Going on a Bear Hunt

Zane sings a lot of songs. Mostly what he hears at school. We have tried and tried to get him to sing Elvis, just because we think it would be such adorable blackmail video for the teen years. But my son is apparently smarter than his parents, so he sticks to the classic children's songs. Big hits such as "Twinkle Twinkle", "Itsy-Bitsy Spider", and "Put Your Bottle on the Roll".

You heard me correctly. That is how my son's brain interpreted what the teacher was singing. There's also a song called "Dizzy Week". It can be a challenge for Larry and I to figure out what the boy is actually singing. Young children tend to have "mushy-mouth" when they are learning new words, at least until they get the feel of the letter sounds.

I have to try to remember the tune, which for the song referring to putting your bottle on a roll turned out to be "Frere Jacques". If I have that down, I can generally figure out what Zane is singing by the rhythm of his words. In this case, my son was singing a song about putting his bottom on the rug. He was supposed to put his bottom on the rug, then give himself a hug.

Once I understood that, I found the song to be very clever as a way of transitioning to a new activity. The kids sat down on the rug AND by giving themselves a hug, they end up keeping their hands to themselves. I'm convinced that such a song might make staff meetings a little more palatable, but my boss is being stubborn.

And "Dizzy Week"? That's actually a little number called "Days of the Week", but I like Zane's title better. Most of my weeks seem to leave me dizzy.

Occasionally when Zane sings his little songs, he'll insert different words in there. He is playing around with language, which is just fine with me. He'll sit back there in his car seat and giggle to himself.

"Going on a bear hunt, gonna bring some..." Zane was back there one afternoon, singing a new song, a song I actually sort of remembered! I had a sudden grand vision of my son and I laughing and singing silly songs together, doing that bonding that I'm always hearing about. I decided that I would participate in Zane's Bear Hunt.

"Pizza." I helpfully inserted.

(silence) Crap. I try to recover the moment with some humor.

"Hey Zane, did you know that bears REALLY like pizza?"

"I know." If I had turned around at that moment, I would bet money that Zane's eyes would have been rolling.

So much for that mother-son bonding thing.