A couple months ago Annalyn asked me to sing her a lullaby before bed. We sing a lot around our house, but I’ve never made it a habit to sing to her or with her at bedtime. No, this was simply a ploy to prolong bedtime.
But I’m not completely cold-hearted. Asking for a lullaby seemed a reasonable request. There was just one problem. I didn’t know any lullabies.
Sure, sure, I could sing “Rockabye Baby,” but it’s kind of scary, you know? “When the bough breaks, the baby will fall . . .” Whaaaaa? No thanks.
I tried Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and Jesus Loves Me. And Annalyn probably would’ve been satisfied with that. After all, staying awake another 90 seconds was her end goal in this thing and it didn’t really matter what song we used to achieve that.
But I felt like this was a real Mom Fail. Do I seriously not know a single [good] lullaby?
Never fear. Eventually I remembered the catchiest lullaby ever from the long-forgotten but much-loved movie, Three Men and a Baby.
That’s right. The lullaby of choice at our house is Good Night, Sweetheart, made famous (to me) by Ted Danson, Tom Selleck and Steve Guttenberg. Mark and Sandi have played along, singing harmony and “do-do-ti-do-do” back-up, but Annalyn reported that my dad refused. According to my tattletale daughter, her grandpa doesn’t know that song. “Whatever,” I informed her. “He’s seen that movie at least as many times as I have!”
What songs do you love to sing in your family? What’s your favorite lullaby?
P.S. I don’t play the guitar, during lullabies or otherwise. I just thought that was a cool photo for this post.
I usually end up with something from Peter Pan – the broadway version. Tender Shepard (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsE4mwWuRZU) or Distant Melody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjCpBCzE0wg)
Oh, those are lovely! Thank you for sharing, Vicki!
Wow! I had a similar moment when Lucy was a wee tiny baby and I was trying to sing her songs. I realized that I really didn’t know too many songs. I had to rely on Jesus Loves Me, Amazing Grace (which I do luckily know three verses of), and…a couple of Jimmy Buffett slow tunes.
Oh, Sarah, how much do I love that you sing her Jimmy Buffet songs? (A lot. I love it a lot.)
Let’s see, right now we are into re-writing songs for our bedtime songs. So I sing “Drive, Drive, Drive the tractor” to the tune of “Row, Row, Row your boat” and “Hush Little Monster” to the tune of “Hush Little Baby” (that’s right, I’m a musical genius!). One of my favorite memories is having my mom sing the last verse of the Lawrence Welk ending song to me, so I always sang that to my older daughers.
Jenn, I love that! We rewrite a lot of songs here, too!
This is my lullaby song too! I mean, it’s what I think of first anyway. :) And I’m sure I’ve sung it to my niece before when babysitting. :) It is a good (and catchy) one!
Very catchy – especially when you add the backup. (Which I usually just do in my head, but still.) :)