Rachel's singing

All my children have loved to sing made-up songs when they were little. Rachel has kept it up longer than the others. The whole first day of our camping trip for her 6th birthday, she sang a tuneless song that repeated these phrases (in no particular order), "Camping, we're going camping, I love camping, camping for my birthday, camping is fun ..."

The next day Dominic took the kids fishing. She happily sang, "Going fishing, fishing for my birthday, going to catch a fish, camping and fishing ..."

Where is the logic in that?

Today is Rachel's birthday! It was also Cub Scout Pack meeting, in which Benjamin received his Bear (yay!). They planned to have a group of Native American dancers come and perform. The music was loud, of course. Rachel kept covering her ears and complaining. Eventually she told me, "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm sleepy." 

I wanted to stay until the end. So, trying to encourage her to want to stay I said, "Rachel, this dancing and drumming is part of your heritage." 

She looked confused and said, "How will that solve my problems?" 

Good point.

Made-up Lyrics

If you haven't heard it yet, there's a popular song that says, "What does the fox say? Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!" Tonight Lisy came up to me singing, "What does the mom say? No-no-no-no-no-no-no!"

Benjamin used to replace random words in a song with condiments. Ketchup and mustard were his most often used substitutions. For example: "I am a child of ketchup, and he has sent me mustard." He doesn't sing this way anymore, but he still likes to surprise us with it occassionally.

Rachel loves Frozen and all the songs on it, "Let it Go" being one of her favorites. The other day we were playing outside in the garden. Instead of singing, "Let it go, let it go ... the cold never bothered me anyway," she replaced it with, "Let it grow, let it grow* ... the flowers never made me sneeze."

*Correction: When I read this post to Rachel, she corrected me. She actually sings "Let it bloom..." Oops.

The Monkey Song

Makayla's nickname is Monkey. For Christmas we gave her a new bedsheet covered in monkeys with bubble gum. Dominic made up a song, which all the kids like, to get Makayla excited about her soon-to-be present. Now it's her:

Monkey Song

There's no gum where the monkeys come from
(Not even Dentyn!)
There's no gum where the monkeys come from
(They live in the jungle)
There's no gum where the monkeys come from
(They like pink :)
So when they come here they always ask you for some

Breakfast Conversations

This morning we had a typical breakfast. It was so funny that I kept thinking we should have been recording it somehow. And this is how.

Dominic heard the cat meowing at the door and told Benjamin to let her in. He complied while complaining, "But I don't want my milk to get soggy."

One of Lisy's birthday presents was a baking set with an oven mitt. Samuel was playing with it, and Lisy was trying to get it back. Benjamin took her side and said, "Hey, that's Lisy's oven mint!"

Lisy spilled some milk, like usual, and this time she tried picking it up with her fingers to put it back in her cereal bowl.

Lisy has a singing birthday card that goes something like, "Every girl can beee a princess..." and she plays it all the time. Dominic sang along but altered the words slightly: "Every girl can beee an aardvark." We all laughed. Then Samuel sang his unique version: "Every girl can beee a princess, if she eats an aardvark." Dominic was so proud of him.

And finally, as we were clearing off the table, I noticed a spot on Benjamin's t-shirt. "What's that on your shirt? You just put it on. It can't be dirty already."
Benjamin: "Well, it happened when I wiped up my spilled milk."
Me, trying to clarify the situation: "You used your shirt to wipe up the table?"
Benjamin: "Heheh, yeah."

I love our family meal times.

I'm a little teapot

First verse:
I'm a little teapot short and stout
Here is my handle (put a hand on your hip)
and here is my spout (stick out your other hand)
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout
Tip me over (lean over at the waist)
and pour me out!

Second verse:
I'm a little teapot short and stout
Here is my handle (put a hand on your hip)
and here is my ... (put other hand on other hip, then look down in surprise)
Oops, I'm a little sugar bowl!

Benjamin's verse this afternoon:
I'm a little sugar bowl short and stout
Here is my handle (put hand on hip)
and here is my other handle (he stuck out his other hand)
Oops, I'm a little teapot!

Just a spoonful of sugar ...

"... helps medicine go up!" according to Lisy. We recently watched "Mary Poppins," and the boys are constantly singing "medicine go down" over and over and over. Lisy, on the other hand, happily insists on her own version.

-MR

Literally speaking

One of the lullabies I sing to the kids includes the line:
"Oh, your Daddy's rich, and your Momma's good lookin'."
When the song ended, Samuel said, "I'm glad Daddy's rich."
The funny thing is that his Daddy was unemployed at the time. We had a good laugh about it (but not in front of him).

-MR