Mary Poppins

Dear Timothy,

A few months before you were born, it came to me: the lullaby/comforting song I wanted to sing to you when you came. Your name was determined loooong before you were even conceived - a subject for another post - but a song came to mind when I thought of you. It's from an old musical called Mary Poppins. I hope you know this already, but in case you don't, my humblest apologies. I have failed you (but only a teeny tiny bit) as a parent. At any rate, the song I thought of is called "Chim Chim Cher-ee" and the chorus goes like this ... 

Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-ee
A sweep is as lucky as lucky can be
Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-oo
Good luck will rub off when I shakes 'ands with you
Or blow me a kiss, and that's lucky too

Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-ee
When you're with a sweep, you're in glad company
Nowhere is there a more 'appier crew
Than them wot sings, "Chim chim cher-ee, chim cher-oo"
Chim chiminey, chim chim cher-ee, chim cher-oo

No. I do not aspire for you to be a chimney sweep when you grow up. But if that's what you want to do, then go for it! But I'm not so sure the job exists anymore...

Or does it? 

Anyway, I just happened to somehow come to the realization that "chim chim cher-ee" could easily be replaced with "Tim Tim Ter-ree". Throw in bad lyric recall, and here's what came out...

Tim Timothy, Tim Timothy, Tim Tim, Ter-ree,
When you're with a Tim you're in glad company.
Tim Timothy Tim Timothy Tim Tim, Ter-roo
Good luck with rub off when I shake hands with you.
Or blow me a kiss, and that's lucky too.
Tim Timothy Tim Tim, Ter-ree, Tim Ter-roo!

I've sung it to you so many times already. Over the past couple months, I've noticed that it's a song that can calm you down when you're upset. I hope we can hold on to this song, and that we can both find comfort in it as you grow older, kind of like Robert Munsch's book, Love You Forever.  But without the creepiness of sneaking into each other's houses in the middle of the night. I promise, I will never do that to you. But I will keep singing the song.

Love,

Mama

PS. I may be stating the obvious, but "Tim Tim Ter-ree" was the inspiration for the name of this blog.
PPS. If we haven't already, we should probably sit down and watch Mary Poppins together.

Mama

Dear Timothy,

As I write this, I can barely picture the future when you'll be old enough to read and understand the words that I write. But there's something neat about the thought that some day you might come across this blog and see the words I've written to you.

Who am I? I'm your mama. At this moment,you know who I am and you find comfort in me. You've started looking for me when you hear my voice, and you just stare right at me with your beautiful as-yet-undetermined-coloured eyes and an intensity that would definitely cause you to win any staring competition.

Question: do you even blink? You must do it when my back is turned...

What does it mean to be your mama? I don't think you quite know that yet. But it means you were inside of me for 9 months (I know, I know... EWWW!!), at which point you were definitively ripped from my loins (I got it covered: double EWWW!!), and I've been taking care of your every need ever since. That was almost 4 months ago, and you've pretty much doubled in weight since that time. I'll bet you'll be over 6 feet tall some day soon.

So why am I writing to you now? Or at all? That's a very good question. I'm not entirely sure myself. Maybe it's a way to document some things about you. Kind of like a virtual (and very wordy!) baby book. Maybe it's a way to process thoughts and feelings I have as your mom right now so that you get to know me better when you're older. Or maybe it's a combination of both. Or something different altogether.

One thing you'll get to know about me is that I love to write. For various reasons, I haven't written a blog in almost 5 years, and your dad has been encouraging me to get back into it.

So here goes.

See you in the next letter!

Love,

Mama