A-B-C-B Spider

My son has some wonderful vocal chords and likes to exercise them daily...I have sung to him since he was inside of me (as has his father who has an amazing voice). Music is probably going to be a key component of Greyson's life.

Although I never played an instrument well (stress the well--I certainly tried several including the flute (my preference because the cute girls played it), the clarinet and the bass clarinet--my dream was to play the piano), I have a pretty good sense of rhythm and can at least carry a tune. I love music and sing out loud every chance I get.

James has a great voice and were he not so shy about it could probably have a career in music. He learns lyrics and actually practices singing just for the sheer joy of doing it. He and several members of his family have a garage band and he--by far-- has the best voice, although they all sound pretty good. One of his nephews (Greyson's cousin) plays keyboards and drums, his brother-in-law (Greyson's uncle) plays the guitar extremely well. All of this to say that Greyson is surrounded by people who love music. No one who is a professional musician but many people who truly love the experience of music and having it be a daily part of their life.

Greyson has loved having me sing to him from very early on. I made up several songs for him and a couple of them stuck. He still likes me to sing them every now and then although the request for them is usually replaced by the more current titles he enjoys. When we go to sleep at night, there is usually quite a little medley of songs in our repertoire. The common occurrence is for Greyson to ask "Mommy sing?" and for me to reply with "What would you like Mommy to sing?"

When he first began to speak words, one of the first most adorable things that came out of his mouth was "up above". That was his term for "Twinkle Twinkle" and more specifically what he called stars for a long time. Over a few months, that evolved into "above da world". He still calls stars "above da world" yet knows they are also stars. The song is still referred to as "above da world". That is often the most requested bedtime song. When I figured out that he liked it, I began singing it in many different ways. I would sing it over and over (same words but would change tempo, beat and ryhthym in order to stave off my own boredom). He loved it and would listen for very long periods of time often falling asleep. Then slowly, he began singing along. When I heard that sweet little voice singing with me, I thought my heart would melt. At first, the only part he would sing was "up above da world so high" and then later began trying the others.

Now, after having a child, I have realized that in many ways I have not been a very observant person throughout my life. Somehow, one day, while singing to him in the car...it occurred to me that the "A-B-C's" are sung to the same tune as "Twinkle Twinkle". Most people would probably say "duh" to this but it truly never hit me. So, I began a "Twinkle, Twinkle, A-B-C" medley that he grew to love... He learned his A-B-C's very early (granted missing a few letters but getting the concept for sure and identifying letters even if not each individual one). We sang those two songs quite a bit. I think I may have sang them in every way imaginable.

When Greyson started official childcare (not in-home care), he started learning many more songs than I had remembered to sing to him. One of which was the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". Now, although I had always liked that song as a child, I also found it frustrating because I could never quite figure out those hand movements going up the water spout. One day, Greyson was singing in the middle of the living room and I realized I recognized what he was singing and started to sing it with him. His version was a bit different and made me laugh out loud! It went something like this...

Dee A-B-C-B spider went uppa da spout
down da rain
spider out
out da sun and da rain
da A-B-C-B spider uppa spout again

The hand movements that went along with the song were about as cute as could be and made me realize that pretty much any way one might choose to do the hand movements at this point would probably not be met with much resistance and actually might be appreciated. So, I threw myself out there and tried some gestures still not doing it the way I knew it was supposed to go but nonetheless trying. My adorable encouraging son quickly said "Good job Mommy, Good job! Singa da A-B-C-B spider!"

So, the song has been renamed in our house and this version really is a good one...

We still sing every night. Some nights it's "Twinkle Twinkle", some the "A-B-C's", some nights it is "Good Night Sweetheart" (a Flores family favorite), some it's "Every single time I..." (one of the songs created just for Greyson), some nights the request is for "Jingle Bells" (made popular over the holidays)...the requests keep coming and James and I enjoy getting to sing loudly, softly, individually or together (however the request comes). Who knows maybe one day he will have James' voice, my secret desire to be a singer on stage and the nerve to actually do it! No matter what, I think music will remain an important component of who he is and certainly of his childhood memories.