Until He's 12

When Ironflower and Lovebug were small and had trouble settling down at night, I suggested that we sing them a song. Hot Guy thought I was crazy, because I was always trying to perfect our family routine for maximum behavior ease and he just saw it as one more thing I was making him remember.

Plus, I am the least musical musical theater geek you have ever met. I cannot stay in tune with any song without hours of practice. And even then it's iffy.

This includes things like, "Happy Birthday" and lullabies.

In fact, I am sure that the reason my children aren't better singers is because I've been warping them for all these years.

But I wasn't thinking about that then - I just wanted them to settle down and go to sleep.*

So I started singing them the lullabies I had sung to them when they were born, but I tweaked the words to match their toddler/preschooler lives.

Hot Guy came around to the idea, but because they were so used to me they didn't appreciate his Celtic folksongs and pirate tunes. Also, I think they may have been disconcerted by the fact that he actually sounds good singing. So he wound up singing my warped lullabies too. 

Ironflower was the first to be over her song. By the middle of kindergarten, in fact. I was a little sad, but unsurprised. Ironflower has always been the best sleeper and the most independent, so I'd been expecting it. Plus I still had TWO kids who wanted their lullabies. 

You know where this is going, don't you? 

Lovebug is starting to tell me, "No song, Mom," at night. Not every night, but more often than not. He's in first grade now, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. But I see, in a way that I didn't with Ironflower, that this is the path to not needing a bedtime story or a hug. This is how it starts. 

Hugmonkey better want his* song until he's 12, that's all I'm saying. 

*I honestly can't remember if it helped Ironflower or Lovebug back in the day. I can tell you that it does absolutely nothing to settle Hugmonkey down. 

**Technically, Hugmonkey doesn't have "his" song anymore. By the time he was two, he wanted the same song as his brother. So now there's a Lovebug version and a Hugmonkey version of Lovebug's song.