You Are My Little Bird

A Different Sort of Tweets for Tiny Tots

• What: You Are My Little Bird album
• When: Birth until you get sick of it
• Why: Music calms the crying child
• Where: Amazon

If you stay at home with an infant (or a kid of any age really), music can make all the difference. I often use it to kill those last few minutes before my husband comes home from work. You know the ones where each minute feels like it lasts at least an hour? I’ve learned that music makes them fly by faster, and by the end of the day with three kids, I need all the help I can get. Elizabeth Mitchell’s You Are My Little Bird includes songs that you are happy to have stuck in your head even after the album stops playing.

I’ve loved this selection of songs since before my own kids arrived. I first heard it at work, and despite the passing of time, I love it just as much now (if not more). I find all the songs soothing, yet they don’t make me sleepy. That combination seems rare, especially later in the day when I’ve had less than six total hours of sleep.

Pleasing me as well as my infant also proved more difficult than I expected when it came to music. It turns out he came programmed with different musical tastes than me. Remember how he screamed? Music seemed to help calm us both. This album works well for very young children, yet unlike the fiftieth rendition of “Wheels on the Bus” (and I love me some “Wheels on the Bus”, don’t get me wrong), it has novelty and appeal for adults and older siblings as well.

If you need to spice up your mornings, middays, or afternoons, give You Are My Little Bird a spin, and see which songs become your new favorites.