Sounds of the Sea Shore

You always hear that babies who listen to Mozart or Beethoven are going to be geniuses. I agree that there is a lot gained by listening to the classical composers, and have to say that when I was little, my mom would tune my radio to the classical station, and I would just soak up that music. I still love it! But, Gabriel has a very complex personality, and he would get bored listneing to that all the time. After trying several lullaby/night time CDs for him to listen to, he finally settled on a CD that is music mixed with sounds of whales, waves, ducks, etc. He loves this CD - in fact, it takes him forever to fall asleep if it is not turned on. Graham - in true form - is very mellow. He doesn't care if there is music on or not, or what is playing. You can plunk him down in his crib and he might fuss for about 20 seconds, and then he is out. So this is what I am listening to right now - Gabriel's whale CD coming through the monitor, mixed with some snores from Gabriel and some stuffy nose sounds from Graham. Right now, I think this is what heaven must be like! A completely messy house, weird whale music blaring through a tinny-sounding baby monitor, mixing with the satisfied snores and snuffles of two precious little boys who have completely exhausted themselves playing all morning.

There is an hilarious story that goes along with Gabriel's CD, though - that I hope you enjoy. One night, my friend Ellen babysat Gabriel for Troy and I, after Gabriel had gone to bed. When we got home, Gabriel was up, watching TV with Ellen. After I put him back in his bed, I asked what happened, and Ellen told me this: she was watching a movie, when she kept hearing these weird sounds - that sounded kind of like someone being sick and groaning. Concerned (thankfully!) she got up and ran into Gabriel's room. But as soon as she got there, the sound stopped, so she went back to her movie. After a few more times of this, Gabriel finally just woke up and Ellen couldn't get him back to sleep. She explained to me that he hadn't been making any weird noises since then, so she wasn't worried. Then she heard it again coming in on the monitor. Troy and I started laughing. I apologized to Ellen and said "That isn't Gabriel, that is a humpback whale sounding". Poor Ellen, I should have warned her about the whales!