rockabye baby

lately i've been having trouble remembering the words to lullabies. and by lately i mean since wil was born. in the beginning i would just forgo the singing and hum or make the shhhhhh sound but that's not working so well anymore. singing works and as we all know, when something works, go with it. i remember certain songs (twinkle, twinkle & rockabye baby) but i only get so far before the words escape me. when this happens, as it often does, i launch into my old standbys: jesus loves me and take me out to the ballgame. i know all the words to both of those. usually a few choruses of jesus loves me followed by one or two slow, singer-songerwriter versions of take me out to the ballgame and we have a sleeping wil. but not always.

driving home from north carolina a few weeks ago was the pits. we drove 55 mph in a torential downpour almost the entire way which added hours to our trip. we also took a wrong exit in washington d.c. taking us through the city and not around it. fun to see the pentagon but not at the expense of another half hour added to the drive. needless to say...the trip was long and we starting to feel it.

as we approached the new jersey border the rain broke, sun came out and we picked up the pace. we were feeling good and beginning to see home on the horizon. then we hit a wall of traffic. s-l-o-w again. slow. really slow. stopped. slow. stopped. slow. sigh. we fumbled our way along the turnpike. we got 45 miles from home. we were overjoyed. ryan turned the sirius to BACKSPIN and we rapped along with the notorious B.I.G. and puffy. good times.

just as big poppa was wrapping up wil decided he was done with the ride. done being in the car. done being nice about it. done being patient. done, done, done. DONE. to drive the point home wil began to wail. he was distraught. he was beside himself. it was apparent that he wasn't going to stop. we tried everything. loud SHHHHHHHHHHH. whistling. windows down. windows up. i crawled in the back seat and tried to help. nothing was going to work. nothing. ryan suggested soft singing. we'd already tried loud singing. so i started a very soft version of take me out to the ball game. VIOLA! it worked. he began to calm down and soon he was quite and still, watching me sing. 30 minutes of take me out to the ball game and jesus loves me will take a toll on anyone. desperate for another song i couldn't think of one. well, not really. i couldn't think of an appropriate one. in fact, the only song i could think of wasn't just inappropriate, it was weird. but i was blank. ryan was blank. and so, having no choice, i began the slow, soft version of the boyz II men hit, i'll make love to you. i sang (not to him, but at him...very important to note that difference), wil smiled and ryan couldn't stop saying, "this is just wrong." we thought of ross & rachel singing baby got back to emma and persevered.

we laughed. we wanted to cry but we laughed harder. we were exhausted. we were punch drunk. we were completely out of ideas but we took a chance on the one we had. and, guess what, it worked. please don't call CPS. i promise to google lullabies...see if i can't learn the lyrics to a few age appropriate songs, er, uh, relationship appropriate songs.

until then...good night. sleep tight.