Here Comes the Sandman

I just love that everytime I sing "Sandman," Grant gets calm and quiet. Before I get to "tips of his toes," he is calm. If he's talkative or a pacifier isn't near, sometimes he'll talk all the way through the song the first time. This lullaby has worked magic in my family for generations. My mom sang it to me and my siblings; Big Gaga sang it to all 12 of babies; and Big Gaga's mother sang it to her. I don't think it's recorded anywhere; at least not the way we sing it. I did find the sheet music months ago online. My friend Cassie played it on her iPhone piano and I called my mom so she could hear. Oh - and I cried.

One of the first things I wanted to do when I got home from the hospital with Grant was to learn this lullaby, and I'm so glad I did. In a family full of rich traditions, this is the one I'm most thankful for. Other traditions that I'm thankful for (in no particular order):

1. The dress the babies wear coming home from the hospital. Grant was the 47th to wear the gown.

2. The Purple Dress

3. Go Tell It on the Mountain

4. Big Gaga's trains and stockings. Grant will wear the conductor hat for the first time this year!

5. Making Christmas stockings. Big Gaga has made them for her entire family. My mom has made them for hers as well. And even though it has taken well over 100 hours, I have finished Grant's! I just have to add his name!! There was a time when the Bereuter family grew by several people in a single year. I remember Gaga rattling off the newbies, us cousins help her make the new stockings, and Gaga worrying if she'd missed somebody.

6. The Easter Egg Hunt. And the 40 or so dozen confetti eggs all made by my mother.