Singing Rooms

Abe gets embarrassed when I actually come in to watch him sing.  Apparantly it doesn't bother him that I can HEAR him, but when I come close, he ducks into the bathroom and waits till I withdraw before continuing.

The boys love to march around the house and sing songs, many of their own composition.  They've worked out a system so they can do it without bothering each other (they each have a designated "singing room" they have to stay in) and they switch from song to song with "beep!"s and an imaginary high-voiced audience saying, "Can we do that song again one more time?" after which they begin again.  Ky sometimes sings himself, and sometimes provides a non-imaginary audience for his brothers.

The songs are distressingly catchy.  Such as
"Bears and Monkeys flying around,
Bears and Monkeys flying around,
Bears and Monkeys flying around
And one flew by my door."
or
"The twelve days of Monkey Christmas."
or,
Sometimes the songs are lengthy stories about things that they did or will do. 

When everyone is singing it gets very LOUD in here.  The boys know that stomping and clapping and banging on things provides percussive effects.  I usually have to step in to quiet the singing and stomping when it reaches fever pitch.

I suppose I must admit here that I can clearly remember playing outside when I was maybe 8 or so, and pretending I was an orphan that had just received a letter saying I was going to be adopted---and I was singing a song I made up about this----"The letterrrrrrr, that will change my liiiiiiife . . ."----when my brother Philip suddenly appeared gleefully out of a bush and I was mortified that he had heard me.

Although if you are going to play melodramatic things like that I suppose you really can't complain when people snatch your "letter" and dance around clasping it to their bosom and imitating your song.  And you also can't complain when your children inherit your nerdy songwriting tendencies.

6 comments

  1. At least your song wasn't tape recorded. We used to make radio shows when we were kids and take turns composing songs. The best one is "The Way to Yonder Hills" by Joel (singing as Julie Andrews) on the occassion of my baptism.

    You're just going to have to ask Joel if he knows the way to yonder hills and see what he says about that. If he won't sing it for you then I will.

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  2. How wonderful. My kids did it, too - sometimes in tandem with Megs and Joel. Gin wrote a song just for Joel- - we still sing it from time to time - "Joel Lincoln STOP IT. STOP breaking our beautiful plates!! By the sight of narrow beeeeeeeeeeees . . .

    Cam used to sing to himself in the car. He'd be looking, all lost in noble contemplation, watching the world go by - and these things would just come out of his mouth - one day it was this quiet, sweet - "I went away ----- I came back ------.

    It was so cute, I just started laughing and couldn't stop. I think that was the last time he did it.

    We did a lot of singing in the car. And Gin was the queen. But she'd sing actual, written by somebody else grown up songs, and always get the words hilariously wrong. Glorious, glorious singing =

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  4. I had to delete my last comment because I have an ever better one! (And don't want to monopolize your blog).

    When I was about 11 or so I put a ball up my shirt and pranced around singing about how excited I was to be having a baby. Suddenly MY DAD sprang up from behind the bushes and pointed and laughed at me. Then, during family prayer that night, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE he prayed that I would wait until I was married to get pregnant. I DARE anyone to come up with a "caught singing" story more embarrassing.

    The only thing that makes this memory bearable is remembering how my dad looked like he was going to throw up when my husband and I announced that we were having a baby. Ha!

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  5. My sister's boyfriend once walked in on me doing a strip tease to "Gotta get a gimmick" from gypsy. I blame my mother from raising us on such controversial things. I don't think I could still see Matt without blushing, and I was only 7 when it happened.

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  6. HA! Hilarious!
    Isn't it just so embarrassing to get caught doing something like that? Even just singing in the shower or something can be humiliating if I think I'm alone and I'm not.
    But I can't top Chelsea's story, that's awesome!
    And we did used to make up wonderful things on tape with the Williams. Megan stole the best one though and I'm very disappointed because I'd love to listen to it now. I do remember somebody doing a mean Barbara Walters impression.

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