When my younger daughter was a baby, I often danced with her the way you dance with a baby—I'd hold her and bounce her around and sing. She always loved it, and always laughed.
Now, lemme tell you: if you're going to dance with your baby, I highly recommend Paul Simon tunes. Especially from his album Graceland. Especially the song "I Know What I Know."
There's a great line in the song. "Aren't you the woman who was recently given a Fulbright?" When I sang it, though, I changed the lyric. I always sang, "Aren't you the baby who was recently given a Fulbright?"
Twenty-some years later, my "baby" girl called me to tell me she had recently been given a Fulbright scholarship.
I told her about singing the song to her when she was little. I claimed credit for planting the seed. Her opinion, was, correctly, that she had kinda-sorta earned it!
She laughed. I did, too. And then I cried.
Parenting is the greatest joy!
"WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP"
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