The Gallawa Girls Story - Tracks 20-22

We've reached the final chapter in the mixtape I've made for Grace and Ana.  If you really want to know the entire story so far, go back and re-read all the previous chapters that led up to this point.  Chapter one about introductions.  Chapter two about the gifts to and from our girls.  Chapter three about using my imagination, curiosity and sense of discovery to have fun with my girls.  And chapter four about what it means to me to be a father.

Now we're on chapter five, and it's time for bed.  Songs to rock my girls to sleep every night.  Maybe they'll be the same songs that their kids will hear each night as they're rocked to sleep.

20. Golden Slumbers - The Beatles
And here is The Beatles' song that I promised.  Like I've said in earlier posts, this entire mixtape could be songs by The Beatles.  And babies LOVE their music.  I can't tell you how many times I've been singing a song by the Fab Four, and Grace and Ana will get a huge smile on their faces.  It seems like it doesn't even matter what Beatles' song it is.  That just goes to show you how universal their music is.  Golden Slumbers is probably in my top five songs by them.  It is brilliant in its simplicity.  It is simply about singing your child to sleep.  And it is so beautiful to promise them smiles when they arise from their slumbers.  I hope they keep loving The Beatles, and I they look back at this song fondly as the gateway to loving their music.  As a quick aside they'll probably also love Ben Folds' cover of the song too.

21. Lullabye - Ben Folds Five
I love this song which is no big surprise since I love Ben Folds' music so much.  And this lullabye is especially fantastic.  It is so gorgeous.  Musically it is one of my favorite songs by Ben Folds.  It was the first lullabye my girls heard their first night in the NICU.  I wanted them to know that especially on their first night that the world definitely had more for them.  I still sing this song to them all the time.  It soothes them as it should.  That opening and closing verse actually brings me back to Golden Slumbers.  Those verses are so simple and say so much.  And the middle is all about taking a trip on a flight to dreamland.  I hope that every night the moonlight takes the lid off their dreams.

22.  Lullaby (Good Night My Angel) - Billy Joel
And we close the Gallawa Girls Story out with the most beautiful song on the whole mixtape.  Grace and Ana are my little angels.  I know they'll have lots of questions for me and hopefully I can answer them all.  Hopefully they understand what I'm trying to say to them.  I'll be there to rock them to sleep like the tide in the ocean.  The lullabyes I sing will lead to dreams of a wonderful life.  And that life will always have a part of me in it whether I'm there or gone.  They'll pass along these songs to their kids and that will be me living on through them.  I hope that they look back fondly on the times that I've sung them to sleep.  I hope that these songs find a way into their hearts and stay there forever and ever.

Music lives on forever as does love, and those are the greatest gifts I can give my girls.  Someday they'll look back at these posts while they're listening to these songs and be reminded how much their dad loves them.