Lullabies (reposted)
Isaac didn’t want breakfast today, yesterday, or the day before. He did want to throw kamut puffs, deliberately and one at a time, onto the floor. I think he likes the crunching sound when I walk on them. After he throws them, he points at the bag of cereal and whines for more. So instead of talking about breakfast I’m going to talk about lullabies. Isaac has been falling asleep on his own recently - Shannon puts him in the crib after she nurses him and he talks to himself a little bit, then passes out. This is a huge relief and help and it’s made our lives better in a dozen ways. But it means I don’t rock and sing him to sleep anymore, and that’s made my nights a little bit poorer. I’m going to post the ten songs I’ve sung to him most often these last ten months. Singing a baby to sleep is a little like ballroom dancing. You lead, but you match your partner’s pace and look for clues to how to vary the steps. If he’s crying, you start loud and deliberate; if he’s writhing and twisting, you move faster, if he’s almost asleep, you move slowly and sing softly. All of these were sung slow and low and more quietly as he went from animated (when he loved to grab my mouth while I shushed him) to quiet to glazed to horizontal across one arm. The last one, Eliyahu Hanavi, is a traditional Jewish hymn. It’s hard to find a non-ridiculous YouTube recording of it; the one here is at least interesting. But sung sufficiently slowly, it has proved to be hypnotic. It’s the last thing he heard before he fell asleep most nights and the one thing I sing (Shannon has her own tricks) that consistently knocks him out.
