The Life and Death of Baby Tad

The devil bowed his head because he knew that he'd been beat.
He laid that golden fiddle on the ground at Johnny's feet.
Johnny said: "Devil just come on back if you ever want to try again.
"I told you once, you son of a gun, I'm the best that's ever been."

And he played fire on the mountain, run boys, run.
The devil's in the house of the risin' sun.
Chicken in the bread pan, now they're pickin' out dough.
"Granny, will your dog bite?"
"No, child, no."--Charlie Daniels, Devil Went Down to Georgia

***

"Hey Mom! I just saw a baby animal!" Madeline said as we were driving to the Apple Store today.

"Oh yeah? What kind of animal was it?" I asked.

"I don't know, I think it was a baby deer.......or maybe it was a pig," she said.

(Hee hee, I bet you didn't realize that a baby deer is quite indistinguishable from a pig....and that there are droves of pigs along the side of the road in the middle of winter here in Minnesota....)

"A deer or a pig huh?" Kurt and I laughed.

"Yeah, I don't know which one it was but it was really cute!" she exclaimed. And really, isn't that all that matters when you are 6?

A few moments later we were listening to Charlie Daniels sing Devil Went Down to Georgia when Lily shouted excitedly: "HE JUST SAID CHICKEN!"

She started laughing. Apparently, when you are 4, that is very funny. But I have to admit, I had never noticed that, sure enough, he does mention chickens in the bread pan. As a violinist, I have always focused so much more on the fiddling that I had never paid much attention to the actual words. Yay for chickens!

Speaking of chickens, I mean, violins, we had to take the proverbial violin out of the closet today to play a sad song, saying goodbye to one of our oldest family "friends" (and by friends I am referring to an obnoxious, but magical, toy.)

Baby Tad had been with us for almost 8 years. I have an aunt who gave one to each of the new babies in the family when all of us nieces and nephews started having children and I do believe mine was the only family who truly latched on to all that Baby Tad had to offer. You see, he became an indispensable part of our bedtime routine: bath, brush teeth, read book, say prayers, push Baby Tad's night time music hand 6 times for 6 uninterrupted minutes of the same familiar classical music EVERY SINGLE NIGHT FOR THE LAST SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS. This is something we started with each kid early in infancy so that by the time they were sleeping on their own, it was routine, comfort, reassurance, or, if you are us parents, MAGIC! It worked so well with each of our 4 kids that Tad became the Dumbo's-magic-feather-in-our-trunk-so-that-we-could-fly, as far as bedtime goes. We could travel nowhere without him. At one point we had three Tad's in the house (there was this puking incident with one that we simply weren't sure he'd recover from and so then there were two and then one was handed down from another family member, etc....)

Needless-to-say, we are going to truly miss the last of our Tads whose hands gave out just yesterday....at nap time.....wonderful surprise, really.... And there is no way on God's great planet that we will be replacing him now that he is no longer made....I mean, who pays $150 for a toy that is really not worth $20? And I don't think buying a used Tad for $27 is going to happen either since we know what goes on with Tad behind closed doors (see aforementioned puking incident comment.)

At any rate, we will sorely miss our old bedtime routine buddy. Liam especially, since he is the most OCD of our kids and seems to be a bit alarmed at the lack of Tad singing at the foot of his new Toddler Bed which he transitioned into on Christmas day....nothing like changing everything on a kid at once! I mean, what will we throw at him next? A new baby or something?!

(....2 weeks and counting....)

Ok, I must go get the chickens out of the bread pan and feed them some real breakfast! Or were those pigs? Who knows, but they sure are cute!

Have a great day!