Pinnochio scared me when I was liitle. The scene where Monstro chases Pinnochio really freaked me out, but my parents covered my eyes, cuddled me close and sang "The Bear Went Over The
Mountain" and I was ok. That was my comfort song. It always helped.

The Boy never had a comfort song as a baby, but being the patriotic baby that he was, he always calmed down the instant we popped in the Wee Sing America tape. The Wee Sing series makes the mistake of thinking that parents want to hear other people's kids singing, but their musical selections aren't bad. We listened to that tape approximately a million times when The Boy was a baby. Later on his favorite song was "Jingle Bells" which he would request at all times of the year and in all weathers, I can't remember though whether he merely liked it or if he needed it for comfort as well. Currently he requests bluegrass or Johnny Cash when we're in the car. I've been trying to teach him to like Frank Sinatra.

The Girl, of course, did not happen to think that a rousing rendition of The Star Spangled Banner was soothing nor did she care much for any of the other things her brother liked. Grumble, grumble...own person...hmph. Recently though, she's been finding her own music that she wants us to sing. I think the thing she finds the most comfort in is "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider" which she requested over and over again the other day until she fell into a cuddly nap on my lap. She does have some patriotism in her though -- in the car this morning she wanted "Yankee Doodle" all the way home. I need to learn more than the first three verses if I am going to have to sing it for very long, but nothing like a chorus of Yankee Doodle to get the blood flowing in the morning -- or something.

I don't know why I liked "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" any more than I know why I like the music I like now, but something within certain songs soothes us, comforts us and all of us seem to seek that out.