Baby Fix

I really adore teaching Kindermusik Village.  And while it's true that each of our age-specific curricula have their own wonderfully special magic that make them all favorites in their own way, there is something uniquely precious about sharing music with teeny tiny ones. I'm especially lucky this semester to have a plethora of families who have taken advantage of our Newborn Discount.  That means I'm guaranteed my weekly baby fix and regularly get to sing and dance with those little beans whose brains and bodies seem to miraculously unfold a little more every time I see them.

It's time made all the more precious to me now that the baby-phase of our own family is behind us- my babies are 4 and 6.  I have such fond recollections of them as "Villagers" and the time I was privileged to spend snuggling, chatting, singing, and rocking them into these next equally amazing adventures of childhood.   It's dear, delicious, difficult work in those first few months of life, and I was reminded of the passing treasure of it the other day when I came across this poem by Ruth Hulbert Hamilton:



Babies Don't Keep

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due,
Lullabye, rockaby, lullabye loo.
The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo,
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo,
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs;
Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

-Posted by Jenn Horak-Hult (a.k.a. Miss Jenn)