Sing a song

My family, me, Joe and the kids, we love to make up songs. We sing the kids awake, sing to entice them to clean up, sing when we're on walks, on the swings and sometimes just for the hell of it. Sometimes we sing actual songs, with the correct words and everything. but usually we just belt out words to suit the occasion to a familiar tune or no tune at all, whatever works. Considering our singing ability it's more often than not, no tune at all. I even sing to the four legged animals in the house. I once made up a song for my cat Melrose. The words were

Melrose, you are my little cat.
Melrose, you're getting very fat.
Melrose, you drive me crazy
but you're my baby, my Melrose, my cat.

If I sang this or whistled the tune the cat came running. It was a fun little party trick. My friends and family constantly pestered me to show off this amazing little routine. Or maybe, they pestered me to stop. Anywho, I also made up a song for another of my cats, Peanut Butter. I had taken a picture of her sitting in a teapot and so made up a song to the tune of "I'm a little teapot"

I am Peanut Butter, small and fast
I hide so well, you walk right past.
When I hear the treats shake,
then I stop.
Jump on out and up I pop!

I sent this in to a Friskies contest and won the freaking grand prize, $10,000!!!! So, that means I'm a bona fida songwriter. I am an authority. Someone paid ME...for a song...I MADE UP! Heady stuff, I'm telling ya!

Joe makes up songs for the kids as he pushes them on the swings or on walks around the bog. One favorite which they always ask for is the name song. He makes up a rhyming name story song with their own and all their cousins' names that makes absolutely no sense and is never exactly the same but may sound like this:

Sam had a sandwich with ham
but not Teresa
she wanted pizza,
and Lisa wanted hers with linguica
and Katie is shady, but I know she's a lady
I know Jim is slim, hey! whys Ben in the den?
Owen is going because Patty wants Daddy.
John mowed the lawn while Rose picked her nose.
Zach sat on a tack...
...and you get the idea.

The kids have picked up this weird habit of ours. When I call them in for dinner, they'll sing "I'm coming!" in a loud falsetto opero voice. When they play with their toys, I hear them singing little love songs to them. Sometimes they even sing insults to each other. Sam sang to Teresa as we stood in line at WalMart "you are the dullest sister, EEEEVEEEERRRRR!" Again in that opera voice. Living in this house is like living in an episode of the wonder pets. The other night at my sisters, Teresa had Sam, Kate and two of her cousins sitting in chairs, waiting to see whom she would choose, as she sang, in a chuch cantor kind of way, "and the next person who will pour the tea will beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...........SEAMUS!"

The other day I caught Teresa in another song when we were cleaning up. She was picking up tissues in the bedroom (allergy season is back and most of us are now singing with tissues in hand). I heard her sing "and a friggin tissue here, and a friggin tissue there, here a tissue, there a tissue, everywhere a friggin tissue..."

I am so proud. Music to my friggin ears.