Grandpa always speaks of the song his grandfather sang to him, “You are My Sunshine,” with fond memories of his family history, this ritual and tradition. When our first grandson was born, I realized I had no such history, ritual and traditional song as my grandparents were killed in the Holocaust before I was born. I set out to find a song to create a new history with our grandchildren—this grandma’s signature song.
At bedtime, I held and walked and rocked the grandchildren until they fell asleep. “Old MacDonald became the favorite bedtime song because the verses could go on forever, especially when I added animals that never saw a farm. When the grandchildren got old enough to attend preschool, I hoped they did not tell their teachers that this Grandma said a tiger lives on a farm! However, the song was not really what became my signature song.
In the morning, at their first peep, I would take the precious baby sleepy grandchild from the crib and into my bed. Of course, I said it was to allow the parents to sleep late. Sometimes, the baby would fall back to sleep on my chest. Such heaven! Other times, when they stayed awake, Old MacDonald just did not work. So, I began to sing a morning verse welcoming the new day that I thought I remembered from Sesame Street when the parents of our grandchildren were tots.
It’s a beautiful day today.
And what are we going to do?
We’re going to laugh and sing
And dance and play today.
It had all the wonderful things I hoped to share with my grandchildren each day. I would sing it a few times dancing around the room with the baby grandchild until he or she belly laughed. It is always a beautiful day when this Grandma is with her grandchildren!
The great thing about this song is that it is appropriate for any age grandchild and I sing it every morning I wake up with the grandchildren. How do I know my grandchildren know it is my signature song? The last time I was with my youngest two grandchildren, the six year old came into our room in the morning singing the song to me.
So, in order to share the song with you to use with your grandchildren if you choose to, I went on YouTube to find the music. I did not know there were so many beautiful day songs to choose from:
I tried children’s songs first and found two:
Neither had the melody of this Grandma’s song. Then I went to general songs that had “beautiful day” in the title. U 2 sings an amazing “It’s A Beautiful Day,” from 2000.
I went to dozens of early Sesame Street songs. It was not the opening song, “Can You Tell Me How to Get to Sesame Street.” I could not find the melody. Then I found the melody. The melody comes from a Sesame Street song, after all: “Somebody Come and Play”:
I love this song. It is fun to sing songs with grandchildren on YouTube. But, what I did realize was that the song lyrics I have been singing to my grandchildren are of my own creation. That makes it the best signature song ever!
Joy,
Mema
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