Twinkle, Twinkle, Little – Hannah?

photo credit: *~sTeRnDaL~*
One of the very first things that I can remember doing, back when my oldest daughter was born, was singing to her. Now, I’m by no means an accomplished singer – probably mediocre at best. But when I looked at that sweet baby face and into those beautiful baby eyes, I just had to sing to them.

It started in the car, really. I mean, there’s really not much conversation potential with an infant in the back seat – rear-facing to boot. But I felt the need to communicate with her in some fashion – so music became it.

We had at that time, only one lullaby CD – and before too long, I had every single song memorized. I generally sang them exactly as performed, with only one exception that I can think of.  In the song, Dance to Your Daddy – oddly enough I sang it with the ‘Daddy’ intact, but since I was singing to a baby girl and not a ‘laddie’, I always changed it to ‘my little Abby’. Hey, it did kind of rhyme even.

By the time our second daughter came around, I had a much more extensive mental playlist – and I wasn’t afraid to use, and abuse, it. Pretty much any song was fair game – although the point in this case was more to elicit laughter from a toddler than to entertain her baby sister. And a giggling toddler is pretty good entertainment for a baby anyway.. So, the sillier the lyrics, the better.

And did the lyrics ever get silly…  I can remember her laughing uproariously to “Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a… bowl of spaghetti!”  That particular line came from my friend’s son, who was probably about 7 or 8 at the time – and a very eager little song re-writer himself. 

Another song that I massacred re-wrote was ‘Baby Bumblebee’ – which I used to distract babies or toddlers from the fact that I was attempting to wipe their faces after meals. My version went something like this:

I’m wiping up my baby Abby-girl (Hannah-bear) (Becca-boo),
Won’t her mommy be so proud of her,
I’m wiping up my baby Abby-girl (Hannah-bear) (Becca-boo),
Now her mommy won’t be mad at her!

Yeah, I know – not exactly Oscar-worthy lyrics here. But it did the trick.

One thing that I tried to do often (and still do, especially with my youngest) is to incorporate their names into songs. Lines like “Twinkle, twinkle little… Becca”, “Abby had a little lamb”, and “I love you, Hannah, oh yes I do” found their way into my repertoire. For some reason, kids love when they hear their names in song – especially when it’s not usually supposed to be there.

There’s one song out there that makes everyone giggle: “Beans, beans the musical fruit…”  Sure it’s funny, but it’s inaccurate.  Beans are not a fruit, they’re a vegetable!  So Bush’s Beans has issued a challenge to all budding lyricists: Rewrite the chant that begins, “Beans, beans” to spread the word that beans are a vegetable.  Check out their Magical Veggie Challenge for all the details!

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Bush’s Beans.