Drops of Awesome

Personal Blog of Author Kathryn Thompson

Shot Down

by

Being shot down by a three year old who’s almost 4 but still 3 but almost 4 but still wears pull-ups to bed so I’ll call her 3 is too funny to be painful.

Every night at bedtime she gets to pick 2 songs for Dan and me to sing. Sometimes they’re church songs. Sometimes she chooses something peppy. Frequently she requests
“the song about what’s in the nightlight? It’s people and things and combs and stuff that don’t belong in there.” Dan always begins these improvised songs with the line, “I was walkin’ down the street…” (And he wonders why he’s never won a rap battle around here!)

Lately she usually asks for songs from Disney movies. When she asks for the Snow White song, we take parts. I am the warbly young princess “standing by a wishing well” and Dan is the equally warbly and high-pitched echo.

Last night she asked for the Cinderella song. So I began “Sing Sweet Nightingale.” I was tired. I started low. Maybe I started a bit scratchy. Sue me.

Me: Sing sweet nightingale. Sing sweet nightin-
Laylee: NO! Not the one the stepsisters sing. Cinderella sings that song too.

So after stumbling around her room, gathering my splattered pride, I cleared my throat and began in a higher key for the future Simon Cowell to critique. Apparently it met her approval and I was moved on to the next round. What song would she chose?

She asked me to please close the closet so she could decide. Wha??? Surveying the princess stickers on the sliding doors, she settled on the Belle song. Luckily Angela Lansbury has no ugly stepsister that I’m aware of so “Beauty and the Beast” went off without a hitch… besides the fact that I made up the words as I went along.

Ever as before, ever as before, as the sun will rise.
Tale as old as time, tale as old as song
Ever just and same, finding I’m your mom
Beauty and the Beast.

the reasons: microwave popcorn, Dan’s freshly shaven face, ELECTRICITY.

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Comments

  2. MyBestInvest says

    Oh you are too funny. I, too, have been corrected more times than I would like by my 3 year old who considers herself quite the authority on everything! It is more than a little humbling.
    PS- back in the fall you emailed me some advice about getting my (then 1 yr old) to take a cup- I couldn’t wean him! You really helped me alot, so thank you!
    ( I hijacked hubby’s blog to leave this comment) :-)Mary C

  3. Edge says

    I would like to propose that the “nightlight song” could be Birdhouse in Your Soul by They Might Be Giants. It’s a bedtime favorite at our house. I think I’m going to use the ‘close that closet so I can make a decision’ line next time I need a moment.

  4. Michelle says

    The one I get is “the Ariel song” where she looses her voice? It’s just a bunch of “aaaaahs” and a big fat pain, but very popular.

  5. Julie Q. says

    I can totally picture the bedtime concert scene. You have such an amazing talent with words. (Which more than makes up for any lack of vocal fortitude, I say).

  7. Lei says

    lol at “the ariel song”. i couldn’t imagine that! lately my 4 yr. old is into beethoven and asks me to sing the 5th symphony and moonlight sonata to him. it’s not pretty!

  12. EmLouisa says

    LOL! My favorite at our house is when I sing something and A-Boy yells “NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JESUS!!!” Which really means, “Excuse me, Mother, but could you please sing ‘I am a child of God”?

  13. grammyelin says

    There’s not much more stinging than the 3 year old correction.

    Well, that’s what you get for getting “all sweet parental” at bedtime. I just did the “snuggly-buggly shoo” thing and called it a night. And yet, you still grew up relatively normal…