Rockabye Mama

Tonight after trying for 2 hours to get E down, I asked for Mark's help. She seems to know he means business and goes to sleep for him within 20 minutes.

When he came in, I decided to stay and see if a joint effort would reduce the time it took her to fall asleep.

I cuddled up next to E and started to talk to her in a soothing voice, "There we go, sweetheart. You're all cozy and ready for bed. And look! You have Mama *and* Dada here to put you to bed tonight. Aren't you lucky? Sweet baby..." As I coddled her and cooed, I started to hear this low sound coming from the other side of the bed -- like a chanting, "Ohhhhmmm haaaayyyyy..... Ahhhhh...." It sounded like a didgeridoo.

I whispered in the dark, "Mark, is that you??"
"Yeah."
"What are you doing??"
"This is what I do."
"What do you mean?"
"This is what I do to get her to sleep."
"And it works??"
"Yeah," nonchalantly.

"Okay...(???) Well I usually sing next..." I started singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat. Then I suggested that we try to sing a round, so he sang it with me. We were quite proud of ourselves!

I asked him, "Do you think you could do a round with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star?"
"You know I can," he replied arrogantly.
I giggled, "Okay," and started singing.

First he came in late.
"You know you have to start right after I sing 'Twinkle, twinkle little star...'"
"No, it's after '...how I wonder what you are.'"
"That doesn't make sense. Think about Row, Row, Row Your Boat."
"I am. I don't think you remember it correctly."
"I think you're all talk, and you can't really do it."
"Gretchin. I got it. Wait, let me sing it once by myself."
"Okay. Ready?"

Finally, we did it! A lovely round of Twinkle Twinkle! Then we looked over at E. She had gotten Mark's cell phone, was lying on her back, holding it up and typing away on it! She sent me this text message: "W: qesqnpl".

Loosely translated, I think it reads: "The student has become the teacher." In other words, my 1-year-old put us to bed tonight... then probably checked her email, Facebook, and checked in on FourSquare at "Ma Crib."