Parenting styles.

Everyone parents differently. It's inevitable. Like snowflakes and Walmarts, no 2 are exactly alike. (C'mon, everyone has a Mart that they call "Sketchy Walmart". There's a killer one on Ridge Rd that I'd never take my child to, for instance.) Anyway, so parents - we all do things differently. Even spouses who share the same parenting fundamentals each do things their own way in some instances.

Tonight, as I'm unloading the dishwasher, the husband was in charge of entertaining our munchkin. Eventually, she started getting fussy; it was time to eat, he had to stall her 5 more minutes for me. The go-to method for helping quiet her is to sing her favorite song, Old McDonald. (I know, I know, we've been over this a million times. You, my faithful blog readers, are well aware how much my daughter likes this song. She and McDonald are tight. I guess she's channeling her inner-Hillsboro or something.) Well, Daddy has either never been to a farm or doesn't like traditional farm animals. Why have I come to this conclusion? Here's what I heard as I put away the dishes:

"Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O.
And on his farm he had a Brooke, E-I-E-I-O.
With a waaah waaah here and a waaah waaah there,
Here a waaah, there a waaah, everywhere a waaah waaah,
Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O."

And after he finished making fun of her (she doesn't mind, she thinks it's funny,) it continued like this:

"...And on his farm he had a spider problem, E-I-E-I-O.
With a web web here and a web web there..."

"...And on his farm he had a toad, E-I-E-I-O.
With a ribbit ribbit here and a ribbit ribbit there..."

"...And on his farm he had a tractor, E-I-E-I-O.
With a beep beep here and a beep beep there..."

"...And on his farm he had a hummingbird, E-I-E-I-O."

This is where I had to interject.

"What did you say? A hummingbird? I can't wait to hear what sound a hummingbird makes." His response, "They're silent." So it continued like this:

"...And on his farm he had a hummingbird, E-I-E-I-O.
With a (long pause) here and a (long pause) there,
Here a (long pause) there a (long pause) everywhere a (long pause).
Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O."

She ate this up, laughing her way through it and singing along. I can't wait until she starts talking and really singing this song. Will she have cows and pigs on her farm, or will she have silent hummingbirds and spider problems (my personal favorite)? Her preschool teacher is going to love her if it's the latter.