Brain Handles

I'm no Stephen Sondheim, but on occasion I'll make up a song for my son to entertain him. He's still a month and a half from turning three, so he's easily entertained.

Now, there are some that I take the time to think out beforehand, like our "traveling song" (lyrics at the end of the post), but others are improvised. The problem with improvised songs, though, is that they're forgotten as soon as they're made up.

I sing to Cooper every night when I put him to bed, most often a classic standard like "I've Been Working On The Railroad", "Somewhere Over The Rainbow", or "The Ballad of Gilligan's Island" (he calls it "Tale"). Tonight I was in a mood to improvise and started singing him songs about him. One that got the best reaction (he laughed a lot) was one about how strong he was.

After I put him to bed and gave him his blessing, I even went and called my wife and sang it to her, because he liked it so much and might ask her to sing it.

A couple of hours later, she got home and it reminded me about the song. I tried to sing it and... blank. I sort of remembered the words. The tune was gone in the ether. But here are the words I can remember.

There once was a boy named Cooper
And he was very strong
He went to the fair and picked up a bear
And said "I'm very strong!"

He said "My name is Cooper
And I am stronger than you.
I may be a tot, but I can lift a lot,
Just look what I can do."

Looks about right, and now it's written down.

Oh, and the lyrics to the "Traveling Song" (which we sing in the car):

Oh Daddy loves his Cooper
And Cooper loves his dad
We travel 'round together
And we are never sad

Someday we'll go to Europe
Or maybe Timbuktu
The traveling team of Daddy
And little Cooper Doo