I have to stop myself from writing about nothing but my daughter everyday.
Cuz in terms of discovering magic, it's pretty much nonstop with her.
Seriously. Getting to witness a little blobby thing slowly/quickly (pick your adverb on any given day) become a person is a privelege. It helps you understand humanity with fresh insights. How language and mannerisms develop. How empathy truly can be taught.
But I'm not going to wax too poetic on the amazingness of that because I know it's not everyone's jam. Not everyone wants kids or is even interested in them, and that's more than fine.
But I do have a specific instance from this past week that crackled with magic.
I was driving my 19 month old daughter home from daycare. The Moana soundtrack was ebbing and flowing in our ears because a car ride would not be complete for Little Miss Lily without it. I always sing along because who doesn't want to belt out Lin-Manuel Miranda + Disney tunes at the top of their lungs?
And Lily starting singing along with me.
I mean, you know, her version of singing. Mostly it was a sort of yodeling noise, not really on the right pitch. There may have been an occassional word thrown in for good measure.
But it was like we were harmonizing.
I come from a musical family; my great grandfather played for Zigfield on Broadway; my grandmother sang opera and taught me piano when I was 5; I played piano and flute from a young age up through high school. I was in choir almost constantly from elementary school on up. In high school, I was in select, competitive choirs. I even recently joined a choir as an adult because I missed that kind of singing. I majored in theater in college and had hopes of becoming a Broadway actress or pop singer one day.
So to have my tiny child singing along with me? It made my heart grow many sizes.
The magic kept up the rest of the weekend. Now Lily "sings Moana," meaning she mumbles through parts of "How Far I'll Go." The real lyrics? "I know everybody on the island has a role on the island." When Lily sings them, it sounds a bit like, "I know, effybody syland, hassss a role, syland." She parades through our front yard shouting this over and over.
She also sang through her first "whole" song, giving me a rendition of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" out of nowhere during her first real sick day.
And she's making up her own songs! Added to her repetoir recently are "The Blueberry Song" and "The Strawberry Song." In these, she chants the names of her favorite berries over and over and ends with a loud, "Blue-berr-yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!," waggling her head back and forth with a giant grin on her face.
She wasn't feeling too sick by the end of the weekend.
Music is magic, my friends. No matter what age you are.
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