Musical Babies.

My husband and I met in college, on the dorm floor. As in, we were neighbors... on the music floor. Yes, Temple University has an entire floor devoted to its music and dance students. This is an overdramatic mess. But it's sort of fun, too... if you don't mind someone playing trumpet in the common room at 1 a.m. every few days.

In any case, my husband has both a performance and education degree in music, and I have a minor (I switched to journalism after 1.5 years of voice. Opera star? Seriously?). My point in this is really that with two musical parents, Gabriel is destined to be surrounded with... surround sound.

And he loves music. He dances on demand (Literally, we say, "Dance," and off he goes). He loves every little piece we have played for him, from classical to jazz to folk to plain old radio. It's wonderful, and we look forward to fostering his love of music wherever it takes him.

One little thing my husband discovered that is a real hit? The video below. There are quite a few of these videos on youtube-- classical pieces dissected by meticulous music theory students and illustrated with pain-staking detail. But the videos are musical in presentation, AND they keeps baby quite engaged. Something that our television does not do (oh how proud I am that my baby is not interested in television)! I love that it tantalizes Gabe's ears and eyes together.

So, check it out~ it's fun for adults, too.

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Tonight, when my husband and I went into our nightly routine of trying to get the baby to bed by 9 (ha), Gabriel was having none of it. We don't do cry-it-out because we simply cannot handle it, but because Gabe is just about eight months old and he is starting to understand the concept of bedtime, we are starting to put him down and letting him fuss (not full out cry) 2-4 minutes before heading into his bedroom to console him. Up until last night, he never fell asleep in his crib on his own.

So this evening, when I went into calm my little one, he was on all fours, grabbing the sides of his crib and readying himself to pull up when I started to sing the only song in the rolodex that easily calms him at any time...

"Twinkle Twinkle Little Star..."

And after round twenty-two of the song, lowering my voice every round as I rubbed his back, eventually hitting a round of whispering the song, Gabriel fell asleep.

How sweet it is for your little boy to fall asleep soothed by your singing. I've been writing about Goober falling asleep lately, and maybe that's because my husband and I are starting to really miss our sleep. He is not sleeping through the night, waking between 11-1 to nurse, then sometimes again at 3, and finally between 5-7 to nurse or to get up for the day. We're tired. But those little sing-song moments make it sweet.
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P.S. It seems Gabe had roseola. He broke out in a full rash today after his 3.5 days of fever. Poor little dude. It was all over him. And he got a bad diaper rash from his diarrhea (TMI)-- he's in a disposable (gasp!) tonight so that I could slather him in rash cream and surgilube.