During our last vacation, we ran into an interesting problem: we only had one bedroom. This was a problem because at home our bedtime routine splits up after prayer. I take one child to his room, and J takes the other.

Where’s the problem?

Well, each of the kids gets a lullaby prior to going to sleep – a different lullaby.

The first night on vacation, we tucked them into bed and each of us laid down on either side of them in the king-sized bed. The plan was for us to sing them to sleep and then sneak out into the other room for an evening of good old fashioned television watching. Before we could start, however, an argument erupted as to which lullaby would be sung.

After a little discussion, we decided to do both. J would sing first and I would sing second. The boys were okay with this for a moment, and then C sat up: “wait, wait! I want to sing my lullaby!”

His younger brother immediately announced that he wanted to sing too.

This stumped us for a little bit, and then I had an idea. “Hey, I know! Let’s each make up our own lullaby and sing it. Then we can go to bed.”

The kids loved this idea. Their momma? Not so much. I think her reservations had something to do with the fact that she was going first. After we all settled back on to the bed, she sat up and started to sing her old standby: “Stay awake, don’t rest you’re head…”

C interrupted loudly, “No, no, no! You have to make one up!”

I chimed in agreement, smiling, and even N nodded emphatically.

“Okay,” she said, glaring at me, “You first.”

I waited for everyone to settle back down and then I started singing, slow and sweet:

“When I find myself in times of trouble,
Mother Mary comes to me,
whisper words of wisdom.
Let it beeee, let it be.”

“HEY!” J sat up so she could glare down at me. “You have to make one up!”

“I am!” I said. Truth be known, this wasn’t the first time I’d sung “Let It Be” to the kids, but the question of who created it had never come up. J probably could have done the same thing with “Stay Awake”, except everyone knows that’s from Mary Poppins. Actually, that’s a problem with all the songs she sings regularly. The kids are familiar with all of them, and know where they come from. She glared at me for a moment and then settled back.

I started over with my acapella rendition of Let it Be. I have to admit it went pretty well. By the end of it, I even heard some quiet whispered “let it be”s joining in on the chorus. I didn’t do the whole thing, of course – primarily because I don’t know the whole thing. And I’m pretty sure I mixed up the order of many of the lines, but that’s okay.

After I finished, C started in on his Lightning Butterfly. That one can go on forever, but I managed to cut it short with some gentle applause and quiet “hooray”s.

When it was N’s turn, he surprised us with some soulful “la la la”’s that lasted a few minutes. Unfortunately, I can’t really describe it too well. Take the “La la”s from a Sesame Street song, and infuse it with a little blues, and you’ve got a pretty good idea.

Finally, it was J’s turn. She did a Greek song her mother used to sing to her. I started to interupt to call her on it, but she cut me off. “Hey, you wrote Let it Be. I wrote Nani To Pethi. Right?”

Right you are.

I’m still trying to figure out what to do when the boys hear Let it Be on the radio. Will they really believe that the Beatles learned it from me?

Even worse, will they believe that they got the words mixed up?