A Song for Whitney

I sing the kids songs every night before they go to bed.  Skip and Zadie used to each pick a song and Zadie would always pick "Supercalifragilistic" and Skip would always pick "Row, Row, Row Your Boat."  But since we put Charlie in the same room with them, I don't have nearly as much time for fiddling around with songs and special requests because if I dawdle in there he starts crying and wants me to hold him, so I have to make it quick.

In light of Whitney Houston's death yesterday, tonight I sang "The Greatest Love of All," or at least the parts of it that I remembered well.  Sometimes I can hear Tori in the other room laughing at me because the fun part about singing for your kids is that you can really belt it out.  There was a period of about two months when both Skip and Zadie kept requesting "Supercalifragilistic" and I was really sick of singing it.  Then, out of the blue, one night Zadie requested "Tomorrow" and I was so excited that I think I actually inhabited the role.  I'm pretty sure I nailed it because it came from somewhere deep inside of me.

If any of you have ever heard me sing, I'm sure you're skeptical.  I've been told on multiple occasions that I am tone-deaf.  But, again, the fun part of singing for your kids is that they have no clue one way or the other.  In fact, I have the two older kids trained so that whenever I sing a song (about 10 times a day), they say, "Mommy, I like your singing!"  And they're very earnest in their praise, I might add.  Sometimes I ask who the better singer is, me or Tori, and they always pick me.  My specialty is actually patriotic songs, like the national anthem and "America the Beautiful." But, in a pinch, I can also do Whitney Houston.