The Birdies are Sing-ing…

When my Dad was a little boy, my Grandma Lennie used to wake him and my Aunt Sheri up in the morning by singing to them:

“The birdies are sing-ing… Tweetie, tweet, tweet-tweet… Tweetie, tweet-tweet…Tweetie, tweet-tweet…!" Over and over again until they grumblingly (I imagine) agreed to get out of bed. That was long before the advent of iPhones that you could simply dock in your iHome with a different pre-set alarm for each day of the week and a different pre-programmed iTune to wake you up… and then, of course, they had to walk up hill… both ways…to their one-room schoolhouse… in ill-fitting in snowshoes…

So it’s not hard to envisage that some years later my big brother and I, too, were awakened each morning by the sound of our father singing (in and oddly high-pitched tone):

“The birdies are sing-ing… Tweetie, tweet, tweet-tweet… Tweetie, tweet-tweet…Tweetie, tweet-tweet…!" Over and over again until we sullenly (I know) agreed to get out of our bunk beds. I guess it’s sort of a family thing.

I realized this because six years ago, when I had my first child, I found myself opening his bedroom door each morning and singing (perfectly in pitch, of course):

“The birdies are sing-ing… Tweetie, tweet, tweet-tweet… Tweetie, twee-tweet…Tweetie, tweet-tweet…!" Over and over again until he opened his sweet little eyes and smiled at me. (He’s only six now so he hasn’t figured out yet that it’s really not fun to get up early in the morning… there are still too many Pokémon to be played with at this juncture in his little life.)

When Beck’s brother was born two years after him – things didn’t change much other than the fact that I was way more tired in the morning and maybe not quite as “chirper” as I used to be. I just started singing for two each morning:

“The birdies are sing-ing… Tweetie, tweet, tweet-tweet… Tweetie, tweet-tweet…Tweetie, tweet-tweet…!" And it generally got the desired results.

Until this morning…

Yo see, now-a-days we all generally go to bed in our own bunk beds but we ultimately wake up together in a big pile of arms and legs in one king sized bed in the morning. (Okay, sometimes, Mommy or Daddy wakes up on the couch in the nook if some boy or other decides to play Karate Kid in his sleep… but generally we’re a team. Mommy and Daddy aren’t complaining– we figure we’ll take what we can get now… they won’t be climbing into our bed to snuggle when they’re in high school. We hope...)

This morning, Beck came up later than usual. The iPhone had already finished its third or fourth round (but who’s counting) on the snooze “button” and Caden and I were lazing in bed avoiding the inevitable. In fact Caden was still asleep (an alarm does nothing for a four year old that went to bed too late.)

So while Beck was cuddling with him… I asked him to start singing in his brother’s ear to wake him (passing on the family tradition, you know):

“The birdies are sing-ing… Tweetie, tweet, tweet-tweet… Tweetie, tweet-tweet…Tweetie, tweet-tweet…!" He sang his little heart out. And he got nothing but a couple of groans and a thumb popped back into Cade’s mouth in response. (Bonus! No finger up the nose… not this time anyway.) So, since Beck didn’t get the response he was trying to illicit… he changed tactics… with extremely effective results:

“The birdies are toot-ing… Tootie, toot, toot-toot… Tootie, toot-toot…Tootie, toot-toot…!"

Yep, Dad. I’ve got two boys… and they’re ALL BOY.
My apologies in advance to my future grandchildren…
Thanks for the memory. I miss you.

One big happy family

Beck finally moved back up to the top bunk again this weekend. Yeah!  Must mean he's growing up (again) after six months in shared sleeping quarters in his little brother's lower bunk.  Either that... or the fact that they're both grown two inches in the same time frame had something to do with it.  In either case, it'll make bedtime go a little more smoothly - for Beck anyway.

A typical bedtime these days includes 1) Beck passing out in three to five minutes while 2) Caden stays up and chats with Izzy (our new kitten... blog fodder for another day... c'mon! I'm a working mom with limited time on my hands...!) or Caden reads a book (or five) or he pulls out all the Star Wars Legos (still the active obsession for both boys) or he just comes downstairs and hangs out with the 'rents and listens to the iTouch and rocks out... until Mom and Dad say, "Uncle!" and he typically, finally, agrees to go to sleep too... in OUR bed, with us...  (but that's about an hour from now... Caden and Daddy are "working out" together downstairs right now... I managed to sneak away to the office while Beck sleeps peacefully in the next room!)

What prompted me to blog tonight - since I won't win any awards for "Blogger of the Year" in 2009?  (Getting to the point...)

  

Beck decided that it was time to read the Bible again a couple of nights ago.  A little background: About a year and a half ago we read a kids version: "The Eager Reader Bible - Stories to Grow on"  ( I'm not eagerly promoting it... it pretty much scared the be-Jesus out of him - yes - I just said that... but maybe he just wasn't ready for it yet either...)  But I thought it was important, since we don't belong to any church, that the boys still grow up knowing the stories of the Bible and understanding what religion is (if for no other reason than that they be educated about it when they enter the real world... how many fictitious books have you read with biblical themes in your life...?).  So after the Eager Beaver debacle I bought a different edition - one I recognized from my childhood - "The Golden Children's Bible"  - bigger, harder cover, less cartoonish....  It sat on the book shelf untouched for about... a year and a half.  Until Friday night.

So Beck pulls it out (and decides it's time to sleep in his own bed again on the same night. Yeah!...).  And we start with the story of "The Creation."  The Golden Books version is quite a bit more detailed - but that just means they ask more and better questions, right?.  Then we covered "The Garden of Eden", "The Serpent" and "Cain and Abel" (do you remember that they were the sons of Adam and they fought?  Wow, brother's fight?!  Okay - so with B&C at three and five  - I don't let Cain and Abel kill each other (that's for Star Wars make believe)... but they do hurt each other...  and boy does that bring on some more good conversation.  

So, tonight God flooded the entire Earth and Noah saved one of each animal and started the world all over again.  And Beck asked why?  So we went back to the beginning.  

God created Adam and Eve.  They had babies who had babies who had babies...  And Eve (that sneaky little sass) she convinced Adam to eat that forbidden fruit... which gave them too much knowledge and they were banished from the Garden of Eden and bad things started happening amongst all the people they created in the world because they didn't follow Gods simple rules... until God finally decided to put a stop to it and start over.  Hence Noah's Ark.

Beck inhaled sharply and said, excitedly, getting it:  "So everyone in the world is one big FAMILY?"  (He totally honed in on that and not the "bad things happened to the evil people concept", whew!)

But, wow!  I was so impressed with my little five year old.  I have a sharp little boy on my hands! (Yes, Grandpa... I know you've been saying this all along...)  

Then we get to go on to talk about how silly it is that some people fight with other people in the world, because, according to the Bible, which many people believe in... we're all brothers and sisters... aren't we?  Then Beck yawned and climbed up to the top bunk...

Caden, on the other hand, just took my iPhone and is listening to the "Star Wars" soundtrack in his bed... it's only 9:45pm... At least he's in HIS bed. (For now.)

What Three Year Olds do when they SHOULD be sleeping...

Here's what we get for sleeping in until 9am on a Saturday morning...

And this was just one of three rooms...