Baby Business: Week 25, Rhyme Time. Are you ready?

Learnt the words to Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. Tick

Learnt the actions to Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. Tick

Made Little One chuckle with my rendition of Dingle Dangle Scarecrow. Tick

Ready to perform Dingle Dangle Scarecrow to other babies. Absolutely not!

Quick, before she starts crying... entertain her, distract her, keep her smiling... Right, on the spot, what have I got to work with? A multicoloured toy dog and... yikes, that’s it. Ok, here we go...

[in best singing voice]

“My name is Rainbow Dog,

Rainbow is my name.

I’m made of lots of colours,

And full of lots of games.”

Little One’s verdict? Yeah, the baby from the blog says ‘yes’ and with a great big smile too. Crisis diverted.

Come on mums and dads – how many times have you had to improvise on the spot? Isn’t it amazing what rhymes we can make out of a weaning spoon or a trip to the supermarket; or the games we can create from an old hankie and a woolly glove! Is this something we are born with, or is it something that just comes with parenthood? I’m not sure...

Maybe it is a gift? Maybe it is just the inner child in us just begging to be let out. The trouble is, far too many people hold back or worry about what others think. Surely the most important opinion and perception is that of your little child, does anything else really matter?

Take my brother. From the days of geeky teenager sitting in front of his ZX Spectrum (daylight was not an option) to married life and dad of two gorgeous little girls, my quiet brother has transformed in to a born children’s entertainer. No matter where he is or who he’s with, he will just sing, play, chase, tickle and generally act the clown until his children and their friends are giggling uncontrollably. Does he care what others think? NO. And he is undoubtedly one of the best and happiest dad’s I have ever come across, and his little girls think so too.

Me? Well, I have to admit that I often have to ‘check’ myself as I find myself singing whilst out shopping, humming whilst waiting to go in to a meeting and distracting myself from work by imagining the stories I can tell Little One before bed. So, if you pass a strange lady singing, “I’m going to the zoo zoo zoo, how about you you you? You can come too too too”, then don’t cross over the road, just know that I am practicing for the next time my little girl gets upset in her car seat...