Today she taught me…to sing

(My new series of posts where I share either what she has taught me or what I tried to teach her).

Growing up, I hated to sing.  My mom is a music teacher and was our church’s choir director.  Naturally, people just assumed that I could sing and enjoyed doing so like my mom.  Neither are true, unfortunately.  I think that I did not enjoy it mainly because I am just not good at it.  Being surrounded by people who can really and I mean really sing…I just cannot.  Confession – I don’t even sing at church.

But you know, becoming a mama, I am keenly aware that it’s not necessarily about my interests at all.  Frankly, it’s about finding ways to engage with her in the things that she loves.  And my little girl loves to sing.

She doesn’t care if I am any good at it.  She just loves that her mama sings with her.  These days, my house is full of singing.

Today, she taught me to sing, because it doesn’t matter what her mama sounds like, it just matters that her mama does it with her.

Lydia and her mama sing Brave from Bryson Moore on Vimeo.

Singing Wheels on the Bus. from Bryson Moore on Vimeo.

M rocking Lydia. from Bryson Moore on Vimeo.

Today I taught her to…run in the rain

One of the things I have been thinking about is how in the college classroom, I crafted intentional learning experiences for my students.  Yes, it would’ve been so easy to wing it, but when I did, the learning suffered.

Likewise, as a mom, it is so easy to be reactive, to wing it, and to simply wake up and make it through another day, every day.  It’s easy to think that LG will learn the things I want her to learn under my care without intentionally teaching her.  It’s easy to live for nap time (or am I the only one?).  It’s easy to feel like all I’ve accomplished today is bath time, potty time, and “don’t touch that, it’ll hurt you!” x 100.  It’s so easy as a mom to wing it (and I would add that this is actually necessary a good chunk of the time).

It is easy for us, with all of the work we are trying to do regarding attachment and bonding, to neglect other stuff I really want to teach LG that without intentionality probably won’t happen.  So to keep myself accountable, I am going to start a series of posts about “what I taught her” today, and I will also write posts regarding “what she taught me.”  These won’t happen every day…

So today, I taught LG the joy of running in the pouring rain.  And yes, I even told her “Confident girls don’t worry about their hair or clothes when it rains. We laugh and we jump in puddles.”  There was lots of giggling.  We looked at earthworms.  We were covered in mud.  She even left Wilbur (the pig) under the safety of the back porch.photo (51)

Well done, LG.  Well done.