They say singing a song to your child is one of the easiest ways to help them go to sleep. Oddly enough, the first time I wanted to test a sang, honestly out of desperation, I realized how very few songs I could remember the words well enough to sing to my crying daughter. Hi, I'm Rick, and this is in my daddy era, confessions from a first-time father that is in desperate need of singing lessons. Out of all the songs I've heard in my lifetime, Jingo Bells was the one I finally remembered enough words to in order to attempt to sing my daughter to sleep. In my head I thought to myself, of every song, Jingo Bells? That's the one? I think it would have been less I if it was around Christmas, but no, it was the beginning of spring. I think maybe even a bigger surprise is that my off-key singing actually got my daughter to fall asleep. Maybe just to stop hearing her dad sing so horribly, but I'll take whatever I can get. I can't even count how many times I've sang that song to help her fall asleep. Who knew a Christmas song would be the go-to? And thus begun our singing journey. Since then, we've taken our music adventures to the car. When I pick my daughter up from daycare, I usually change the music to something more fitting for her age group. While driving, I'm singing and dancing while taking glances at my daughter in the backseat, laughing at her silly daddy. I swear if you were to pass by my car and not see my daughter, you would certainly think that I was crazy. It's been fun watching her grow up and start to mimic the hand motions that I make trying to entertain her. I mean, I'm basically performing Elmo the Musical in the car five times a week for my number one fan. Once I get her hype and I can tell that she's starting to tuck her out, I put on some smooth jazz to help her get a nice car nap. Car naps are the best. I really miss them. I can't take them anymore because usually I'm the one driving and it's kind of frowned upon for the driver to take a nap. Go figure. I didn't expect so much of her music to be catchy. I find myself in an office sometimes singing the letter of the day. If you know, you know. Can't lie, some of those kids' songs go pretty hard. I'm looking at you, I am somebody giant. It's one of those subtle changes that you don't expect. Having kids, getting their songs stuck in your head, but it's for my daughter, so I endure it. I know my daughter loves me because she smiles at my bad singing. One day I put up a social media video of a singer singing The Muffin Man. Now, this is a real singer, and he was killing it. Seeing my daughter's eyes light up as she stared at the phone, a bit confused, almost like she was saying, That's how singing's supposed to sound, huh? The same thing happened when we were at our warehouse club and one of the workers was singing Louis Armstrong's house. She had a look of amazement, like she was in total disbelief that after hearing daddy singing so poorly all this time that people can actually hold a note and they be on pitch? It's crazy. I know one thing, my baby girl is gonna be a music lover for sure. And for now, she seems to still enjoy Daddy's bad singing. I can also say my wife and I's music recaps at the end of the year will never be the same. Super Simple Songs, Sesame Street, Baby Shark, all at the top of the list now. That is not our normal music selection, trust. But it's worth it because it's for our baby girl. I'm still figuring out a lot, so I would love to hear from you, your stories, your advice. Just click the link in the show notes to send me a message. And if you want to help keep the diaper phone stacked, you're always invited to join the village by clicking the support link in the show notes. But now, as I continue my journey and my daddy air, I'm still learning, still growing, and still showing up. Because the moment I get it down pat, that's when everything changes. Until next time.