Abbie Trots

Abbie has started independently singing our “Trot to Boston” song. We sang this song extensively with her during her first year because it was one of the half-dozen activities we could do with her that wouldn’t make her scream.* We’d sit her on our knee, and trot her along while singing, thus providing her a healthy early dose of that roughhousing she enjoys today. We haven’t sung it with her for several months, so it’s an odd choice for her to randomly start singing. We don’t sing it much with the boys, mainly because their approved activities list is twice as long as Abbie’s was, but she might have overheard us.

Since she’s working independently, she has to provide her own bouncing. She hops along while singing, which is pretty cute. Then she gets to the part about the horse pacing. We move the child back and forth on our knee during this part instead of bouncing. Abbie recreates this back and forth movement with a whole body twist, complete with rump shake. That is very cute.

I’m tired and short on time after more preliminary moving today, so I’ll pad this post with the lyrics:

Trot trot trot to Boston
To buy a loaf of bread
Trot trot trot home again
Old trot’s tired**
Walk, walk, walk, walk (slow bounce)
Pacey, pacey, pacey, pacey (rump shaking)
Trot, trot, trot, trot (fast bounce)
Gallopsy, gallopsy, gallopsy, gallopsy! (as fast as the child can bounce without puking)

* Most of the other activities involved reading or eating.
** I believe the line is supposed to be “Old trot’s dead,” but conjuring the image of working a horse to death in a children’s rhyme seems like a bad idea to me.