Stunt Dad: 100 Days for My Baby Girl: Week 7

Week 7

It's Week 7, also known as (in my best Chris Berman voice) PRIME TIME! As in learning. Because baby's brain will grow 5 centimeters by the end of Month 3, which for us non-Europeans, is 2 inches. Doesn't sound like much? Well, here are a few things that measure 2 inches: a sugar packet, your thumb, or !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, measure that against your baby's head and suddenly you realize there is going to be a lot of room to fill with the most important of information. And what can be more important than...my voice? Sure, textures, shapes, and all that touchy feel stuff is great, but if I could have my baby girl know one thing right now, it would be my voice. The more she hears my voice, the more comfortable she will be. So when I explain to her why the Bulls simply can not let me down as much as the Bears did, she'll smile. When I want to rant to her how Facebook seriously needs to stop making all of these non-changeable changes, she will giggle. And, above all else, when I sing to her, I will sleep. Immediately. For hours on end. Okay, just a few hours. 3 blissfully quiet hours. Yes, it's true—behind all of my good intentions I have for my daughter, my deepest, darkest secret for wanting to talk to my daughter is so that she will sleep. Sue me. So, Week 7 is going to be all about communication. And, here are two things I'm planning on doing:

#1: Memorize 5 Lullabies, Including 1 Original

Why 5? Because singing "Bye, baby bunting" for an hour will drive you to commit suicide. You will need options, for your own sanity (and your wife's too). And, why lullabies instead of your favorite songs? Lullabies were developed for people who can not sing, which I can't. They are short, soothing rhymes to force junior into submission, not my own personal audition for American Idol. I'm not Michael Buble. I'm not Michael Bolton. Hell, I'm not even Michael McDonald. So, as tempted as I might be to try turning "Yah Mo B There" into a lullaby, I won't. For Wifey's sake or for K2 sake. Whether it's "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Silent Night", I'm going to spend an hour learning 4 lullabies. And then, just to prove to myself that I have an ounce of creativity, I'm going to make one up, using my 4 step process below:

Think: what do I want to tell my daughter? It's got to have a good message to her, not just a jargon of crappy words that makes my wife look at me and think: what the hell did you just say to her?
Write: twelve lines, rhyming, rhythm. It's like poetry (gulp). No, it's like rap (wahoo), just soft sounding rap.
Tune: I have no musically abilities. I'm tone deaf, so I'm going to cheat number 4 by ~~stealing~~, borrowing a tune from another lullaby. Thank you, Hush Little Baby!
Sing: Put it all together and release my inner Johannes Brahms, but not my inner Samuel L. Jackson

#2: Dedicate a Song
After the hard work is done with #1, it's time to get sappy. I don't mean that I'm going to call up my local light FM radio station and request they play "Love Song" in honor of K2 and call it a night. I'm taking about creating something that will be long-lasting, that will always be associated with her and me. I'm going to pick out a song that I can play at her baptism, put on in the car during a road trip, and dance to with her on her wedding day. Unfortunately, that rules out some of Daddy's favorites, "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Thunderstruck", but leaves the door open for some lighter faves from U2 or Jason Mraz. Whatever song I choose, I plan on playing it often enough for her to give me a wink later on in life when we randomly hear it at coffee shop.

While she won't be engaging in conversation with me just yet, I'm sure she'll be excited to after hearing me constantly sing to her. Hopefully, her first words won't be "No sing Daddy", but I'll stay optimistic for now. After all, this is all about getting her to sleep as soon as humanly possible, right?

Are you doing anything for your baby girl that I can copy???? =)

Check out the previous weeks below...

Week 6: Documentation
Week 5: Appreciation