I think she knows every word to "Coney Island Baby."
She requested that I play that Tom Waits song for her today. It's our song. Usually, she just listens and smiles as I sing it to her. Today, however, she sang every word right along with me. I'd like to see if she goes for any other songs by Tom, but I think the big advantage this one has over the rest of his tunes is the princess reference: "She's a princess/In a red dress/She's the moon in the mist to me."
It breaks my heart a little bit when I read about the developmental stages of children. It is said that while a child's most formative years are in the first five or so, he or she just won't consciously remember much, if anything at all, from that period of time. So while the love that we give them is very important, in fact, crucial, our parental memories are ours alone. That's a lot of days and nights of singing and playing with (and teaching and loving) my kiddos, but only really recalled by me.
Oh well. My memories are conscious and hers are not, but I believe they're still there deep down. It's all embedded and she knows.
She's my sweetheart.
As the song goes "she's the spin on my world."
I love that song.
Your kids may not remember much of it, but how wonderful for you that you get to have those memories...
ReplyDeleteDo you take as many videos as you do pics? Our kids watch the old videos all the time with us...they may not remember, but they know.
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw your pic of Joshua jumping on the couch, it was funny, because just the other day the four of us watched a video of them at around 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 jumping on the couch and jumping off and being so cute. And their voices...you won't believe how much their voices change :)
am not so sure i believe that they
ReplyDeletedon't believe much about their time
before 5 years. know that i can
remember a lot of things before that time. can remember a great deal of things about my grandfather
and he died just before i turned 6.
can also remember the house we all
lived in here in nashville before
daddy went back into the air force
and i was only 3 to 6 then. since
you're a photographer as well as a
writer, you're blessed as you can
always show both Ari and Joshua the
pictures and your blogs that you
have written about them. that will
help them so much in remembering
different things that happened when
they were young. even though i don't have many pictures of my
grandfather, i can still remember
things we did so vividly. as the
eldest child, i'm the only one in
the family who can remember him. he
was such a wonderful man whom i
dearly loved.
lots of love - mom
Michael, those child development stages didn't factor in in the day of digital photography us parents would be providing a way to bring MANY day to day memories back to our children. You will be able to keep her memories alive. You've given her some great ones.
ReplyDeleteBut I know what you mean, look who's talking - a mom who just spent the last half hour crying because she misses those sweet tender years so much :(
I still remember my times with my dad as a teeniny little thing--she won't retain it all, but I can almost guarantee she'll hold at least a few little moments in her heart. She's breathtaking.
ReplyDelete