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\nFour months ago, I became a grandmother and I was so thrilled that I offered to babysit Jackson Daniel one day a week. The first day, I got up early, drove an hour, and felt a little uneasy, but happy. It all went well until around 2:00; he still hadn\u2019t fallen asleep and now he was crying\u2014well, actually, howling. I tried feeding him, dancing with him, and rocking him, but he still howled. Finally, I decided to try out the Music Together precept of \u201caccept and include,\u201d so I went to the piano and found his crying pitch\u2014the E above middle C. I tried singing with my mouth in the shape of his\u2014making an \u201caaaaauugh\u201d sound. Holding him in my right arm, I started playing some chords with my left hand and sang \u201caaugh.\u201d In 30 seconds he was asleep. And he slept for two hours!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The next week when he squirmed and fussed, I tried the \u201cLeft-handed Lullaby\u201d again for his afternoon nap, this time without the piano. I just rocked him and sang the \u201caaugh\u201d tune with some simple words and he fell fast asleep:<\/p>\n
Jackson will sleep, Jackson now sleep,
\nJackson, Jackson, Oh Jackson go to sleep\u2014
\nSo Mommy can sleep, and Daddy can sleep . . . Jackson, go to sleep.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt was great fun visiting every week, because every week Jackson was different. At three months, he began looking in my direction when I sang, and glimmers of smiles began to break out on his face. When I sang peppy songs to him, his legs would flail up and down! When I stopped singing, his legs dropped down limply. I sang again and his feet beat the air! We had a half-hour singing conversation on \u201caaugh,\u201d punctuated by happy legs.<\/p>\n
Now at four months, Jackson\u2019s legs still kick, and he has a full repertoire of facial expressions. He knits his eyebrows when I change songs\u2014for example, from \u201cRide-O\u201d to \u201cBetty Martin.\u201d One of his favorites is the \u201cGreen and Blue\u201d chant: his eyes almost always brighten on \u201csmells so green and skies so blue,\u201d and he smiles on the \u201cboing, boing\u201d part, especially when I bounce my hand up and down on his body.<\/p>\n
Jackson also seems to want to sing with me and talk to me. He imitates the shape of my mouth, he tenses up his body, he takes a big breath in, he screws up his face, and he acts like he\u2019s going to make a sound\u2014but nothing comes out. Then he gathers more energy, moves his mouth and face around, and suddenly\u2014a sound comes out, then a string of sounds, and we have another song conversation! This trial-and-error approach is amazing to observe. Jackson\u2019s motivation is so high, and his development is clearly in process. I can almost see his neural pathways being formed!<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve found that music helps me have a truly beautiful day with Jackson. Creating a song-filled day doesn\u2019t take much planning, and it can turn a hectic moment into something special. To see a few more things I do that your baby or grandchild may also enjoy, see \u201cCreating Beautiful Days with Your Baby<\/a>\u201d in the For Enrolled Families<\/a> section of our website. And be sure to share your stories and ideas with us, too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four months ago, I became a grandmother and I was so thrilled that I offered to babysit Jackson Daniel one day a week. The first day, I got up early, drove an hour, and felt a little uneasy, but happy. It all went well until around 2:00; he still hadn\u2019t fallen asleep and now he… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":28,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-grandparents"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musictogether.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}