When I had vowed that my child would get as many bedtime songs as she wanted, I hadn’t counted on this particular child’s determination. Perhaps, having waited so long for a f***ly of her own. she didn’t want to let me go that easily. And I couldn’t bear to allow a child who had so recently left the orphanage to cry herself to sleep.
But I was quickly growing tired of the songs I had previously been so eager to sing. Tedium isn’t necessarily a liability in a lullaby—it is possible to bore a child to sleep—but I found myself yearning for a little musical variety. I realized that it was going to take more than my tiny collection of lullabies to get my daughter to sleep.
In the months that followed, I tried out a variety of bedtime songs so that I could add the best ones to my repertoire. I evaluated each tune according to Tessa’s personal rating system：She fussed and frowned when she didn’t like a song, andmanded, “Again, Mama, ” when she did like one.
Not every song I auditioned made our lullaby hit parade. I like Gershwin tunes, but Tessa is no jazz baby, so“Embraceable You” didn’t make the final cut. On the other hand, I found that cowboy songs make surprisingly effective lullabies. The lyrics are a bit melancholy, but the rolling rhythms of“Red River Valley, ”“I Ride an Old Paint, ”and“Down in the Valley” are soothing, like riding a gentle old pony into the sunset. Likewise, the sentimental songs that were popular early in the last century—“Good Night, Ladies, ”“Let Me Call You Sweetheart, ” and “You Are My Sunshine”—are still lovely, even when they’re sung by a solo alto instead of a barbershop quartet. And Tessa loved the folk songs my mother sang to me al