For Koa,

One of my very favorite baby rhymes.

Babies Don’t Keep

Mother, Oh Mother

Come shake out your cloth,

empty the dustpan,

poison the moth,

hang out the washing

and butter the bread,

sew on a button and make up the bed.

Where is the mother who’s house

is so shocking?

She’s up in the nursery

blissfully rocking.

Oh I’v grown shiftless as little

Boy Blue (lullaby, rockabye, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake darling and peek-peek-a-boo).

The shopping’s not done

and there’s nothing for stew

and out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo

but I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look!  Aren’t her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockabye, lullaby-loo)

The cleaning and scrubbing

will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up,

as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down cobwebs.

dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep…

-Author Unknown

*Read to me by my Grandma*