Public Service Announcement for Potential Babysitters

The night before my sister Kaylie was born, I screamed. And screamed. And screamed. My aunt Cheryl was watching me at the time, and she said the only way she was able to calm me down was by singing the ABC song over and over and over. If she ever stopped, I would scream. This was my first glimpse into the fact that I was not the easiest child ever.*

Thinking of this story again made me ponder which songs are almost certain to calm Joseph down. For the first few months after he was born, I could sing "You're okay" to the tune of Jingle Bells and that would do the trick. But I haven't sung that lately so I didn't think that would work anymore.

On our way home from the Toronto airport, I found our answer. Joseph had been amazing for the 8 hour flight home from France, but it was a bit much to ask for him to have a 4 hour drive on top of that. So he was upset. And screaming. And screaming. And nothing I was doing worked. That is, until I started singing "There was a little house" to him. The screaming stopped. It was a miracle.

Since you might not have heard this song before, here it is with the actions demonstrated by Joseph:

If you can handle hearing my scratchy, sick voice over and over again, I'd recommend watching it over and over until you have it memorized.

Just in case.

*The second glimpse came when my mom told me that a friend of hers would always qualify any compliment of me with, "And to think she was such a difficult child!" Since then, I've heard more and more evidence against my case. Sorry Mom. Sorry Dad. Sorry everyone who dealt with me before I could read.