The Sound of Music

When babies reach 1 month, they start to swing and sway to music. I am told they are very receptive to sound at this age.

Thanks to Xianglin, a seasoned mother, we own this toy elephant that plays music and drumbeats. It will make Ace happy or quiet 90% of the time we use it when he is grumpy..

I think Ace will love and like music when he grows older.

I play Mozart for babies (courtesy of Edmund) to him every morning and my mum and I take turns to sing songs to him. He shows a preference for songs where there are actions n likes songs like Ke Ren Lai, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

He also likes soothing songs like Hahayo (Mother, a Jap song.. I try to expose him to diff languages)

Sometimes I just sing to him any song that comes to my head and the strangest pop song will come out of my mouth. It is as if Ace and I are going down a memory lane of songs that I listened to and impacted my life as I was growing up.

I suddenly realized they were mostly sad love songs. No wonder have to go through 3 broken relationships before I found Max, my husband. Haha!

When our fren’s daughter, Tashi, played the xylophone for him, he started to wave his arms and legs to the beat. The little girl was so excited and kept telling me “He is dancing! He is dancing! He is dancing!”

Haha.. little wonder.. I sing and dance around with him a lot. Haha.. in the afternoon when I have nothing to do, I will sing or play music and dance waltz, rock and roll, tango.. etc with him:) His dad also teaches him how to dance to SCS music when he is free…

I think music lays an important part in one’s life. Be it expressing oneself or cultivation of character, it really is a universal tool and language to spread love n peace. I would like Ace to grow up knowing how to appreciate good music like his mum n dad. :)

Alas, my strange sister tells me wants to sing all our childhood songs to him. You see, when we were growing up, me had a great imagination. I came up with a lot of strange songs that me and my sister sing fondly today in remembrance of our childhood.

There is one called Ni Shen Jing Bing (You are a nutcase) which I composed music for.. based on this rhyme that all children my time are familiar with.

Ni Shen Jing Bing (You are a nutcase)
You are a nutcase (lalalalala)
You are a sick (lalalalala)
When you reach the hospital though, you are well
Once you are home, you become a nutcase (lalalalala)
I think you are a nutcase

You are a nutcase (lalalalala)
You are a sick (lalalalala)
You stole my vitamin and ate it
I am bathing (lalalalala)
And you start peeping (lalalalala)
The doctor says you are a nutcase

There is one more that we sing like a drama serial opening song everytime we play this game Ma Hai He Gong Zhu (The Horse Boy and the Princess), starring me, my sis and her rocking horse.

Ma Hai He Gong Zhu (The Horse Boy and the Princess)
The Horse Boy and the Princess
The Horse Boy and the Princess
Having adventures together
Having adventures together
When the King sees them he stops them
But
The Horse Boy and the Princess
The Horse Boy and the Princess
Having adventures together
Having adventures together
Lalalalalala…

Note: All the above songs are mandarin songs. I merely translated them loosely into English cos I dunno how to post teng lang on this blog… anywayz, I think you have a good idea why I dun want my sis to sing these songs to him even though I was the one who composed them.. hahaha…

The one song I am especially against her singing is called Guang Tou Ren (Botak Head) in memory of our LEGO toy man who has got no hair but just a helmet because he is a lego fireman. He apparently has two other ‘friends’, MR and MRS CHEN who have got hair because they are ordinary citizens. Whenever his friends invite him for dinner, they would not be able to find him at dinner time because he is always sitting in the balcony and singing this song just before he goes for dinner.

The lyrics, when translated loosely to English go like this:

I am a botak head (bald)!
I am a botak head!
When you see me, You know I am a botak head!
(Repeat 3x)

I dun think it is a good idea to sing this to Ace cos I have been singing it throughout my childhood and now my husband is a botak head… I scared wait my son sing the song and he become botak head..

Then how????