Singing to my newborn daughter, week two

1. Imogen Heap, Hide and Seek
2. Tegan & Sara, The Con
3. Tegan & Sara, Nineteen
4. Tegan & Sara, Call It Off
5. Everclear, Father Of Mine
6. Chappell Roan, Casual
7. Chappell Roan, Pink Pony Club
8. Bad Religion, You
9. Sarah Blasko, Planet New Year
10. NOFX, Drop The World
11. Lamb, B-Line
12. AFI, Love Like Winter
13. Samia, Pool
14. Cosmo Sheldrake, The Moss
15. The Rembrandts, I’ll Be There For You

Singing to my newborn daughter, week three

1. Avril Lavigne, I’m With You
2. Rick Astley, Never Gonna Give You Up
3. Semisonic, Closing Time
4. Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit
5. The Temptations, My Girl
6. Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag
7. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Porcelain
8. Alanis Morrissette, Hand In My Pocket
9. Alanis Morrissette, Head Over Feet
10. John Farnham, The Voice

Singing for Celeste, Week Four

1. Britney Spears, Baby One More Time
2. Garbage, #1 Crush
3. Garbage, Parade
4. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Porcelain
5. Wyndreth Berginsdottir, Savage Daughter
6. Lewky, I Have One Daughter
7. Agatha All Along, The Ballad of the Witches’ Road
8. NOFX, Scavenger Type
9. Avril Lavigne, I’m With You

Really can’t believe this girl is almost a month old.

Also can’t believe the specific songs that come to mind when I’m trying to calm a fussy baby.

Songs for Celeste, Week Five

1. Bad Religion, You
2. NOFX, Drop the World
3. Semisonic, Closing Time
4. Moana, How Far I’ll Go
5. The Little Mermaid, Part of Your World
6. The B-52’s, Roam
7. Evita, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina
8. Shania Twain, Man I Feel Like a Woman
9. Johnny Cash, Hurt
10. Garbage, Metal Heart
11. Go West, King of Wishful Thinking
12. Tegan & Sara, Take Me Anywhere
13. The Monkees, Daydream Believer
14. NOFX, Linoleum
15. REM, Losing My Religion
16. Butthole Surfers, Pepper

Songs for Celeste, Week Six

1. Katy Perry, I Kissed a Girl
2. Katy Perry, Thinking of You
3. Frank Sinatra, It Was A Very Good Year
4. Semisonic, Closing Time
5. Bad Religion, You
6. Chappell Roan, Pink Pony Club
7. Chappell Roan, Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl
8. Chappell Roan, Naked In Manhattan
9. Blink-182, Dammit
10. Cat Stevens, Father and Son
11. Bob Marley, Three Little Birds
12. Nina Simone, Feeling Good
13. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Porcelain

Singing to Celeste, Week Seven

1. Bad Religion, You
2. Red Hot Chili Peppers, Porcelain
3. Aerosmith, Sweet Child of Mine
4. Mr Big, Be With You
5. Harry Connick Jr, Whisper Your Name
6. Bob Marley, Three Little Birds
7. Wheatus, Teenage Dirtbag
8. NOFX, Scavenger Type
9. Mika, Grace Kelly
10. Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection
11. Kesha, Praying
12. Kesha, Rainbow

Songs for Celeste, Week Eight

1. The Joy Formidable, Wolf’s Law
2. The Joy Formidable, The Everchanging Spectrum of a Lie
3. Joy Formidable, Whirring
4. Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection
5. Agatha All Along, Ballad of the Witches’ Road
6. Tracy Bonham, Sharks Can’t Sleep
7. Frozen 2, Show Yourself
8. Frozen 2, All Is Found
9. The Little Mermaid, Part Of Your World
10. Lisa Mitchell, Pirouette
11. Sarah Blasko, Always On This Line
12. Billy Joel, Uptown Girl
13. They Might Be Giants, Dr. Worm

Songs for Celeste, Week Nine

1. Semisonic, Closing Time
2. Little Mermaid, Part of Your World
3. Beyoncé, Daddy Lessons
4. Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection
5. Kanye West, Runaway
6. Hayley Williams, True Believer
7. Annette Funicello, Pineapple Princess
8. NOFX, Linoleum

Songs for Celeste, Week Ten

1. NOFX, Leave It Alone
2. NOFX, Dig
3. NOFX, The Cause
4. Bad Religion, You
5. Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection
6. Metric, Black Sheep
7. Damien Rice, The Blower’s Daughter
8. Tegan & Sara, Take Me Anywhere
9. Tegan & Sara, I Bet It Stung

As the weeks wear into months, Celeste doesn’t need to be sung to sleep so often. So now we have morning song time in the kitchen.

(Believe it or not all the songs up to now have been sung as lullabies)

Songs for Celeste, Week Eleven

1. NOFX, Perfect Government
2. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, The Message
3. Salt n Pepa, Heaven or Hell
4. Kermit the Frog, Rainbow Connection
5. NOFX, Scavenger Type
6. Jay-Z, Izzo
7. Soundgarden, Black Hole Sun
8. Stina Nordenstam, Little Star
9. Allison Krauss, Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby
10. Tool, Parabola
11. Tool, Lateralus
12. Blink-182, Dammit
13. Jay-Z, 99 Problems

Week 12

1. OutKast, Hey Ya!
2. Ini Kamoze, Here Comes the Hotstepper
3. Frances Dunnery, Good Life
4. Tool, Parabola
5. Little Mermaid, Part of Your World
6. Paul Simon, Me & Julio
7. Nirvana, Smells Like Teen Spirit
8. Soggy Bottom Boys, Man of Constant Sorrow
9. 2Pac, California Love
10. Wyndreth Berginsdottir, Savage Daughter
11. Moana, How Far I’ll Go
12. Montell Jordan, This is How We Do It
13. Kermit, Rainbow Connection
14. NOFX, Linoleum
15. NOFX, Leave It Alone
16. Tool, Lateralus

@fsanchez0 in my (limited!) experience they’re responding to the direct attention more than anything; I could be reading D&D 5th Edition and she’d love it as long as I was making eye contact.

In school I learned a lot about childhood language acquisition, and exaggerated speech (“baby talk”) is key to them learning the patterns of language. I don’t know whether singing qualifies but I’m 10× more likely to sing her a song than make up a story. We’ll see what it does to her in the long run.

@fsanchez0 It’s true that every baby is different just like every adult is different, so general advice is hard. I don’t know what’s universal and what’s Celeste.

Something that surprised me is when she’s crying and seems inconsolable, and I’ve tried *everything*, it helps to just hand her to someone else. A change of person/tactics is often all it takes. Likewise if my wife is struggling, I’ll offer to take over.

Trying the same solutions over and over and being frustrated is no good.