Ro has started singing, and it wasn’t a gradual process. He has always loved listening to songs that we sing to him or play for him, both in Chinese and English, but the singing started with Baa Baa Black Sheep. They must sing this a lot at daycare because it wasn’t on our rotation at all. At first I thought he was saying “Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir three bags full. Neigh! Neigh!” but then I realized it was because he was iffy on line three and couldn’t say “dame” or “lane”.
After that it was Twinkle Twinkle and ABC. He sings with decent rhythm and even recognizable melody.
The other day at bedtime I started singing 小燕子 [Little Swallow], a lullaby that my parents used to sing to me, and Ro sang along. He knew the entire first verse. I had never heard him sing any part of this song before. (Aside: 小燕子 was actually the theme song of a 1957 TV show called 护士日记 [Nurse Diaries] before it was ever a children’s song.)
Yesterday we were reading 小雨滴 [Little Raindrop] (book review here) before bed and he wanted to read it to me. He then proceeded to sing the entirety of 猫追狗 [The Cat Chases the Dog], currently his most requested song of the book, all by himself while looking at the correct page.
Babies’ brains are amazing.
Etymology Adventures 