• Woman
    • Birth & Postpartum
  • Mamá
    • Mother
    • Culture in Motherhood
  • With the Kids
    • Outdoors
    • Room Sharing
Start typing and press
Enter to search
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • From The Core Paper
Follow
Skip to content
Our Everydays

Our Everydays

a mamá storytelling her days

open search form close search form
  • Woman
    • Birth & Postpartum
  • Mamá
    • Mother
    • Culture in Motherhood
  • With the Kids
    • Outdoors
    • Room Sharing
By: Our Everydays November 14, 2018June 15, 2020
Culture in Motherhood, Mother, Room Sharing, storytelleredmonton mother, immigrant mother, intersectional feminism, lullabies, mom blog, stories of culture, stories of motherhood, storytelling, yeg kids, yeg moms

Words To The Lullabies I Sing To My Children [stories of motherhood and culture]




When I picked my children up after work today, my mother told me that when they heard the song “Los Pollitos Dicen” on an old CD that she had found, they said “Mama”.

I am writing this for you, my darlings, Penelope and Oliver, so that you always remember the words to the songs your mother sang to you before bed time.

•

Growing up abroad, the lullabies my mother sang to me were different than the ones my friends knew. As a young child, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” was a song that many of my friends, myself included, could easily join in to sing along to, but not if I sang “Los Pollitos Dicen”.

The lullabies my children know will also be different than the ones their little friends do. When they walk through the children’s book aisle in a store or a library, they won’t see an anthology of the songs they heard growing up. For mothers raising children in a country different than their birth country, this is a common scenario.

I remember being a two day old mom, a baby in my arms, deep in the newborn haze, and as the most natural response to my child crying, singing a lullaby I hadn’t sang in years. The melody and words so deeply memorized in my soul, that even after years of not singing it, so easily came through me.

I have sang that song to both of you every night since the day you were born. Even your father learnt to sing Los Pollitos Dicen, and he sings it even if I’m not there.

Los pollitos dicen 
Pío pío pío 
Cuando tienen hambre 
Y cuando tienen frio

La gallina busca 
El maíz y el trigo 
Les da la comida 
Y les presta abrigo

Pío pío pío
Pío pío pa
Pío pío pío 

•

Pin Pon es un muñeco
de trapo y de cartón
Se lava la carita
con agua y con jabón

Se desenreda el pelo 
con peine de marfil,
y aunque se da estirones
no llora ni hace así.

Pin Pon dame la mano
con un fuerte apretón,
que quiero ser tu amigo
Pin Pon Pin Pon Pin Pon

No matter the song, if you haven’t sang it in a while, you forget the lyrics. Lullabies can be similar. The songs we learn so well in our childhood, the songs that bring us back to moments, to feelings of love and peace in our hearts before going to sleep; those parts of the song we will never forget, the lyrics are harder to remember.

And so my darlings, I write the words here for you, the same way that I sang them to you, so that if you ever have a hard time remembering the words, this help you remember everything else.

Muñequita 
le dijo el ratón 
ya no llores tontita 
no tienes razón. 
Tus amigos 
no son los del mundo 
porque te olvidaron 
en este rincón. 

Nosotros no somos así. 

Te quiere la escoba y el recogedor. 
Te quiere el plumero y el sacudidor. 
Te quiere la araña y el viejo veliz. 
También yo te quiero, 
y te quiero feliz. 

Edmonton Mommy Blogger Culture and Motherhood (1)
Edmonton Mommy Blogger Culture and Motherhood (2)

Share this:

  • Facebook

Like this:

Like Loading...
Culture in Motherhood, Mother, Room Sharing, storytelleredmonton mother, immigrant mother, intersectional feminism, lullabies, mom blog, stories of culture, stories of motherhood, storytelling, yeg kids, yeg moms

Post navigation

Super Easy Kid Friendly DIY Lanterns [making our own winter festivals]
The End of Breastfeeding [Weaning after Two Years of Nursing – a bittersweet milestone]

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Instagram

Oh how I love this season!
A mid april afternoon when we played outside with the sprinkler; an afternoon we’ll remember for a while 💛 all my happiness right here.
Beautiful sunlight makes everything better, even the details of renovation messes/progress. We’re coming up on our tenth year living in this home, and tackling one the renovations we had planned to do years ago... finally getting around to it. In a way, I’m glad we waited to complete this part at the age the kids are right now, because they have been such a big part of the process. So eager to help and participate in making their home, and those are memories that years, months, weeks from now I know we’ll cherish. Also, I no longer have pink wall-pink carpet rooms in the house, so there’s that too haha ☺️🙌🏼 . Happy almost Friday!! ✨☀️
That smile’s for me. This blessing of a soul. The other day, through the rear view mirror, I watched him as he placed the tips of his fingers together time and time again, just to perfect making the shape of a heart with his hands. It’s impossible not be to be moved watching that. Four and a half years old, and still my baby, but more and more, in moments when he would usually stay with me, he goes... though my mama heart is so proud of his growing confidence, I miss him. They are just growing so beautifully. This afternoon, the beautiful weather gave us a taste of all the adventures this season holds for us, and I can’t wait to share it with them. On the home front, our downstairs level renovations is moving steadily, and hopefully, by the end of next week, my house will be dust free haha. Perfect time for spring cleaning. I also transplanted my basil today, and all the seedlings are in the stage where you can start to smell their aroma, and noticing little things like that is so meaningful to me, especially lately. The aroma of seedlings, the dampness on their neck when they sleep, always, always, those little things ✨
The season of light beautifully reflecting and shining around the house ✨ and I especially love how it falls on this wall.
I am always so moved, so inspired, so humbled by the beautiful things I hear from my children. This morning as we had breakfast, Penelope told me that if we tied one hundred balloons to our roof, our house could fly just like the movie Up. As I smiled to her beautiful story, she paused and said that perhaps she didn’t want to do that. She would miss the land and the plants in the backyard. I love that she used the word “land”, and even more, to see how connected she feels to it. Even with all our possessions in our home, it would be the loss of the land and the nature from our little backyard that made her change her mind. Such a powerful and beautiful reflection from her little soul. How beautifully, how impactful their comments and observations are to me; always my teachers. And their words, all the more reason to look forward to our gardening season, and to the day their little hands will plant these baby tomatoes. 🍅 happiest of Fridays ✨

Our Everydays Facebook Page

Our Everydays Facebook Page
Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
%d bloggers like this: