Singing and Drinking

No, this isn't a post about a night at a karaoke bar. After noticing some singing ability in Spanish, I've been teaching Nora some English songs. Actually, for some reason, the first song I taught her was Frí¨re Jacques in French. Lately when we sing that one, on the last line, she lifts up her shirt and touches her navel, which she calls her "ding dong" after so many doorbell jokes. The first English song was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, which she picked up pretty quickly, enjoying gesturing to the sky on the "like a diamond in the sky" line. It soon occurred to me that she didn't really understand many of the words; her toddler ability to mimic sounds was enabling her to sing each lyric. I figured that I could teach her songs without words, or with any sounds. The obvious choice was the Alphabet Song (she likes to shout "Elemenopy!"), which uses the same melody from Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. As a result, although she has had no instruction on identifying letters, she can more or less sing the entire alphabet.

We were singing the other night and she was doing such a good job that I pulled out the video camera and captured this adorable video, in which she drinks a lot of water and sings the Alphabet Song and sings backup on Old MacDonald Had A Farm. It's worth sticking around to the last number since she has this wonderful mime act she invented for the "here, there, everywhere" lyric where she points wildly in all directions.