Songs That Warm My Heart

My husband started a tradition with our sons that he had grown up with in his own family. Singing before bed. Actually, it was really started by both of us - him, because of the memories and me, out of desperation to try anything to soothe my child to sleep. I used to sing the "Hail Mary, Gentle Woman" song to babies, even when I was babysitting because it is such a soothing song. To this day, it's my favorite song to sing when one of my kids is upset. My husband grew up with his mom and grandma singing songs to him and his two favorites were "You Are My Sunshine" and "The Alphabet Song." When Mr. 2-yo was about 15 months, he started sleeping in his own bed and Daddy was the one to put him to bed most nights. Thus began the tradition and Daddy would sing those songs to him. Somehow in the mix, "Edelweiss" became a night-time song as well, and to this day, no matter who tucks Mr. 2-yo into bed, he requests those songs. Last night, my mom (his grandma) put Mr. 2-yo to bed because neither my husband nor I were home and instead of requesting those songs, he sang "You Are My Sunshine" to her. We thought it was so precious and so today, I asked him to sing me "Sunshine" as he calls it. Hearing his little voice belt out those words made my heart melt and almost brought tears to my eyes. My little boy is growing up! He's taking those words that have been given to him for over a year and a half now and gifting them back to us. It's moments like these that really remind me of the beauty of being a parent.