Do You Follow?

There are times when I have these exchanges with one or both of the girls, and I just have to marvel at a mama’s ability to connect the dots.  Allow me to present a seemingly random set of facts as evidence…

·        We have the book “You’re All My Favorites”.  It is one of the books we keep upstairs, that the girls consider “night-night stories”.  The book is about three baby bears who question how they could all be the best baby bears in the whole wide world…as there are three of them…they couldn’t possibly all be the best.

·        As part of our nighttime routine, the girls alternate sitting in Daddy’s lap while I get pajamas on the other one.  After we snuggle on the bed for our night-night story, the girls again sit in Daddy’s lap while I get everything ready to floss and brush their teeth.

·        The chair we have in the bedroom is a glider.

·        Over the past few months, I’ve started singing, “Rock me gently, rock me slowly, take it easy, don’t you know…” to them (a la Andy Kim’s 1974 hit) as they rock a little bit with Daddy.

·        Ahead of our trip to North Carolina, I made the girls a CD with all their favorite songs.  Included in the compilation is “Rock Me Gently”.  I entitled the CD, “Girls’ Favorites - 2012”.

·        The girls started to get a little anxious, about three hours into our first leg of the trip.  I told them I had a big surprise!  “Would you love to hear your FAVORITE songs???  Mommy made you a CD with all your favorites!!!”  (The girls were tickled, and that CD got us through several sticky points on the drive.)

Fast forward a week or so, and Baby B asked to listen to some music in the car one day.  “Do you want your music [which usually refers to a kiddie CD], or do you want to listen to Mommy and Daddy’s music [usually the radio]?”

“NO!!!  The three bears!!!” Baby B said very adamantly. 

“We’ll be home in a few minutes, Sweetie.  Do you want to read 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'?” 

“NO!!!  The three bears!!!” she said again, almost in tears.  “Mommy, like when we rock, at home…I want the three bears!!!”

Quick!  Mental gymnastics immediately required!

All your favorites…”You’re All My Favorites”…rocking…singing…BINGO!  Mommy to the rescue!

I dialed up “Rock Me Gently” on the CD that I just happened to still have in the changer, and all was well with the world.

I knew all those games of connect the dots played as a child would come in handy eventually.