all the visuals that accompany it. But you can also see it here, being sung by Alison Krauss, with an accompanying slide show of vintage photos of actual river baptisms, which is pretty cool as well. When the Little Dude was baptized we even had it sung (by the awesome praise and worship team at Meadowlands CRC, thanks Marja) as the minister walked around the church with him, introducing him to the congregation. It was so lovely. Since he has learned to talk and can understand what I say, he has of course asked 'what dat song about?' so he calls it 'dat baptize song' when he requests it. Though of course, it is almost always a second choice to his current favourite, Baby Beluga.
So with the arrival of our New Baby I decided that we needed a new song. I don't get out much lately, and have, er, how would we say, less free time than I used to. So I wasn't cruising around on iTunes looking for new lullaby options, but as usual, when you really need to find something, it will find you. Its another oldie, but a goodie, that has somehow worked its way into current pop culture in order for me to find it. I'm a Glee fan, and thanks to the wonder of PVR, I'm still able to watch it from time to time. And a couple of weeks ago there was an episode where a pet bird died, and in eulogy one of the characters sang the song 'Blackbird'.
Which, you know, is a song that I was aware of, (hello, the Beatles?) but didn't really know, if you know what I mean. But it has become my New Baby's song. It has such a sweet lilt and a nice regular beat, perfect for patting a little baby's back to, as you softly sway around a room with him, hoping, hoping that soon, he will fall asleep. We had such a nice moment the other day, when I was feeling sad and hopeful all at the same time, (hormones, tiredness, etc) and he was awake, but quit fussing and just quietly looked into my eyes as I sang to him about learning to fly. It was perfect.
What's your lullaby?
