the magic of song

I suppose I'm feeling sappy and sentimental, since Ellie will start kindergarten in 2 days (eek!) Last night as I was putting Annie to bed, she asked me to rock her and then asked for a song. This has always been our bedtime routine with Annie, until we moved her to her big girl bed. After that, she decided that she just wanted to lay down. No rocking, No singing. I guess she thought she was too big for that! Anyway, when she asked to be rocked last night, I happily said, "Of Course!"

As I rocked her and sang to her, I started thinking about all the special songs I have sung to my children.

When Ellie was a tiny baby, she would sleep in our bed. Every morning when she'd wake up next to me, I'd look at her tiny, sweet face, and think of that song, Good Morning Beautiful. It's a country song by Steve Holy (I just put it on my playlist over to the right!). I realize that it's a love song, but most of the lyrics fit with my feelings for Ellie. I would sing this song to her often. She was so very beautiful.

I think Annie was about 1 year old, when I started singing this song to her when I put her to bed. I tried many songs, but ended up singing one that I made up, almost every night. We call it the "Annie song". I would sing...

Good night, to my Annie, my little baby girl. Good night, my Annie girl, my Annie, Annie, Annie girl. My precious sweet sweet Annie Gracie girl.

I still sing it to her when she let's me.

When Austin came along, we were on the go a lot. When the kids would get fussy (aka; the girls would be screaming!) in the car, I would pop in the Kindermusik CD that has the "Hush Little Baby" song on it. It would always calm everybody down, including me! It quickly became my favorite song to sing to Austin, and, although I often just sing a few bars, it usually works like magic to calm him down.

I always want to remember what songs I sang to my babies when they were little. Hence, this post. I love the tenderness that envelops us when I sing.