Categories: family
Date: 02 March 2010 09:56:06
I returned from church Sunday morning humming various spiritual songs. While Younger Son had his nap, Elder Son and Daughter decided that they would play musical bumps in the dining room. My humming wasn’t sufficiently musical so the proposed game involved carrying their toy keyboard into the dining room from the lounge in order to create some music. Elder Son refused my help in the move and enlisted his sister. She was instructed to hold one end and walk backwards while he held the other and walked forward directing operations. Halfway along the hallway he says to her, “shall we sing while we work?” Daughter agrees and without discussion of what song to sing they both start in perfect unison:
Twinkle, twinkle, chocolate bar,
My dad drives a rusty car,
Push the starter, pull the choke,
Off we go in a cloud of smoke,
Twinkle, twinkle, chocolate bar,
My dad drives a rusty car.
I’m not sure whether I was more delighted by the fact that they both had learnt a silly song at nursery that week and even Daughter knew every word (although pronounced in her 2-year-old not-quite-fully-developed-speech-way: “tinkle, tinkle… my dad dives a russ-e car..”), or the fact that they were clearly on the same wavelength that afternoon and interacting so well in their little world without need for any adult input/ interference. But whatever the cause of my delight, its expression was clearly a little over the top.
I endured 6 non-stop renditions of “twinkle, twinkle, chocolate bar” accompanied by less than tuneful banging on the keyboard and any previous idea of musical bumps was abandoned in order to “entertain” mummy. I was only saved by a friend and her son ringing the doorbell and suggesting a trip to the park. Although my salvation was not wholly successful… I spent the rest of Sunday humming the silly song.