Lullabies

I have always made up little twists on standard lullabies to sing to the boys.  Most involve adding their names in and some have completely fabricated lyrics of my own with just the tune of the original lullaby as I am not nearly crafty enough to create the melody as well.  Both boys like it and have their own favorites. 

With Cameron's birth only a couple of weeks away, the boys are more and more anxious (ok, we all are but they are more vocal) to meet him.  They slept with me the past 2 nights - Friday's excuse was they "missed me" to the point of extreme whining & I was too tired to continue refusing.  They both took turns putting their hands on Cameron - as Alex says "me put my hand Camwin?" ... impossible to resist...followed by "Camwin kick MY hand!" with excitement.  Ethan then wanted to do the same thing and looked like he wanted to say something - I told him it was ok to talk to Cameron.  He started telling Cameron how he was the big brother & Alex was the middle brother and they wanted to see him "on June 7, right Mama?" and then looked at me and asked if we could sing Cameron a lullaby.  I agreed and asked what he wanted to sing.  Ethan didn't know so I asked Alex and he wanted "his song" which means he wanted the one I make up the words to the tune of "Are you sleeping"...Cameron's version now goes like this:

Cameron James
Cameron James

Our baby
Our baby

Mama loves you so much
Daddy loves you so much

Ethan, too.
Alex, too.

We then sang "You are OUR sunshine" and then Ethan remembered he wanted to sing "Hush little baby"....so after those 3 songs, it was time to sleep. 

Last night right at bedtime, there was a thunderstorm - Alex is terrified of thunder.  They slept with me again - Alex would crawl into my skin if he could.  Every crack of thunder had Ethan asking again if Mickey was still bowling or maybe Grandma Recktenwald was bowling now.  While that doesn't make Alex any less afraid of the thunder, it at least distracts him for a minute. 

When the thunder died down, Ethan wanted to sign more lullabies to Cameron.  This time we started with "Hush little baby" and then Alex started singing "Cameron James" - really sweet.  Time for sleep.

Tonight the boys were playing upstairs and all the sudden I heard them singing all by themselves and it went something like this:

Cameron James
Cameron James

Mama's ba-by boy
Daddy's ba-by boy

Mama & Daddy loves you
And Ethan does, too
And don't forget, and Alex does, too

While it's not totally in the melody of the song, it was one of the cutest things I've ever heard.