Out of the mouth of babes

Kiddo and I have a nighttime routine that we follow most nights of the week. After dinner and a bath, we sing all her favourite rhymes and unless I’m too entirely exhausted, we go over one or two of her favorite books as well and usually that is enough to put her to sleep. Last night, I felt like reading something myself and didn’t entirely want to read rhymes or kiddie books. So I pretended to read out Sein Language by Seinfeld in the best kiddie book voice that I could muster. She didn’t buy it one bit, so I gave it up and she decided that we should sing songs instead.

We went over her usuals – Twinkle twinkle little star, Baa Baa black sheep, etc, etc.. She then wanted to sing ‘The wheels on on the bus go round and round‘ – with actions, and I indulged her in that as well. Then she said she wanted Daddy to come and sing with her. I gently told her that Daddy was reading and would join her later. Suddenly, she started singing,

‘Daddy on the bus go read, read, read
Read, read, read
Read, read, read
Daddy on the bus go read, read, read
All the day long’

She looked at me smiling after she sang this and I was just gobsmacked. I was both shocked and amused but  I didn’t want to burst out laughing(although I badly wanted to) because I was curious to see what else she could come up with. So I asked her in my best controlled encouraging tone,’ And, what does mommy do, sweetie?’. She went,

‘Mummy on the bus go chatter, chatter, chatter,
Chatter, chatter, chatter
Chatter, chatter, chatter
Mummy on the bus go chatter, chatter, chatter
All the day long’

Sung perfectly in tune and without a moment’s hesitation. Again, I was almost speechless.  Then I asked her, ‘So what does baby(she calls herself that) do?’, and she went,

‘Baby on the bus go cry, cry, cry
Cry, cry, cry
Cry, cry, cry
Baby on the bus go cry, cry, cry
All the day long’

I only hope the last verse is not entirely true.