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| Rhiannon, tucked away on top of the clothes dryer |
She was so sick that she wanted to be at her mother’s side, or on her lap, or in her arms.
Mary took her downstairs and nestled her in covers on top of the dryer.
She is just a little spot over Mary's left shoulder in this picture.
Now Mary could do beads and Rhiannon could have all of her wishes come true at the same time: warmth, closeness and her mother in her sight.
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| Sickness merits a daytime soother |
It also helped that she had her "Susie" in her mouth.
I hear her call out at night for it -- not for her mom or her dad, but she calls out for Suzie.
Because it doesn't leap into her mouth, magically, one of them has to trudge from their bed, into her room and find it for her.
Then, blessed sleep again.
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| Do you want a bite, Grandma? |
I sat on the other side of Mary and sang songs for at 2 and a half year old.
Rhiannon is ready for the simplest of tunes, even when she is sick. I thought she should learn Little Tommy Tinker / sat upon a clinker ... but one song about a dog moves into another dog song.
Before long she was joining in on “How Much is that Doggie in the Window”.
Leo has a drum downstairs by the bead workshop, a four foot drum that doesn’t have a drum skin on it yet.
We could call down the drum and hear our voices echo – Whose dog / dog / dog is down there / there /there.
As well Rhiannon is the perfect candidate for matching pitch and tone.
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| Let me think about that note one more time |
Thus endeth my happiness on the simplest pleasures of the day.
Mary made some beads as well.
Arta
Warmth, closeness, and her mother in sight. Just what I was looking for myself at 3am when I couldn't sleep. I am tempted to telephone you, Arta, at Mary's house ... but it is only just past 6am there and others there may not feel so warm and close to me if I disturb their sleep. So instead, I take the fabulous alternative of reading your blog posts.
ReplyDeleteLucky Rhiannon, singing with Grandma Arta. I took up your suggestion of having children's CDs in our car as a way to teach David more songs. Julie, my co-worker, and I have a "babysitting co-op". On the days that she has David, she reports which of the new songs he has taken up singing outside of my ear shot.
Joaquim reported when I got home from work the other day that he had overheard David singing a tune that is not on our children's CD's. I googled the lyrics and discovered they were written in 1992 by Weird Al Yancovic. Here is the chorus sung to the tune of "American Pie".
"We started singin' ...
My my this here Anakin guy
May be Vader someday later - now he's just a small fry
And he left his home and kissed his mommy goodbye
Sayin' "Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
"Soon I'm gonna be a Jedi"
I had not heard that song before. Joaquim and I had a good laugh. David is a whiz at learning new lyrics, and just as you said, Arta -- he is just as quick to pick up a new tune.
Thanks for the tips on how to teach David music. He must have heard that song on youtube while watching starwars lego re-enactments.
I am not that familiar with pop satirist Weird Al Yancovic. For the five year old, here, we have been singing songs from the Reader's Digest Canadian Family Songbook. So far we have learned the following:
ReplyDelete1. The Squid Jiggin Song
2. Four Strong Winds
3. I's the Bye
4. Early Mornin Rain
5. The Huron Carol
6. I Know an Old Lady
7. Tumbling, Tumble Weed -- not that fun to sing if you don't know all of the westerns from the 1940's. On the other hand, if you are taking piano lessons, a nice song built on the chromatic scale.
Ta dum, ta deh.
Arta