The Power of a Song

Today we were finishing up packing for our trip, and trying to clean our house before we left.  Our plan was to leave the house an hour or so after lunch, so we would hit the road at nap time.  It was a good plan, but well laid plans never go, well, as planned.

We finally ended up on the road, two hours later than we meant to.  Luckily, the kids were in great moods, but I have come to recognize these types of moods as the calm before the storm.  Sure enough, we had been driving for about fourty five minutes, when Christian went from happy to insanely mad.

We tried calming him down by talking in soothing voices and sushing him.  It didn't work.  He kept screaming and was obviously exhausted.  I decided to try one last thing, and asked him if he wanted to hear a song.  Through choked sobs he said yes, and I started to sing.

Music can get through to Christian like nothing else. The moment I started to sing, he stopped crying, but when I reached the end of the song, he picked right up where he left off.  I quickly began another song, and this time Tessie joined me.  By the third song, Christian's eyes were drooping.  Tessie finished the last song with feeling, and by then her brother was sound asleep.  After a while, she finally fell asleep too.

Christian almost woke up twice, but as soon as I started to sing he closed his eyes.  After a stressful morning we were counting on the kids to nap in the car.  When it didn't seem like that was going to happen I almost lost it.  I'm glad I chose another route.  The power that music has over my children is really a beautiful thing.