This is Life!: Revolutions Around the Cruciform Axis

The Fatherhood Chronicles XLVII

Sofie Sings

Sofie has been singing for some weeks now. I think it was a couple of months ago, she was sitting in her high chair as I was getting her breakfast ready, and just siiiiinging away. There's nothing more beautiful than listening to your infant daughter sing her first songs.

She gets this, I'm fairly certain from two main sources: her parents and her church. Several months ago, Anna began humming to Sofie when trying to get her down for her naps during the day. It calmed her, and soon Sofie sort of made some efforts to hum, too. Anna still hums, and Sofie still joins in when she does.

I started singing to Sofie at bedtime many months ago, as well, but was not very consistent with it. I mainly used it when Sofie was unusually fussy. More recently, I began to make it a consistent and essential part of bedtime.

And since the only church Sofie has ever known is her Orthodox parish, and since every liturgy is chanted, she's frequently surrounded by singing.

So, this past Saturday night, Anna and I were awakened about 3:00 a.m. (okay, that makes it Sunday morning, but anywho . . .) by Sofie fussing. As we always do, we waited to see if she would go back to sleep, or whether she would wake herself up. She normally goes on back to sleep. But this weekend was different. Sofie would start fussing, but before she quieted down again, she would pass over into singing. It was very obvious that though she started fussing, she was singing herself back to sleep. She did this a handful of times over the space of about ten minutes. Anna and I lay in bed listening to the monitor and just grinning and chuckling. I can't tell you how cute that was.

Then this morning for the first time that I can remember since Sofie was born, she woke up without crying. She fussed once or twice at four a.m. and again at five a.m., then once more just before six. But as I was moving about the apartment getting ready for the day, I paused. Yep. I distinctly heard singing from behind the closed door of the nursery. When I went into the nursery, there was Sofie sitting up in her crib jibber jabbering to her stuffed animals and singing.

As her father, I am just about ready to bust with joy. (And yes, that's a bit of moisture hanging out in the corner of my eye.) What a blessed, blessed gift from God.