We're listening to You Are My Little Bird by Elizabeth Mitchell. I downloaded it from emusic.com. I found a few recommendations there for children's music, including Dan Zane, and I really like it.

I can't quite bear the braying, relentlessly insistent music for children. If I had to listen to an entire CD of the music installed in some of her toys, for example, I think my nerves would be frayed to the point where I'd be a really bad mother. (It's all I can do sometimes to be civil to other people in the room when the tv is on, not because the quality of programming is so bad--it is--but because of the commercials.)

Left to myself, I prefer quiet. And, a lot of times, we hang out and enjoy some quiet, but I think she also enjoys music, and also enjoys listening to me (try to) sing.

Let me insert here that I am a repository of almost-useless facts that I repeat like this, "I can't remember the specifics, but I read something about how it's good for kids to [insert something, like, listen to their caregiver sing to them]."

So I have tried to find some music that is not only listen-able, but that I can sing along to.

While we're listening to Ms. Mitchell, Ava is cruising the living room, practicing standing up, crawling, hanging out with this and that (toys, the fringe on a throw pillow, etc.). She sometimes comes over to me, as if for a check-in hug, but I can only hold her for a minute before she squirms away.

It's about time for a nap, and there are a bunch of things I should do: fold laundry, throw another load in, unload the dishwasher, run the vacuum, probably wouldn't hurt to do a quick clean of the bathroom. But I think I'll finish my coffee, and fill the little wading pool for a post-nap dip, and see what I have time for after that.