Managing Motherhood: ABC Da-Da-Da
Spartacus loves music.
At Grandma's house, he has a boombox in his room which has a silly toddler songs CD in it. The first song is "Wheels on the Bus," and he requests it any time he has to nap or go to bed there. At our house, it's a Veggie Tales Sunday School song CD, and the first song is "Deep and Wide." Occasionally he asks us to sing other songs with him that he learns at daycare. Any parent of young children is thrilled when the child talks about what they learned at school...and often baffled when we can't figure out what they are telling us with such excitement.
Spartacus
asks at bedtime to sing songs like "He's Got the Whole World in His
Hands" and "Jesus Loves Me," songs they sing at school. Also for about
the past year he's been asking for "ABC Da da da." We were flummoxed,
so just made up a version that he seemed to be satisfied with. (For
about a year he also had this odd phrase he'd say that sounded like,
"Bis a min a apis." We never figured that out, and for awhile he tacked
on the end a mimicry of our, "I don't know what means!")
As his enunciation improved, we realized he was asking for "ABC Cha-cha-cha." Finally, when I dropped him off at daycare one morning last week his teacher was singing along to a preschool CD, and she was singing the real ABC Cha-cha-cha song. What a revelation!
As I was leaving I ran into a friend whose daughter is in class with Spartacus. I told her how I had just witnessed the real ABC Cha-cha-cha, and she replied, "Oh I know! We had no idea either. We Googled it and couldn't find it so just made it up." It turns out our made-up versions sounded a lot alike.
In conversation with my neighbor whose oldest son is 9 months older than Spartacus, we lamented how our kids can know stuff we didn't teach them because they go to daycare or a babysitter. She said she was considering homeschooling so she could continue to be a part of that educational process. I'm not sure I'm ready to think about "real" school just yet, but for now I will ask his teacher for the name of the toddler song CD so I can keep up on his DJ requests.
In other childhood epiphanies -
As baby Buttercup approaches 8 weeks old, she has begun to discover she can affect the world around her - in this clip she is bopping the giraffe on her baby gym. With Annabelle's constant vigilance it's hard to play on the floor safely, but she is starting to enjoy reaching out to grab toys (or hair or earrings) and seeing a reaction when she does.
At Grandma's house, he has a boombox in his room which has a silly toddler songs CD in it. The first song is "Wheels on the Bus," and he requests it any time he has to nap or go to bed there. At our house, it's a Veggie Tales Sunday School song CD, and the first song is "Deep and Wide." Occasionally he asks us to sing other songs with him that he learns at daycare. Any parent of young children is thrilled when the child talks about what they learned at school...and often baffled when we can't figure out what they are telling us with such excitement.
As his enunciation improved, we realized he was asking for "ABC Cha-cha-cha." Finally, when I dropped him off at daycare one morning last week his teacher was singing along to a preschool CD, and she was singing the real ABC Cha-cha-cha song. What a revelation!
As I was leaving I ran into a friend whose daughter is in class with Spartacus. I told her how I had just witnessed the real ABC Cha-cha-cha, and she replied, "Oh I know! We had no idea either. We Googled it and couldn't find it so just made it up." It turns out our made-up versions sounded a lot alike.
In conversation with my neighbor whose oldest son is 9 months older than Spartacus, we lamented how our kids can know stuff we didn't teach them because they go to daycare or a babysitter. She said she was considering homeschooling so she could continue to be a part of that educational process. I'm not sure I'm ready to think about "real" school just yet, but for now I will ask his teacher for the name of the toddler song CD so I can keep up on his DJ requests.
In other childhood epiphanies -
As baby Buttercup approaches 8 weeks old, she has begun to discover she can affect the world around her - in this clip she is bopping the giraffe on her baby gym. With Annabelle's constant vigilance it's hard to play on the floor safely, but she is starting to enjoy reaching out to grab toys (or hair or earrings) and seeing a reaction when she does.
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