The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. At least, not in my daughter’s case. If ever I had a Mini-Me - - she’s it.
When I was young(er) - I made a living singing in a rock band. Yep - Little-Known-Fact #101. The band was called “Kidd Sister” - - it was me and 5 guys. We were nothing spectacular . . . but we had a ton of fun and made a good living for about 5 years…. Or until I had kids and decided I needed to make a BETTER living, rather than a FUN living.
Adulthood sucks, man.
Music makes me soar (not sore… soar) . . and singing is still a great passion of mine, but the reality of adulthood and having mouths to feed became the priority in my life. So, I traded in my microphone for a stethescope and spent the next 15 years as an RN. That job was extremely fulfilling, don’t get me wrong. But also don’t think that I don’t spend a good amount of time looking back on my music years with a wistful sigh.
I coulda been a contender!
Now I sing in the shower and various weddings for friends, family, friends of friends and their nephews.
Bah. A wedding singer.
My daughter, though! Man has she got some pipes! I love to sit and listen to her sing. Sometimes, when she’s doing her chores around the house - - she turns up the tunes and sings along . . and I’ll come upstairs and just stand there in the corner watching her . . . listening. Until she sees me and lets out a blood curdling scream!
That’s me. Mom the stalker.
Tonight, her and I went shopping. She let me listen to the violin piece that she’s going to perform at a state competition in April. Her violin instructor recorded it onto a CD for her - - which she then downloaded to her iPod.
Ahh. Technology.
So, I listened. It was her instructor playing the Minuet that she is supposed to learn. Would you believe that her instructor was MY instructor back in the day? Yep - Ol’ Mr. M. I studied under him for years. That is, until the my junior year in high school - they decided to put Orchestra and Choir during the same period - - so I had to choose. I chose Choir. Mr. M. never forgave me - - and do you believe he STILL brings it up everytime I go to one of my daughters concerts?
Anyways . . back to my daughter. After that discussion - she started talking about which song she was going to sing for the school’s talent show in May. She’s narrowed it down to three songs by Kelly Clarkson and made me listen to all three. I can’t decide. She’ll do beautifully no matter which one she chooses.
That’s what I told her.
..”Mom? What is that butterfly song you used to sing to me when I was little?”
I smiled.
“It’s a song called ‘Dog and Butterfly’ . . done by Heart,” I said.
“Sing it,” she says.
“Now??,” I ask.
“Yes . . pleasepleasepleaseplease??,” she whines.
So I do. I surprise myself that I remembered all the lyrics. It brought back days of holding her little body close to mine. Sitting in her dark nursery in a old creaky rocking chair that I found at an estate sale that year.
But I remember every word just like it was yesterday.
I finished. She smiled and said, “It’s been a really long time and it’s just like I remember it. You never should have stopped singing, Mom.”
“You sing for me,” I said.
“I will, Mom,” she says. Then she opens up the page of the new book I bought for her: Learning How To Sing by Clay Aiken . . . . she wanted that book so bad. She turns to the first page and let’s out a little sigh.
“So perfect,” she says - “If I ever write a book, I’m going to start it just this way.”
“What way,” I ask.
“The way Clay started his book: This is for my mother, who sang to me first”
1:31 am on January 11th, 2005
Awwww. I totally ♥ed this story. I really, really, really did.
Is she the same daughter who didn’t get homesick?
1:33 am on January 11th, 2005
One in the same.
Tough cookie, eh?
Not!
3:12 am on January 11th, 2005
Yeah. Just like you.
5:04 am on January 11th, 2005
That was a really really great post Lisa. I enjoyed reading that.
7:12 am on January 11th, 2005
I sing to my kids every night…. however I am the worlds worst singer, so I expect they will ask me to stop soon
8:02 am on January 11th, 2005
Ya, I member hearin Lisa sing. I tell ya, when she finished singing dat Beer Barrel Polka, der wasn’t a dry eye in da room! :wink::mrgreen:
But seriously, that’s beautiful. I’m not much of a singer, since I’m wall too self conscious when I do it, but I do sing to astromite now and then. Two of his first books were Sting’s Rocksteady and Shape of My Heart. The latter isn’t much of a kid’s book since the illustrations are works of Picasso, but Rocksteady is all Noah’s ark in bright colors and fairly simple shapes. My memory normally sucks, so I have trouble remembering lyrics (unless it’s for something like Floyd’s Great Gig in the Sky
), but it’s impossibly to just read him those and not sing them to him. Anyway, thanks for a wonderful look at the future of parenting. 
9:24 am on January 11th, 2005
I hope I have kids that can at least carry a tune in a bucket. I love to listen to ppl sing because I sure cant. truely you are blessed.
9:47 am on January 11th, 2005
That is special Lisa, is there any talents you do not have? I’ll answer than…no you are one hell of a talented Lady and it carries over into mothering as well.
10:06 am on January 11th, 2005
Aww, very touching! And I so didn’t know you used to sing!
10:37 am on January 11th, 2005
That’s beautiful, especially when your daughter is thanking you for her love in music. That gift will be with you both always.
10:52 am on January 11th, 2005
Any relation to this?
10:56 am on January 11th, 2005
Okay, now I’m gonna cry!
12:58 pm on January 11th, 2005
Well now ya got my flood gates open…great story sweetie
*hugs*
1:20 pm on January 11th, 2005
Silly question, i’m sure I’m gonna need to pay you some money for this…..but how do i make it so that when i’m typing a post and i want some of it hidden where someone would lick on a link like you did here….
“Now??,†I ask.
(more…)
?????? i’m sure i’ll have to have something installed and i’d be willing to pay for it, or maybe i already have it LOL help me lisa…. pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
3:08 pm on January 11th, 2005
Awwww, that was totally sweet!
5:32 pm on January 11th, 2005
How absolutely beautiful!!
8:23 pm on January 11th, 2005
Great Post. Isn’t there some kind of audio post you could do so the rest of us could hear her?
Each of my daughters has a song they get each night from me. Daughter #1 gets Helter Skelter, Daughter #2 gets Get Back. Each sung as a lullaby.
What can I say? I’m a Beatlemaniac!
10:43 pm on January 11th, 2005
Could you sing “Baracuda” for me?
12:19 am on January 12th, 2005
That is the sweetest thing I have read tonight!
Surfed in on BE and wanted to say hello!
12:49 am on January 12th, 2005
I just came in through BE and wanted to tell you that was a very sweet post.
2:21 am on January 12th, 2005
See the dog and butterfly
Up in the air he like to fly
Dog and butterfly, below she had to try
She roll back down to the warm soft ground
With a little tear in her eye
She had to try, she had to try
Dog and butterfly
One of my favorites. My mother probably heard that song every morning for a year!
You go, girl. And you know, she not only HAS TO TRY, but she will succeed. Go, Lisa’s Baby Girl!
8:03 am on January 12th, 2005
You know we spend our whole life trying not to be like our parents and to always stay cool. But in the end we will never bee cool to our kids no matter how much we try. If we are cool it usually means that we are not being good parents. You should reform your band! I used to have a band and I think about it all the time.
8:27 am on January 12th, 2005
Daughter 1 :Crystal ship/ Doors, Daughter 2: Home sweet Home, Motley Crue. Other daughters don’t like me singing. Crystal ship is the best, my 3 year old ’slips in to unconsciousness almost immediately, and if we hear the song during the day she will throw a tantrum saying I don’t wanna go to bed!!!
2:28 pm on January 12th, 2005
Howard: I should do an audio post of her singing - - she’d KILL me though! lol
Margi: That one a timeless favorite for me
RedFred: Visions of you singing to your girls . . priceless
Joe: Restart my band? LOL - I’d really LOVE to see where those guys are at right now. But, life intervenes and I have no time or interest in it anymore. It was fun while it lasted, though!
6:32 pm on January 12th, 2005
there you go..genetics triumph
letti
8:26 pm on January 12th, 2005
My moment of bliss was very small. Since I was working from home today, I took my daughter into school later than usual. All the early birds go to one room until their teacher comes in. When I took her today, her teacher was in and her class
8:49 pm on January 12th, 2005
As long as they are visions and there is no Audio your be just fine!
8:51 pm on January 12th, 2005
Lisa check out the link on post #11…..
9:05 pm on January 12th, 2005
Never heard of Uncle Whiskey Breath, Fred . .. no relation
My band would have been 1989 - 1993
10:05 pm on January 12th, 2005
Hey, about the music…
Singing, adulthood, leaving a band or 4, kids…I feel your pain.
I was a singer until the kids came along. Now my 17 year old boy and 15 year old girl are both singers. I told them to have fun with it while they have the time.
They’re both in bands of the garage variety.
12:40 am on January 13th, 2005
fantastic story, thanks for making me smile.
7:25 am on January 13th, 2005
I was wondering because one of the band members bio’s said they were in a band called Kidd sister out of Milwaukee
3:34 pm on January 13th, 2005
Back when I was still in the Marines and stationed at Whidbey Island NAS I used to go see Heart at the Aquarius Club, I think it was in Redmond, real close to Seattle. The girls were still in high school at the time. Somewhere I have a cassette tape (remember those) of Heart doing all of the songs on thier first album, before they made the album. Those were the days. Dog and Butterfly was one of my favorites.
6:57 pm on January 15th, 2005
That’s so cool - that your daughter can sing so beautifully, and you can appreciate that.
I, too, sang for my supper for a while (though not in a band). I love music.
Imagine my horror now that my son has turned up tone deaf.
Oh, it’s no tragedy or anything. I just see him missing a texture to life - kinda like if he were colorblind.
Oh, well. Maybe son number 2 will be able to sing…
9:18 pm on January 15th, 2005
Hey birdwoman . . your tone deaf son will find texture elsewhere in the world, in other places. Trust me, he will.
How do I know? I’m fully color blind