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lullaby

January 1, 2016 / 16 Comments

Do you have a favorite lullaby to sing? Would you tell me its name, if so? I’d like to build my collection, write them all down on a post-it note and stick it over the couch. Quote more poetry. Hum more tunes. Alma May, born December 29th at 11:30pm deserves the very best.

alma_may

quotes from a few online essays I loved lately…

“My mom is nothing but love and comfort and happiness to me, and she found even the smallest ways to make us girls feel loved: turning down our covers at night, always playing music, or popping our towels in the dryer to warm them up minutes before our baths were over. Those are the kind of simple, happy memories I want my own kids to have of home.”

-Amelia’s interview on DesignMom

A few years ago, before we decided to start a family, I once feared that when a baby entered our lives I would somehow forget everything I learned about cooking because all my energy would be used to keep a tiny human alive and breathing. I’m happy to report this is not the case. In fact, I’ve discovered the opposite to be true. I’ve remembered how to cook, relying on the muscle memory of peeling and chopping and seasoning and putting meals together, gravitating to tried and true staples rather than trying new dishes with questionable outcomes.”

–Remembering How to Cook, by Nicole Gulotta

“Make coffee/drink coffee, inhale/exhale, walk outside/feel your feet on the earth, open the book/read the pages, get off the internet/be present in your home.”

–Jodi, Happy New Day, Practicing Simplicity 

“So 2015. You seem like a year of sunlight extended hours and while I know the tan is worth it, you aged me with your lines of wisdom and your creases of grace. I look in the mirror and see so many things staring back. But mostly, a woman who is changing, a family that is growing, and a savior that is gracious indeed. ”

-Mary Beth, Wishing You Good Cheer, Rosemary Wild

 

 

16 Comments

  • Una

    January 1, 2016 at 3:24 pm Reply

    Congratulations on your sweet new baby!

    My heart melted during the scene in the movie Away We Go, where Maya Rudolph sings Mr. Tambourine Man to her niece — so soft and so sweet. It’s not a traditional lullaby by any means, but sung with that softness, it does the trick. While I don’t have any babies of my own, I’ve had some extensive training in the lullaby department from the children I nannied for in college, and singing that song while they drifted off to sleep was a quiet moment I (and they) loved.

  • Bex

    January 1, 2016 at 6:57 pm Reply

    Coming out of lukerdom to say, Congratulations on beautiful Alma! Any song sung at the right speed with the right level of softness makes a good lullaby – I sang the standards to my first (Brahms lullaby, Mockingbird, all the pretty horses – which, by the way, have you heard the origins of that one? Disturbing) but it was the soft and slow renditions of Beatles songs that worked the best – Michelle, Hey Jude, yesterday.

  • Erin

    January 1, 2016 at 7:49 pm Reply

    Congratulations on Alma!

    We sing:

    Little Willow (PaulMcCartney)
    Blessed Be (AllisonKrauss)
    Close Your Eyes (JamesTaylor)
    Edelweiss (from TheSoundofMusic)
    With My Own Two Hands (Ben Harper)

  • Renee Beauregard Lute

    January 2, 2016 at 3:14 am Reply

    So many congratulations! I love your blog for many, many reasons (I’m from Massachusetts but live in Washington State, and your photos are like fabulous memories. I’m pregnant with my third now, and love reading about your approach to gentle, adventurous parenting. Your writing is wonderful), and was so glad to read this post.
    I sing Moon, Moon, Moon to both of my children (and to the belly). That’s a household favorite, recorded by Laurie Berkner.
    I sing When You Wish Upon a Star and A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, because even though we didn’t plan for our three year old to be infatuated with princesses, she is.
    When my two year old was an infant, he loved Eye of the Tiger. Now his every night song is “Goodnight, My Simon” (to the tune of Goodnight, My Someone), as he loves that it’s about him.

  • Lisa

    January 2, 2016 at 9:28 am Reply

    Warmest congratulations to you and your family. And thank you, thank you for including that bit from “Rosemary Wild.” Such wonderful words.

  • Hannah

    January 3, 2016 at 2:36 am Reply

    We love “Beautiful Boy” by John Lennon, Breakfast At Tiffany’s “Moon River,” the theme song from Tinkerbell’s Legend of the Neverbeast, “Tonight You Belong To Me,” from that Steve Martin movie I can’t remember the name of… among many. Lullabies are very important in our house!

  • Amanda

    January 4, 2016 at 5:06 pm Reply

    Congratulations! Alma is just as lovely as could be!

    I often sing, “My Bonnie lies over the ocean” to my girls. Bonus – it would probably fit nicely on a post-it!

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