Wheels on the Bus

When Drew was infant, MJ would take him every night while I pumped and put him to bed.  She would sit on the edge of our cedar chest with our swaddled little baby, rock him and sing Wheels on the Bus to him.  Why she picked that song is a mystery, but it stuck and she (we) sang it to him every night for the longest time.  We even made up our own verses such as "The Opas on the bus say let's ride the tractor; The Grandmas on the bus say see you at Christmas, etc."

Wheels on the Bus became THE song that would put him to sleep and calm him almost instantly.  I remember taking him to daycare at 4 months old when my leave was over and telling the babysitter that a rousing rendition of Wheels on the Bus would calm him almost instantly.  It has worked through tantrums, toddler meltdowns, just to be silly, and everything in between.  Many times mid tearful meltdown, Drew would stop crying long enough to request a certain verse that he wanted sung to him!  Like magic, singing that darn song has worked to solve many problems.

I can't tell you the last time we have actually needed to use it to calm Drew and lately we only seem to sing it for the fun of it.  Well, we have a sick little man on our hands and last night he was just miserable.  Couldn't fall asleep because he couldn't breathe, choked/coughed when he took some cold medicine (cue meltdown), sore throat, just plain miserable.  It seemed like every time he just fell asleep, he would wake back up and just sob.

I had finished nursing Jack, so the rocking chair was free.  I asked Drew if he would like to go into Jack's room and rock (I can't tell you the last time we rocked in that chair).  He quickly agreed so in we went.  We sat down and he snuggled in and looked up at me and said, "I need you to sing me a song."  When I asked what song he would like me to sing, he quickly replied, "Wheels on the Bus."  Wouldn't you know that within minutes I had a snoring boy laying on my chest (or my whole body cause he is so big! - how in the world did that happen?)

The song is MAGIC I tell ya!