The little singer
For about the first year of Mallory’s life Irene and I walked, rocked and sang her to sleep with a bottle of breast milk. And even after we substituted lying in bed and reading stories, I would occasionally sing her a song or two after lights out.
There was a moment during this phase where she – to my delight – expressed a preference for one tune in my repertoire. “Sing the lullaby song,†she asked me once. I was amazed. But then she amazes me daily.
But yesterday evening, we were on our way home after day care, playing a game where we all had pretend snowmen and were pretending to put them to sleep. I don’t know how it came up but it was determined that Mallory’s snowman needed a song.
Suddenly she opened up – in tune, even – with: “As I walked down by the river side, one evening in the spring / heard a long gone song [mumble mumble] norf wind… ay bee cee dee eff gee…”
Irene and I looked at each other. Astounded.
