Jack is fairly unpredictable. Sometimes he acts like he's on top of things, involved with us socially, and able to follow instructions that I give him. Then there are other days when it seems as if he is in his own little world; unresponsive and noncompliant. One thing that he always responds to, and has since he was a little guy, is singing. On those difficult days I would make up a song, to some random tune and sing about what we were doing. It worked so well, and I enjoyed making up songs so much, that it became a habit, in fact, I couldn't stop! Soon I could belt out a tune about everything from "putting on our shoes" to "taking a bath". Before long, I had my own repertoire of made up tunes and would pull them out at any given moment to direct Jack. This of course embarrassed my other two kids, and as they got older, they insisted I quit singing my songs to them. My 10 year old sat me down one day and said, "Mom, I don't like your songs any more". Much to my dismay, I have had to quit singing to them, out loud that is, what they don't know is that I still hum these tunes under my breath as I shout directions to them about brushing their teeth.
My made up songs have only gotten me in real trouble once. I was at a funeral and the organ began softly playing the music to a church tune that I had used as the tune to one of my made up songs. As the music softly played, instead of hearing the words "Shall we gather at the river" in my head, I heard, "let's go tee-tee in the potty..". I almost tee-teed right there and it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud at this funeral. The only thing funnier than that, will be when my kids figure out that I hijacked a church song and put my own words to it. I hope they're at a funeral when it happens. That will really make me laugh.
