When our sweet little Buttercup moved in with us last year it became my job to put her to bed at night while her mama worked in another city, and then even after her mama moved in with us too, there were many nights that I still got the chance to do the bedtime routine. Over the course of a few months we developed our own special rituals that helped her to relax and fall asleep: pats, songs, and chit-chat.
On many of the nights that Buttercup's mama was home to put her to bed, she wasn't ready to go to sleep until I had come into her room and sung a few songs with her. She would stand at her bedroom door and call out, "Grammie! I need you!" and then insist that I come into her room to sing. Buttercup likes to hear three songs before she goes to sleep at night, but sometimes, if it's been a hard day, it takes more than three songs.
One song in particular that I sing to her quite often is I Often Go Walking (Children's Songbook, # 202). I learned this song in Church when I was a little girl. It goes like this:
- I often go walking in meadows of clover,
- And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue,
- I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over,
- Dear mother, all flowers remind me of you.
When singing the song to my sweet Buttercup I changed the last line to be "Dear Avery, all flowers remind me of you". Of course I did that. That's one of the things I do is to change the lyrics of songs I know to suit my situation or to be funnier or more personal. (I'm not as good at rearranging the notes, although I do try that sometimes too. And I'm not really all that musical.) Is that a weird thing to do? Do all people do this? I think this particular behavior falls in the same category as making up pet names or nicknames for people you love. I think it's a sign of a creative mind and I also think it's super fun. So please don't tell me it's weird.
Anyway, as Avery got older she started learning the songs and singing them along with me, and trust me when I tell you that there isn't much in the world that is sweeter or more darling that hearing your 2 year-old granddaughter sing songs that you've taught her. And she takes after me in that she changes the words of songs to meet her own needs. Here's how Buttercup sings the song:
- I often go walking in meadows of clover,
- And I gather armfuls of blossoms of blue,
- I gather the blossoms the whole meadow over,
- Dear Avery, all flowers remind me of me.
This kid just slays me.
what a precious little girl! Her and I sang some primary songs when I spent the day with her Cheli and Eli. She kept taking peeks at me when I did the same thing you did - I changed the words to make it personal for her - and I changed the melody a few times as well. She is such a sweet angel!
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