Tradition

Sep. 16th, 2014 07:40 pm
kajel: (Me)
[personal profile] kajel
“Good morning to you!”

The off key, cheerful singing startled me from my sleep. I groaned as I pulled the pillow over my head.

“Good morning to you!”

I pulled the covers over me also. No matter what I did, I was unable to tune out the cheerful song set to the tune of happy birthday.

“Good morning dearest daughter, good morning to you!”

“Mom, you can’t sing, stop trying.” I flung the pillow at her. “I’m not a teenager anymore. You have to stop inflicting that song on me.”

My mother just laughed. She had been singing that song to wake us up ever since my sisters and I were small. I’m thirty-four years old and a new mother in my own right. This was my house and my mother was still singing that out of tune song to me.

“Rise and shine daughter dearest. I let you get a whole nights sleep. Nicky is sleeping and will be ready for a bottle soon. I am going to take a nap.”

Mom had come down from New York to help us out with the new baby. I’d ended up having a c-section and I was going to take all the help I could get.

“Go to bed and maybe I will sing to you later.”

“I’m not sure my ears could take it.” She laughed as she left.

I smiled. My whole life we had felt tortured by this song. My sisters and I had hated it as children. My mother has the typed of voice that will carry clearly across a large, loud space. There were four of us girls, in two or three different rooms, she was tying to wake each morning. Her voice was always loud and very off key.

I think we were teenagers when she told us that her mother used to sing the same thing to her and her siblings when they were young. We couldn’t understand how she could torture us the same way. Especially, when she knew who awful it was. I chuckled to myself as I remembered how dramatic my sisters and I were as teenagers.

Nicky’s bottle was nearly ready when I heard him stirring. I walked over and picked him gently up out of the bassinet. I still can’t believe the emotions this little bundle of joy has brought me.

As he blinks up at me I smile and in a quiet, lullaby tone, I sing;

“Good morning to you.
Good morning to you.
Good morning dearest Nicky,
Good morning to you.”

It was tradition after all.


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This is my entry for LJ Idol: S9 Week 21. The topic this week was The Music Made Me Do It.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 12:17 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] adoptedwriter.livejournal.com
Precious! AW

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 02:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Thanks!

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 12:47 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eternal-ot.livejournal.com
Awww..<3 This was a cute entry...I loved it. Btw..did read it in tune - the good morning song..:)
Edited Date: 2014-09-17 12:47 pm (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Thank you! Nicky is 5 now and we sing goodnight songs. I tried to change the words to good night and he won't have it. I have to sing this to him every evening now. lol

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 01:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] uncawes.livejournal.com
Argh! I will never again be able to sing happy birthday without recalling this story.
Good job :)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 02:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
My job here is complete!

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 01:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] suesniffsglue.livejournal.com
Really sweet <3

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Thanks!

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 02:08 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Thank you!

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 04:02 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] theun4givables.livejournal.com
This is probably why I call my child "brat." Because my mother affectionately referred to both me and my brother that way. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 12:54 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
LOL Yep!

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 08:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rayaso.livejournal.com
Very sweet! I hope you inherited your mother's voice and keep singing songs to your child. The out-of-tune voice will carry on your mother's song.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 12:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
lol I don't have the voice for singing, so of course, I sing to him a lot. I foresee eerily similar conversations with my kids as teenagers.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-17 11:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mistearyusdiva2.livejournal.com
Aaaw this is so cute. Glad you are carrying on what your mom made a precious tradition. And i hope you carry on even if Nicky asks you to stop at some time.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 12:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Of course! I have to pass the torture of bad singing along.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 01:09 am (UTC)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 06:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Thanks! I can't wait until he's old enough to find it obnoxious. ;)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 05:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] favoritebean.livejournal.com
This has such a sweet memoir tone. I hope Nicky remembers you singing to her fondly as she gets older.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 06:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Right now he and Katey are young enough, they still think it's fun! ;) Thanks.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 06:19 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] halfshellvenus.livejournal.com
Regardless of how tuneful, it was a song of long, and that's what really matters. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 07:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] halfshellvenus.livejournal.com
Dorp! I meant "love," not long. Boy, the things my brain does sometimes...

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 03:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] roina-arwen.livejournal.com
What a sweet tradition. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 06:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
Thanks!

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 04:17 pm (UTC)
ext_12410: (misc fic)
From: [identity profile] tsuki-no-bara.livejournal.com
this is so, so sweet. as traditions go, it's a really nice one. and someone at some point is going to have a good singing voice, so the kids don't mind being woken up by it.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 06:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
lol That's true, eventually, someone along the line will have a good voice. Thanks.

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 05:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] alycewilson.livejournal.com
How sweet! I wake my son by singing "Good Morning" from "Singing in the Rain." Sometimes he tells me to stop singing. :)

(no subject)

Date: 2014-09-18 06:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] kajel.livejournal.com
lol Nice! Kate is KFP's age and she is the one telling me to stop sometimes too.
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