Joy to the World

As I’ve noted before, Finley loves to sing.

More often than not, she loves to sing loudly… which I like. She can really to belt it out, and why not? Whether or not our neighbors love it is another story.

And as is the case with most things in her life, when she gets a hold of something like a certain toy – or in this case a song – it becomes her favorite thing. This means she likes to sing the same song over and over. The problem with this, is that if it’s a particularly annoying song, then we’re stuck with listening to it again and again.

The old standards have had their run and sometimes return. The “ABC” song is a favorite that comes back every once in awhile. “Old MacDonald” has a pretty good rotation, too. But some time ago, I decided to try and sneak in a song or two that I wouldn’t mind hearing repeated. One song in particular stuck and seems to be her current favorite.

I can’t remember exactly how I came to play the Three Dog Night version of Hoyt Axton’s “Joy to the World” for her (‘Jeremiah was a bullfrog!’),

but like any good top 40 song, the hook stuck and we’ll catch her singing portions of it – or at least trying to – all the time. As with most kids, she mixes up different lyrics with different sections and it makes for pretty funny and cute renditions of a classic rock song.

And as much as we enjoy hearing her yell out her renditions of “Joy to the World,” there is another song that has crept into her repertoire. One that means just a little bit more to me.

I’m really not sure where the tune or the lyrics come from, but there’s a family lullaby that has lived in the back of my head since I can remember. It’s a simple song about a little bird and a little baby.

“Oh, where have you been little bird, little bird/Oh, where have you been little bird/I have been to a tree/I have been to a tree/I have been to a tree, dear Finley”

The little bird goes on to say there is a nest in the tree and an egg in the nest, and finally a baby bird in the egg. Of course, when it was sung to me by my mom, “Randy” was the baby in the story.

I’ve been singing this song to Finley since the day she came home, on nights where I’ve needed to go in and rock her to sleep. But I hadn’t sung this to her for a while. Then, last week, when she was having trouble falling asleep, I pulled it out again.

But this time, now that she is much more aware of the story in a song, she wanted me to keep singing it. She wanted to learn it and sing it herself. And now, it’s part of her night time routine. It’s actually an important part of her routine, because we make it the last thing before she lies down and goes to sleep. Some nights, we can hear her singing it to herself after I’ve left the room.

So, a simple song that I heard as a little boy is now a favorite of my own little girl. And who knows if twenty or so years down the road, she’ll be singing it to her little one. If not, grandpa will have to step up and rock the grandchild to sleep. That would be joy to the world.