You Are My Sunshine

"You are my sunshine
my only sunshine
you make me happy
when skies are gray.
You'll never know dear
how much I love you.
Please don't take my sunshine away."

My mom always sang that to my little brother and me; it's always been such a sweet soothing song. I started singing it to my Maggie when she was first born and it's a lullaby I continue to sing to this day to all of them. Other favorites include: Baby Mine, Mr. Sun and Hush Little Baby.

Those who know me know that I sing...almost constantly, in fact. So it's no wonder my babies enjoy my singing since they've heard it nine months before meeting me. There were some nights when Maggie was so fussy and inconsolable, and I'd just sing to her; partly to cover up the sound of her crying, yes, but also to help soothe her back in to sleep. When Iris would wake up in the middle of the night, during the time my husband was working graveyard shift, I'd sing to her as she fell back to sleep in my arms. And as Alex would lay there, wide awake nursing and fighting sleep, I'd lull him with a song, too.

Each time I sung to my babes, it brought me back to my own infantile days when my mother would cuddle me, stroke my hair, and tell me I was her sunshine.

What childhood snuggle memories do you have?
Did your mother use to sing you to sleep with a lullaby?
Do you sing it to your babes?