Sound Effects

Each morning I wake to sound effects. The scritching and scratching of the neighborhood fox family. The hippity hopping of bunnies commuting. The twitter and tweeting of birds. If insomnia is good for nothing else, it’s good for enjoying sound effects.

When our daughters were babies, I loved the middle of the night feedings. I cherished the mother-daughter bonding time and the coos and burblings of their infancy. As the girls grew, I admired the tenacious desire each had for wanting to turn coos and burblings into words and evnentually sentences. The first consonant sounds-followed by the first vowel sounds they made before combining the two were like bird song; determined and endless, happy and sweet.

So I leave you with yet another possible Mother’s Day gift idea but this time, one for the children. To receive. Dear Mothers, write a note to each of your children about your favorite sound effect they made when they were little. Perhaps it was the sound they made while nursing or the smacking sound they made in the high chair when they first tasted solid food. Maybe it was the sound of their breath in your ear when they slept or their first laugh. Maybe it was all these things...