do you/did you sing to your babies?

[cyteen]

and if so, what did you sing?

my 7 week old DS loves being sung to but i find myself struggling a bit for inspiration. at the moment he likes 'kumbaya' and 'michael rowed the boat ashore' which are okay as you can make up endless verses e.g. "someone's grizzling, m'lord, kumbaya". i also sing him a song my mum used to sing to us, don't know what it is or where it came from but he likes it:

i see the moon, the moon sees me
under the shade of the old oak tree
please let the light that shines on me
shine on the one i love

over the ocean, over the sea
that's where my heart is longing to be
please let the light that shines on me
shine on the one i love

DP has had success with 'you'll never get to heaven' and 'bohemian rhapsody'

what were your surprise hits and misses?

Oh, I sing to them every evening. Most are in norwegian. This one is in Swedish, byssan lull and is the most beautiful lullaby in the world.

Oh, I sing to them every evening. Most are in norwegian. This one is in Swedish, byssan lull and is the most beautiful lullaby in the world.

To the tune of Hokey Cokey (I think) endlessly:

A nice clean bum a nice clean bum
Watcha gonna do when you see your mum?
Youre gonna have to tell her it's already been done and
I've got a nice clean bum

The new one's on
It's been arranged
I'm feeling so much better now that I've been changed
I'm playing in my gym and I'm having fun
Cos I've got a nice clean bum

I sing hush little baby, but it has somehow morphed into Mush little baby....

Mush little baby, don't say a word,
Mummy's going to buy you a great big bird,
If that great big bird won't sing,
Mummy's going to buy you a diamond ring,
If that diamond ring won't shine
Mummy's going to have a glass a wine,
If that glass of wine gets broke,
Mummy's going to have a cup of coke,
If that cup of coke falls over,
Mummys going to get a dog named Mark,
If that dog named Mark won't bark,
Mummy's going to buy you horse and cart
If that horse and cart falls down
You'll still be the sweetest little big girl in Sainsburys.

what can I say, it just evolved....!

sand james taylor 'sweet baby james' and 'youve got a riend' and 'fire and rain' to all 3 dc.
ds2 liked aretha franklin,ottis redding,van morrison(which is now only thing he'll allow us to listen to in car!) and sheryl crow.

sang i mean

My 2 DSs (now 6 and 4) still want their 'sleepy songs' at bedtime.

These consist of 2 Irish folk songs, The Galway Shawl and Nancy Spain, followed by a medley of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Baa Baa Black Sheep and Mary Mary.

I used to sing these to them when they were breastfeeding and now they seem to have a soporific effect on them.

Only thing is that DS1 has started listening to the actual lyrics now and says Nancy Spain makes him feel sad. (This is the kid that at one year old used to cry pitifully when the man who played violin music in the town square played a sad tune.)

When Daddy does sleepy songs they insist on it being Whisky in the Jar. (Daddy's a big Thin Lizzy Fan!)

I also used to sing 'You Are My Sunshine' to them a lot when they were babies and am embarrassed to admit both were treated to regular renditions of John Denver's Annies Song (You Fill Up My Senses etc etc) whilst still in the womb.

Despite my folksy brainwashing, DS2 has announced he is going to be a 'Wock Star' when he grows up and DS1s all time favourite song is Steps 5-6-7-8 !

Oh yes, and we (the boys and I, not Daddy) love to sing Elvis really loudly - especially Blue Suede Shoes and TROUBLE!

Sorry folks, dunno how I manage it but I seem to kill these threads every time.

I sing to DS (16 months)all the time, even walking along with him in the Ergo. He used to get really attached to certain songs when he was tiny that would stop him crying. Once it was the phrase "baby snakes" sung over and over again to the tune of the "A Team" .

Once it was a blood curdling pirate folk song "O My Name is William Kidd" which raised some eyebrows on the bus as I crooned "I murdered William Moore, and left him in his gore, not thirty leagues from shore, and I sail and I sail..." to soothe my boy.

I also tinkered with the last verse to "Soldier Soldier" for my own amusement...

"O no sweet maid I cannot marry you,
for I am a lovely gay man.
So off she went to her grandfather's chest
And she brought him some chaps
And a lovely rubber vest
And the soldier put them on !"

The only song he's always really loved is "Tell Me Ma" which I know from the Sinead O'Connor cd "Sean-Nós Nua". He's also recently got into songs with actions through going to toddler groups. I love doing them with him - hilarious.

Oh this make sme feell all teary. I love singing and i always sang when i was pregnant.I worked with my sister and we used to sing all day to pass the time. I sang ds 1 to death and now i dont get much chance as he is 9(although i still sing in general!)

I have a new victim now with ds 2!lol. All my old fave's from ds1 are coming out!

You are my sunshine
Twinkle twinkle
Molly Malone
Any nursery rhymes i can remember
Waltzing Matilda
anything that comes into my head

In fact i do a sort of a melody!

At Christmas, i do a Christmas melody. My voice is crap, but my children think i sound lovely

DD is 5mths. I have the world's worst voice but have sung to her since she was born. Mostly a load of rubbish about what we are doing to a tune I made up (poor child!).

She loves ITNG so often sing Upsy Daisy, Tombleboo and Igglepiggle songs (I can also do the dances )

Oh i make my own weird versions up too of songs, sing the right tune , just change the words. I am mad!

I sang constantly poor little bugger as a baby, especially when I was running out of chat...everything from assorted nursery rhymes to songs from the musicals and sang along loudly to CDs (still do....Hot Fuss by the Killers is known as 'helicopter music' and requested regularly.)

Oh yes,

two little boys
dream a little dream
bring me sunshine
the rose
lullaby on broadway

and no surprises by Radiohead a la Denise in The Royle Family

Lol at floria. I am surprised my ds1 learned proper speech. I often go for the sound oF Music and The Wizard of Oz too!! I seriously sound like a loon at home.

I often have a Patsy Cline or Connie Francis day to!

My favourite songs to sing to my DC is 'Sea of Love' and 'You are my Sunshine'

They are 2.6 and 3.5 they love singing themselves now and always sing along to the radio. DD does a mean version of Ida Maria's 'I like you so much better when your naked'

Yes

Moonshadow - Cat stevens
Close to you - carpenters
Teddy bears picnic
The first time, ever I saw your face
You are my sunshine

Anything and everything really, but these are the favourites.

dp sings a lot of the kids' songs from the sessions he takes ds to at the music library, and ds has been heard singing bits of The Wheels on the Bus and Hokey Cokey (in out in out in out) to himself in the buggy (he's 17 months).

He had Puff the Magic Dragon and songs from Two Pints of Lager sung to him a lot when he was small, mostly by dp. I can't really sing but sometimes try.

He likes listening/dancing to whatever comes on on random shuffle on the ipod as well, or on playlists, but we haven't done it so much since he's become hooked on cbeebies as he heads straight for the TV instead.

Yup, all the time and still do. When he was a baby it was always Brahms Lullaby (in German) at bedtime, and before he was born and for quite a long time after I used to sing Honey For The Bee which is an adaptation of a folk song by a vocal group called The Witches of Elswick... He got fed up with that by the time he was 18 months though. I also used to sing Hey Little Apple Blossom by the White Stripes, Sand by Lee Hazelwood and sometimes (when he was teething and wouldn't sleep and I was running out of ideas) Because The Night.
We sing at toddler group and he loves to sing along with Cbeebies and kids tv songs. Favourite at the moment is Captain farking Mack which drives me mental... but bedtime these days is always Old MacDOnald with DS' (who is now 4)own choice of animals. WHich have included a cuttlefish, a train, a caterpillar, an alpaca, a doctor and his keyworker from nursery....

My ds 2 loves teddy bears picnic too!

LOL at Snippety's lovely gay man!

Dalrymps - yesterday while soothing a hungry DS, my partner ended up singing 'just like me, he longs to be close to boobs'

ds loved Abba and Jamiroquai when he was a baby, and I used to sing him to sleep with the Carpenters Close To You, which he still asks for when he's poorly (he's 4)
His own musical tastes - he now prefers Fat Boy Slim and the Black Eyed Peas!

yes, all the time

top favourites on the bedtime list at the moment are David Gray's The One I Love and the Pogues' Waltzing Matilda, both of which are actually quite depressing and gruesome, but dd seems to like them

DH has a different repertoire that includes Bon Jovi's Bed of Roses and a lot of Simon & Garfunkel

of course absolutely anything goes during the day - she will request things by doing the actions and you have to sing along...

I have a vivd memory of pushing a tiny dd home in the pram at top speed belting out 'Sally MacLennane' to stop the wailing and meeting one of the very staid old ladies from my very staid choir coming the other way...

forgot neil young.

whatever is on the radio, we're working our way through our CDs too, the nursery rhymes i can remember plus odd made up nonsense like:

you're a little stinker i love you
you're a little stinker i love your poo
i love your poo and i love your wee
you're a little stinker do you love me?

this was created in the early weeks when every wet/dirty nappy was welcome proof that breast feeding was working ok