Morning sing-a-longs

My mornings look radically different than they did just three months ago. And personally, I love them so much more. I usually nurse Cooper around the time Nicholas leaves for work, and then since it's still early, he will usually sleep for another 1-2 hours. Then, I get up, open the blinds, nurse him again, and "chat" a little with him in bed. I change him and get him dressed for the day (his favorite!) and then set him in the bouncer while I quick make coffee and breakfast for myself.

And then, I come sit next to him on the floor and put on some music. It depends on the day, but it could be music from one of my favorite artists, or music I listened to in high school (and subsequently memorized every song on an album), worship music, a random Spotify playlist, or Christmas music*.

Cooper seems to enjoy music, regardless of the type. But he lights up, and smiles his big, open-mouth smile, and squeals with delight when I sing along to the music to him, however imperfectly. *The only true qualification for a song to be a good fit is that I have to know most of the words, or be able to make them up (Cooper doesn't expect perfection in the lyrics department ;).

Some of the music picks in the last few weeks:

• Jason Mraz's We Sing. We Dance. We Steal things.
• Bethany Dillon's self-titled debut album
• Relient K's Air for Free
• Branches White Flag
• Ingrid Michaelson's Songs for the Season

It's an entirely bizarre list with some newer music, but it's fun to reach back into the depths of my mind and recover some of the music I haven't listened to in a decade, only to find that I still know nearly all of the words.

And that's how we start most of our days: him bouncing and squealing and smiling and blowing spit bubbles, me taking bites of breakfast and sips of coffee between lyrics sung to this little boy. I love it.