* Still Rocking...

Some of my favorite moments from childhood were when my mom sang in order to put me to sleep, pushing my hair away from my face, and overall being very calm and relaxing - exactly how we should all get to fall asleep after a hard day. The songs varied but a few were favorites and have stuck in my memory. Particularly "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" "I Gave My Love a Cherry" and "Tell Me Why." I have no idea if those are the correct names or who wrote them so I can not give them the appropriate credit, but whoever they are I am sure they did not sing them as well as my mom.

I have always imagined singing to my children to put them to sleep, but somehow never really did that with David. He has always been such a champion sleeper he never seemed to need it. Along comes Abigail and she was not such a champion sleeper, not even making it out of the first heat in that race. Finally someone who needed the singing and rocking and hair smoothing I always imagined motherhood looked like. We have had many great times singing and rocking before naps and bedtime. We are basically down to just naps now. My patience is admittedly a bit shorter at bedtime, since that is the time I finally seem to go off duty. One of the perks of stay at home motherhood is that your day never ends. Did I call that a perk? :) Anyway the nap time rocking continues and I have begun to think about when that exactly stops. We are well past infant and even toddler stages. She is able to request her songs for the day, labeled the cherry song or the flower song, or even requests of her own "Jesus Loves Me" in particular. She also requests songs not yet written, such as the butterfly song and the popular 'Abigail is a princess' song. The fact that these songs are not yet written does not deter her in any way. (Teenage boys in the future look out - here is a girl that knows what she wants and will not be tricked into anything, a fact that gives me comfort in thinking about those boys in the future)

I think I held onto this tradition because I was unsure if Abigail would be my last baby and I was savoring every moment - and while it is no longer a baby thing, it is our thing. No boys, no other distractions, one quiet moment for "just the girls." There are many days when I sit down in teh rocking cahir that I just don't want to do it - I just want her to go take a nap quickly, the rocking takes quite some time. And there are days when I actually don't do it, but most of the time I do because at the end of the song/songs we are both calmer. So, we are still rocking...........