Thing 3 is now two. He has a love-hate relationship with dragons. He gets scared when he sees them, but he wants me to sing songs about them. His favorite song right now is, of course, "Puff the Magic Dragon".
"Seen dagon mommy. Back, back," he says, indicating he wants me to sing the Puff song while rubbing his back. I LOVE this! I could do it forever if my back didn't get tired and my other boys didn't need the same type of attention, and the dishes weren't also calling to me. Okay, forget about the dishes; we don't really need them anyway.
When Thing 1 was about four years old, I sang "Puff" to him, and he cried. I guess I sang it a little too dirge-like, as my dear husband would say. But I want to cry when I sing it, too, because it tells a rather sad story. Now Thing 1 won't ever let me sing "Puff" when he is around. I never attempted to sing it to Thing 2 because I didn't want to traumatize him. To avoid this with Think 3 I made up my own little final verse. Now I love this song even more and am thinking of sending it off to Peter, Paul, and Mary for a rewrite.
Just kidding!
Here's the song with my final verse for you all to enjoy and sing with our littles, though.
Happy Tales!
Kristen
10 Years Later Note: Rereading this after 10 years brings back sweet memories, and I’m so glad I have a class full of littles who don’t mind my singing. I dusted off this version of Puff the Magic Dragon I created and shared it with them. It was a big hit, but I gotta learn to play the ukulele, because that would really seal the deal.
Puff the Magic Dragon
by Lenny Lipton
(with a special verse by me, KS Sandoz)
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honlee,
Little Jackie paper loved that rascal puff,
And brought him strings and sealing wax and other fancy stuff. oh!
Together they would travel on a boat with billowed sail
Jackie kept a lookout perched on Puff's gigantic tail,
Noble kings and princes would bow whenever they came,
Pirate ships would lower their flag when Puff roared out his name. oh!
A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys
Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys.
One grey night, it happened, Jackie paper came no more
And puff that mighty dragon, he ceased his fearless roar.
His head was bent in sorrow, green scales fell like rain,
Puff no longer went to play along the cherry lane.
Without his lifelong friend, Puff could not be brave,
So puff that mighty dragon sadly slipped into his cave. oh!
Little Jackie Paper had grown up and had a child,
She was just as curious and even a little wild.
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee,
Puff, the magic dragon lived by the sea
And frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee.
