Little Baby, Sweetly Sleep

We’ve been changing our daily schedule here over the last couple of weeks. The general advice is that it’s best that babies go to sleep relatively early and wake up relatively early, so we’re trying to manage that. Of course, given that I’m teaching until 8:30 every weekday, there’s a limit to how much we can manage. However, we now eat before the final lesson, and I give Mayuki her bath immediately afterwards. I then get her off to sleep before going to bed myself.

Unlike Yuriko, I can’t make her go to sleep by feeding her, so I carry her around the bedroom and sing to her. A lot of what I sing are hymns and carols, because I can remember them, and they actually work as solo performances. Besides, I’m not going to sing her to sleep with Verdi’s Requiem. And as for Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana… Well, “age inappropriate” just about sums it up. Plus they’re both in Latin, which would just confuse her even further.

So, singing carols, I get to sing about the baby Jesus. And it makes me wonder about what that must have been like, if the carols are accurate.

Mary: Joseph, Joseph, he’s doing it again!
Joseph: What, dear?
Mary: He’s not crying! He never cries! Do you think he’s retarded?
Joseph: Darling, he’s the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. [[pause]] He might well be retarded, yes.

Which, of course, leads to wider considerations. Can you imagine trying to play peekaboo with someone omniscient and omnipresent? Or trying to get the dinner done?

Mary: Now, Jesus, are you going to be a good boy? Well, yes, obviously. Are you going to be cooperative? Just lie on this table while I get the bread ready.
Jesus: It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
Mary: Hmm, quite possibly. But if I don’t get Joseph’s dinner ready before he comes home, he won’t be very happy eating words.
Jesus: It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
Mary: Yes, yes, Jesus. I know you want me to play with you all the time, but that’s really not possible. Now stay away from the edge, there’s a good boy. Even if it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Oh, don’t make faces like that. Here, do you want a sweetie? Would you like a sweetie?
Jesus: It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Mary: You do want a sweetie! Who’s a lovely little boy, then?

I think I prefer having a normal baby.


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