Silly Monkey!

Almost every night I put JD to bed and we have a very strict routine... we sit in the rocking chair and read one book (usually the same one every night), then JD gets up, turns off the lights, and comes back to to rock while I sing him songs. We always start off with Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer, move through Jingle Bells and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, then we start back into the classics, Twinkle, Twinkle, You Are My Sunshine, and Rockabye Baby (which in our case is Rockabye JD). The other night I was trying to calculate how many times I've sang those songs since the kids were born.... 365 days per song, per kid, multiply that by how old they are and....ok, I'm not a math person, but it's A LOT.

JD usually just listens to me sing, it's rare that he wants to sing along. But recently he learned a song in class that he LOVES called 5 Silly Monkeys. At first I couldn't understand him, other than the first line of "5 silly monkeys swingin' on a tree" so I googled the words and up it came. It's such a cute little song and I can see why he loves it so much. But what makes my heart melt is listening to him sing it to me before bed. It always brings me back to the days when he couldn't talk. Music was one of the first things that he really gravitated to and I feel like it's opened up a world to him where he can not only learn new things, but express his feelings. Music is safe to him, it's repetitive, it's predictable. That's why he loves for me to sing the exact same songs every night. It's a controlled piece of his day - he knows exactly what to expect and I know it soothes him to hear the words flow as we rock. 

I'm really thankful for music and for the things it's done for JD. Singing before bedtime has become such a big part of my life that I really hope he never wants me to stop. :)

5 Silly Monkeys

5 Silly Monkeys Swinging on a Tree

Teasing Mr. Alligator...

"Can't Catch Me!" 

Along Came Mr. Alligator

Quiet as Can Be

and... SNAP!

the Monkey Right out of the Tree!