Singing

Laurel is getting ready to sing -- you couldn't yet call it singing, but she rhythmically chants words we recognize as song lyrics.

She started about a month ago with "The Wheels on the Bus," which goes something like this:

Baby bus, move on back, move on back
People bus, swish swish swish
Baby bus, open and shut, open and shut
Mama bus, shh shh shh

Her favorite part is "the babies on the bus," so many of her verses start with "bee-bee bus."

Craig has also noticed her pushing Lego trains around the living room as she chants this Pete Seeger lyric to herself: "The train is a-comin', oh yeah."

And when I rock with her on the loveseat-swing at the edge of our lawn, I often sing "Rock-a-Bye Baby" (or "Row, Row, Row Your Boat," for some reason), although I usually change the lyrics to include her name. She has just recently started requesting the tune by half-singing it herself -- she says, "Rock Laurel, treetop."

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Isaac still sings sometimes, too, although not as much as he once did. (I think we adults don't sing to him as often; these days he's more interested in hearing us tell made-up stories.) Anyway, earlier this month he was singing this song of his own invention to Laurel (to the tune of the Sesame Street classic "Rubber Ducky"):

Little baby you're the one
You make life so much fun
Little baby I'm awfully proud of you

Actually, he sings "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" quite a lot.