Madeleine's First Song

I don't know why it surprises me, but Madeleine is already singing. Jason and I caught her singing in the car on the way to church last Sunday. Here is the back story.

When I first became pregnant with Madeleine, I was performing in a production of Sondheim's "A Little Night Music". This was May 2007. I had some morning sickness during the run of the show, and often had a hard time performing. Jason was helping with sound in the booth. One night after a show, we stopped at CVS for something and saw a display of singing stuffed animals. We were tired and silly and so we started testing out each doll to see what it would sing. Most were "Happy Birthday" and "You are My Sunshine", songs like that. We came across a white bear dressed in an old granny dress and wide brimmed hat and pearls. When we pressed the button, it sang a loud flat version of "Sunrise, Sunset". It was not good, but we were so tired we thought it was hilarious and we had to buy it, so we did.

Fast forward to September 2008. Maddie was crying one day, so I pulled out the flat-singing doll and played it for her. She immediately stopped crying and actually started laughing. She really loved that doll. Now it is one of her favorites. Who knew? I ad mit I have been nervous that if she listens to it long enough, she would learn to sing flat. We started putting the doll in the car when she cries in her car seat to help soothe her.

Last week she was listening to it on the way to church when all of a sudden we hear her holding a sustained note along with the doll. She was matching both the pitch and the duration of the note. She did this several times throughout the song. We turned the doll on a second time and Madeleine did it again. We laughed for quite a while. Her first song was not "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" or "Little Bunny Foo-Foo", but Fiddler's "Sunrise Sunset". She sings with it all the time now.

We're going to have to get a new doll soon so we can listen to a different song.