100 Rounds Around the Farm

My daughter used to hate riding in the car.  I cringed to think of how many errands needed to be done with her wailing in protest from the backseat, and found myself trying to consolidate them into a single trip.  Fred Meyer became my favorite store.  Who knew you could not only buy groceries there, but also find birthday presents, buy helium-filled balloons, purchase a new outfit, run copies, and use the bathroom/change the baby?  Not only that, but the one near us has a Goodwill truck in the parking lot.  Score!

But unfortunately, the drycleaning still needed to be done, checks had to be deposited, and various other trips needed to be made, baby in tow.  So I started singing.

It's amazing how many childhood songs come back to you when you have a baby.  We've sung I'm a Little Teapot, The People on the Bus, and a whole host of Bible songs: Jesus Loves Me, Jesus Loves the Little Children, the B-I-B-L-E, Zaccheus Was a Wee Little Man...and more.  But the one that resonates most with my daughter, for some reason, is Old MacDonald.

I'm not sure if it's because of the repetition or the fact that she can manipulate her Baby Einstein sit and spin toy to play the song by hitting the duck 4 times, but she calms right down when I start to sing that song.  We've been around the farm with cats, dogs, horses, goats, bees (they say "bzz"), frogs (ribbit), babies (waah - she doesn't get the humor), and mice (ee).  Oh yes, our farm not only has pigs and cows, but also rabbits (hop - she doesn't know that's not a "sound"!), birds (cheep), and roosters (try saying "cock-a-doodle-doo" three times fast!).  Fortunately, there is never anyone in the car when I'm searching for new animals. 

Now that she's growing up, we don't visit the farm as much as we used to.  But that's okay.  It's much more fun to hear her sweet emerging voice.  ...The babies in the car go da-da-da...

This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as an entry for a contest sponsored by Bush’s Beans.