Singing and a dinner party

There is no doubt about the fact that my girls love to sing. I have been especially amazed by Madeleine's recent broadening of song repertoire; she is not only able to sing most of her favorite songs by heart, but she is also frequently overheard singing Julia's many made-up compositions. This is not to say her renditions of various songs are completely accurate. She gets especially mixed-up with the Music Together song "Two Little Blackbirds," often confusing it with the poem "Two Little Songbirds." And one can see why, as the words are quite similar:

Two Little Blackbirds
Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill
One named Jack and one named Jill
Fly away Jack, fly away Jill
Come back Jack, come back Jill

Two Little Songbirds
Two little songbirds sitting on a wall
One named Peter, one named Paul
Fly away Peter, fly away Paul
Come back Peter, come back Paul

Some of the more amusing of Madeleine's renditions include:

"Two little blackbirds sitting on a wall. One named Peter, one named Paul. Fly away Peter, fly away Paul. Come back Jack, come back Jill..."

"Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill. One named Peter, one named Jack..."

"Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill. One named Jack, one named Jack. Fly away Jack, fly away Paul, come back Jack, come back Jack."

"Two little Jack, one named Jack. Fly away Jack, fly away Jack, come back Jack, come back Jack..."

Or sometimes she even names the blackbirds after her tv friends, like the kids on "The Cat and the Hat Knows a Lot About That:"

"Two little blackbirds sitting on a hill, one named Nick, one named Sally..."

Here, on video, she sings a bit of this song in between two rousing renditions of Julia's famous composition, "Hold My Hand on the Sidewalk"!:



You'll notice Madeleine is sitting in a row of chairs as she sings. That's because she was in the car. Julia set up a minivan for us to sit in. Apparently even in Julia's pretend play I'm not allowed to drive, because she came to my house (the couch) to pick me up and drive me to a dinner party. Madeleine and Julia's three baby dolls rode in the car with us as well. When we got to the dinner party, Julia began cooking in her play oven, and you can see what a wonderful influence I must be as a mother as she decides how to best keep her triplets out of danger of the hot stove: