Parenthood: Week 342 – This Is Six

As I carried the basket of clean laundry up to our bedroom, I tried to be as quiet as possible. I had just gotten Ethan to sleep and Diana had finished reading to Ollie. The hallway was dark and I walked carefully walked trying not to bump the sides of the laundry basket against the walls.

I angled the laundry basket just right to fit through the door frame when I heard faint singing. I put the laundry down and approached Ollie’s door. I listened at his door and heard his soft singing. I couldn’t name the tune, but it was peaceful and gentle. Sometimes Ollie borderline screams when he sings along with his favorite songs. This was different. It was contemplative, gentle, and warm.

I slowly entered the room and Ollie continued to sing as I sat down on his bed. Ollie smiled at me and stopped his song.

“Hey Buddy, what are you doing?”

“I’m singing…”

“Is this helping you go to sleep?”

“Yes.”

I explained, “There’s different ways to go to sleep. Sometimes we read a book, other times we think about things that we are looking forward to, or people that we love. Sometimes we sing ourselves to sleep. It’s a really nice thing to sing ourselves to sleep, do you want to sing a song with me?”

Ollie nodded yes, and I crawled into bed with him. We sang together our special lullaby, which I sang to him when he was a baby. It’s to the tune of “Edelweiss,” from The Sound Of Music.

Ollie bear, Ollie bear,
You’re my cutey patootey.
You’re a cutey, and a patootey
And I love you soooo much.

You are my beautiful Ollie bear,
and I love you so much.

Ollie bear, Ollie bear,
You’re my special little guy.

Ollie giggled as I sang and joined me for some of the song. “If you want to keep singing when I leave, that’s okay, but don’t sing for too long, you need to get some rest for school tomorrow.”

We gave each other kisses and shared a hug. I told him that I loved him and I walked out his room quietly. I closed his door gently.

I stood there for a moment smiling to myself and after a couple seconds Ollie started singing to himself again, and I walked away into the dark hall with the sound of my special little guy’s voice making our house feel like a home.