Lullabies

Lullabies have been a part of The Brothers bedtime routines for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I was not blessed with the gift of song. Fortunately, they are still too young to care. For Little I usually stick to a classic like "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". Short, sweet, to the point, and gets the job done. However, now that Big is getting older he has started to put in some requests. The routine usually goes something like this; I ask what he wants to hear. He makes up a song title (often based on something he sees around his room, or some completely random thought in his head). Last night he requested "Cars and Trucks" and "Mouse on Top of the House". Since neither of these are actual songs I then have to wing it. Regardless of the song topic I try to send the same basic message - go to sleep, Dear God please go to sleep! So "Cars and Trucks" goes something like this...

Cars and trucks in my room.
They are getting tired, very very tired.
They need to sleep.
Cars and trucks going to sleep in my bed.
Good-night cars.
Good-night trucks.

and "Mouse on Top of the House" might sound like this...
There is a mouse on top of my house.
He is going to bed, because he is so tired.
The mouse is getting into bed
Such a sleepy mouse
going to sleep
he is going to sleep
good-night sleepy mouse
don't get up until the morning.

My theory is that my (not so) subliminal messaging makes him tired and helps him go to sleep faster. This theory has yet to be proven and in fact it has been in the testing stage for quite awhile now. However, I am not giving up. If nothing else the message is always consistent, whether we are singing about the hall light, spaghetti that we had for dinner, or tennis shoes. I think he may be testing me to see if there is anything that can not somehow be tied back into sleeping. But with this basic song writing formula I've developed the possiabilities are really endless!