Cora - Five Years Old

Our sweet, middle child, Cora, turned FIVE today! What is she like these days?

If Cora was an animal, she would be a worker bee. She goes to full day, Thai preschool where the production level that her teachers expect is more akin to American 1st grade. When she comes home, I ask her, "Cora, do you want to run off and play or do your homework?" "Homework!" she yells back. She contently sits at the kitchen table for 20-30 minutes, coloring, cutting and gluing, doing simple math problems, and painstakingly writing Thai letters and words that look like this: หนู

Some of her favorite activities include putting her laundry away, wiping walls with wet sponges while singing Cinderella songs, setting the table, and helping me cook. Every morning, she pulls up her bedsheet, tucks in her stuffed animals, and lays her blanket on top smoothing out all the wrinkles.

Cora eats and sleeps so much. When she is tired or hungry, all of her productive, self-sufficient energy evaporates and she crumples to the ground exclaiming, "Mommy, I don't want to do ANYTHING!" She goes from worker bee mode to sloth mode sometimes unable to even dress herself for bed.

Cora loves arts and beautiful things. She'll often disappear to another room in the house to work on a coloring book or to make a card for a family member. She plans her outfits and hairstyles days, sometimes weeks, in advance. She dresses up as a princess, Thai dancer, or ballerina every day. I taught Cora how to embroider, look at her go!

Cora loves to be silly. Her favorite word is butt in Thai "gohn." "Mommy look, there's a PRINCESS on my GOHN!" she'll yell, wearing just undies, her bottom high in the air showing off her favorite pair of undies that have Snow White on the butt. She bursts into a piercing cackle, her huge, almost black eyes gleaming and her mouth open wide showing perfect rows of tiny teeth.

Cora adores her big sister, Grace, buuut she can be a total little sister punk to her. She knows just what to say and do to burst Grace's bubble and she does it quietly provoking tears and screams. When I check in on why Grace is terribly upset, Cora has a sly, pleased with herself smile on her face.

Cora also adores her little brother, Isaiah, buuut she tries to be his little mommy. She is very fearful for him and protective, grabbing his hands or his waist and trying to move him away from danger. Isaiah usually starts fussing and crying, "No want to Doowuh!" (He calls her "doowuh"!) I often have to ensure her, "Cora, let him go, I'm watching him, I won't let him get hurt." My favorite is when she tries to carry him. He's not quite two-years-old, they are about the same size, yet she can usually get his feet off the ground.

Cora, I love and cherish you. It's so amazing to watch you grow and learn. I'm so glad I get to be your mommy!

~

Each year, on my kids' birthdays until they turn five, I write up a blog post - an attempt to capture their personalities during their little years to remember later. These are by far, absolutely my favorite posts to re-read. Here are the posts from when Cora turned four, three, two, and one.

Cora - Four Years Old

This past weekend, our second born, Cora, turned the big FOUR!

Cora's favorite things are bunnies, strawberries, and dressing like a ballerina. So for her fourth birthday, she got to enjoy all of her favorites.

She scootered around in a brand new tutu.

She blew out four candles on a strawberry cream pie with pink whipped cream and sprinkles.

And we took her to a cafe where free range bunnies hopped around.

Here are some fun tidbits about amazing Cora in no particular order...

Cora is teeny tiny. Three-year-old sized clothing is just starting to fit her nicely. Her baby brother's weight is quickly gaining on her. But Cora eats like a kid three times her size and after dinner her stomach bulges out like a large ball. Here she is wearing her baby brother's shorts:

The past year was chock full of transitions for Cora. She became a big sister last October. Last December, she moved out of the only house she could remember living in and traveled around the world back "home" to the States - a country that felt foreign to her because she had no memories of it.

While in the US for five months, she got to live at Nana and Papa's house with long stays at three other homes. When we returned back to Thailand, we stayed at a "hotel house" for a couple of weeks and then finally moved into our new home.

After three months of living in our new home, Cora said to me, "We've been in our house for a REALLY long time. Are we going to move soon?" I ensured her that we plan to stay here for at least two years.

All of this upheaval made her cling tightly to several things.

Cora has clung tightly to family.

When we traveled to Mexico for vacation, Singapore for Michael's work, and to a camp in Thailand for church, all five of us shared a room. Cora was thrilled to get to sleep in the same room as Mommy AND Daddy AND Grace AND baby Isaiah.

The transition to preschool was tough for Cora because she had to be away from her family. Every morning, five mornings a week, we pull up in our car to the front of the girls' preschool/kinder. The girls hop out onto the sidewalk and Grace holds Cora's hand and escorts her all the way to her classroom door and gives her a hug goodbye. Cora soaks up Grace's confidence.

One of my preschool mom friends snapped this picture of the girls walking to Cora's class together at the beginning of the school day.

We've been able to teach Cora to cling to God too. When we were living in my parents' home, she slept in the basement with her sister. Sometimes during the day, she wanted something from her room, but to go down the stairs and down the hallway into her room felt too far away from mommy and daddy. We taught her that Jesus is always with her so she doesn't have to feel alone. When it was time to go down to her bedroom alone, she would reach up high gripping the air, holding Jesus' hand. She learned to confidently walk down to her room this way.

In all the transition, Cora also clung to her art. We introduced her to perler beads and she made creation after creation with them, often working for hours in a single day. More recently, she has taken to ballet. Almost every afternoon after her rest time, she decks herself out in a ballet tutu, ballet slippers, a tiara, and jewelry. She winds up her music box and dances for me.

A very small sampling of Cora's massive collection of perler bead art

Her drawings are absolutely adorable too

Although the transition back to preschool was rough, she's well-adjusted now. She idolizes her teacher and uses her few Thai phrases over and over to please her. She comes home singing all the Thai preschool songs. The other day at the mall, Cora kept trying to make eye contact with strangers so she could smile at them, press her palms together, and say her Thai greeting "sawasdee ka!"

Cora, you are one fun, sweet, snuggly girl and we are so glad you are OURS!

Cora - Three Years Old

This past year was full of big milestones for Cora including becoming fully potty trained (last September), learning to ride a bike with training wheels (January), switching from a crib to a "big girl bed" (February), giving up her pacifier (February), and starting preschool five mornings a week (May). That's a lot for one year!

Some of Cora's favorite things these days include:

Our family. Cora adores each member of our family, even her soon-to-be-born baby brother. She gives snuggles to the baby (aka my belly) every day. When Michael or I come home, she runs to the door, excited to have our family back together. When we drop her off at school, she insists on getting a hug and a kiss. When we pick her up, she comes out of her classroom bouncing and giggling and plasters herself to our legs. Also, she loves her stuffed gray bunny so much, he practically makes the cut as a family member.

Grace. Cora particularly loves Grace. (And Grace loves her back.) She started preschool in May five mornings a week with hardly a tear. We were so impressed by her bravery. Then, Grace was slammed with sickness and missed many days of school in a row. Cora's bravery crumbled quickly and we realized that she was fearless because she knew her big sister was in the same building. Since then, I've noticed more and more just how much she looks up to her big sister, following her and copying her and riding off her bravery. 

Scotch tape. Cora loves taping everything. She even taped a colored pencil to our bathroom door. She also loves stickers, paint, crayons, markers, etc. Besides her art supplies, Cora's favorite toys are Michael's big bucket of Duplos from his childhood, her IKEA train set, and her doctor kit. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

Doing everything by herself. It's very difficult to force Cora to do anything she doesn't want to do. But, when she wants to do something on her own (which is often), we cannot intervene or she will scream. She has figured out how to do many surprising things -- like pull in most of our family's laundry from the drying rack, button her school uniform buttons, and peel her own fruit. 

Perfect example of this fierce independence: When she was approaching two years old, she was showing all the classic signs of potty-training readiness, so we attempted to teach her. She utterly refused, so we stopped trying. Then, about three days after we gave up, she decided on her own terms that she was ready and she potty trained herself. Just a month later, we were able to ditch her overnight diapers too!

Provoking us. Cora loves to tease and provoke her big sister... probably because Grace reacts so well. She is by and large a very good kid, but she can be really naughty, doing exactly the opposite of what we tell her to do with a mischievous glint in her eye. She definitely has a strong, classic "threenager" streak in her.

Singing and talking and being silly. Cora's voice is very raspy and cracks a lot. She loves to sing out all the songs she knows, particularly Thai preschool songs, loud in her raspy, unsteady voice. When she acts silly and makes us laugh, she throws her head all the way back, laughing with delight. But, she doesn't talk and sing and joke all the time. Sometimes, she gets lost in her play world of coloring, blocks, and trains and she's absolutely silent for long stretches.

Eating. Cora is tiny. She has been since the day she was born. But, she eats so, so much. Today, she plowed through an entire adult sized portion of chicken and rice plus many pieces of guava for dessert. At the beginning of the school term, her preschool teacher told us almost daily, "She ate two whole bowls of food for lunch!" If only she knew we usually have to give Cora a snack when she gets home too.

Cora, you are one-of-a-kind and we love you just the way you are.

Currently Loving...

These days, I'm currently loving...

FaceApp

Get it on your phone, take some selfies with friends, and run them through the filter. You will laugh so hard! Here are my husband's results - normal, woman, 30 years older, and with a smile pasted on. The old Michael kills me! So so so weird.

My kids' school pictures

At the start of every school term, we walk our girls to the local photo shop owned by a Chinese-Thai man. The shop is old and dark and smells strongly of incense. Piles of paper and supplies cover every surface and there are idols and amulets everywhere along with two of the oldest most yellowed photo printers I've ever seen. He ushers us into the dark, back corner of the shop to take their mug shots school pictures. Their faces clearly show how they feel about the whole thing!

I put these photos through FaceApp. The app must be made just for adult faces because the results were - yikes.

The Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny

I got my hands on my second Gamache murder mystery novel (#4 in the series). I'm enjoying it so much just like I enjoyed the first. I love the author's descriptive writing and the way she builds suspense.

Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Kenneth Bailey

The author has lived in the Middle East almost all his life. He takes well-known stories from the four gospel accounts of Jesus' life, teachings, and miracles and explains them through Middle Eastern culture/worldview. The chapter on Jesus' birth (spoiler: he probably was born in a home, not a stable or a cave) and the entire section on interactions with women (spoiler: he's radical, awkward, and empowering) are two highlights. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to do a deeper study of the gospels with culture at the forefront.

Conversation Between a Toddler and Preschooler

Both my daughters are talkative. The last few months, they've started having lengthy, strange conversations between themselves. The other day, I sat them down for their snack and recorded a few minutes of them talking. Here's a one minute snippet of that conversation between my 4-year-old and 2-year-old.

Cora singing: "The more we get together, together, together. The more we get together the happier we'll be." [over and over]

Grace: "Louder please"

Cora: "Ok!" [starts singing louder]

Grace: [a split second later] "SSSHHHHHHH!!! I don't want to hear you!"

Cora: [confused] "Do you want it loud?"

Grace: "No. I want only Jesus to hear you."

Cora: "Well, Jesus isn't here."

Grace: "Yes! Yes he does."

Cora: "No, he isn't."

Grace: [with firm conviction] "Yes, he does hear you. He hears even when people… even when I don't hear you."

Cora: "Excuse me, Grace."

Grace: "Yes, Cora?"

Cora: "Watch this."

Grace: "Ok, I'm watching."

Cora: [loud nonsense words]

Grace: "That's goobledygock."

Cora: [more nonsense]

Grace: Cora, can you please switch back to your English hat? It's English hat time!
(Grace and Cora claim to speak three languages - English, Thai, and Goobledygock. When they switch languages, they call it switching hats.)

~

Now imagine that level of conversation minute after minute, hour after hour, and you have a pretty good idea of what you hear on a "quiet" morning or afternoon at home. We are endlessly entertained.

Kids One Year Ago and Today

We are only 13 months into life in a new country. From what the old-timers tell me, we are still in the very beginning, often rough stages of adjustment to a new language, culture, and home. But, still, it is so good to recognize the progress our family has made in feeling comfortable in our corner of Bangkok.

First family picture in Thailand taken in the outside kitchen of Michael's
aunt's house just a few hours after our plane landed.
Our daughters had no idea of the enormity of the change they were going through!

Over a year ago, in the week leading up to our big, international move and the two weeks after, 18-month-old Cora would not leave my arms. She sat on my hip all day, every day. If I set her down she cried. She watched our house in California, which she'd known since birth, slowly get gutted out as everything she knew went in the trash, sold on Craigslist, or into storage. Most of her toys and books disappeared as they were packed in boxes to be shipped to Thailand.

Then, one day, we got on a plane and arrived in a new very hot, humid place filled with the noises of tropical birds, barking dogs, and noisy motorcycles. She continued to live in my arms for another two weeks.

Whenever Cora saw a motorcycle or a Thai person, she buried her head into my shoulder. Motorcycles were too loud. Thai people were too threatening to her, always wanting to hold her and touch her. Bangkok is full of motorcycles and Thai people, so whenever we left the house, she closed her eyes and buried her face into my shoulder hiding from the world. For two whole weeks!

Both Cora and three-year-old big sister, Grace, threw some massive, category five tantrums during those first few weeks. They were induced by jet lag, no toilet paper in a bathroom, a slippery chunk of mango jumping out of chubby hands and landing on the dirty ground, finding seeds in their oranges, and other things. The whole nine yards. Screaming, flailing, whole body on the ground mom-and-dad-why-did-you-bring-me-here tantrums.

For the first couple of months, Grace completely and utterly refused to speak Thai. She would not say "hello" or "thank you" in Thai when we told her to. She was in utter rebellion and it was sometimes rude and embarrassing.

But, they've adjusted. (They had to!)

Wearing tutus and walking to a friend's house for dinner.

Picking up lunch from street food vendors and biking it home.

The category five tantrums are few and far between. And they are not caused by moving overseas stress anymore. They are caused by normal, irrational toddler and preschooler things like being way too tired before a nap and a parent forcing them to try to pee so they don't wet the bed while they sleep. You know, things like that.

Both girls speak dozens (maybe hundreds? don't keep track.) of Thai words. And they understand far more than they speak. Grace still sometimes refuses to speak Thai, but that's ok. We see her listening and learning and slowly making progress.

Now when we walk through the streets of Bangkok. They each hold a parent's hand. They hardly notice loud motorcycles passing just a couple of feet from them. 

The Thai strangers who used to scare Cora are now our friends and neighbors. They don't fawn over our kids as much anymore because they're no longer a novelty. But, when they do get special attention, our kids ignore it. Or sometimes Cora performs and flirts and sings and speaks Thai to feed the attention. What a difference from just one year ago!

Things I Learned This "Cool" Season

I live in a tropical climate, so instead of summer, fall, winter, and spring, we have hot season, rainy season, and cool (aka not-quite-so-hot) season. Here are a few things I learned this cool season:

My daughters love to hear stories. When they get cranky or start fighting in the backseat of the car (which, these days, seems to be almost every time we drive) the moment they hear "Once upon a time..." they listen up and all fighting/whining stops. It's magical.

Poetry doesn't have to be fancy. One of my favorite singer/songwriters of all time published a book of poetry. So much of it is simple and lovely and understandable on the first read. He inspired me to write this.

There is a car called the S-Cargo and it looks like a snail. (get it? S-Cargo = escargot) It probably looks out of place everywhere, but it looked really out of place when I saw it driving the streets of Bangkok last month.

Source

If you order something off Lazada (the Amazon.com of Thailand) that costs $2.50 or more, you get free shipping. That's just 7% of Amazon's minimum order amount for free shipping. Someday when we live in the US again, I'm going to have a heart attack from sticker shock.

My two year old is way girlier than me. Most days, she will not leave the house without putting on, at minimum, a polka-dot hat. Many days, she puts on the whole sha-bang pictured below. I love it!

Ear infections hurt like the dickens. And they can make you temporarily deaf. Learned this one from personal experience.

I can enjoy a Thai drama without subtitles. I don't catch anywhere near every word, but I can follow the plot. Learning a foreign language is hard, and Thai is especially hard, so I celebrate every victory, including this one!

There is a resort a few hours drive from here that's designed to look like the Shire. And you get to stay in a hobbit hole. Sleeping in a hobbit hole in the Shire is now on my bucket list.

You can get strawberries in Thailand! And right now it's strawberry season! And they're delicious and cheap! I am obsessed with the tropical fruit found here, but it sure is nice to bite into a good old strawberry.

Heartbeat

When I press my ear against my daughter's chest,
And I hear her heart beating - quick and strong,
And I marvel that it's been beating since she was the size of a sesame seed,
And will beat until the day she dies,
And that her life depends on this little, toddler fist-sized organ thumping away,
I realize: life is so fragile but so strong.

Cora - Two Years Old

Every year around my kids' birthdays, I've written a few paragraphs about them -- an attempt to freeze the stage of childhood they are in before it slides on by. They are my favorite posts to re-read.

The recent loss of three little ones who we loved has reminded me in new ways of how precious, precious, precious every little child is.

Cora is no exception.

Even with loss and grief nipping at my heels, a rambunctious, full of life, just-turned-two, toddler is underfoot. So, I pause to savor her.

What is Cora like these days?

Cora is very sweet and snuggly. She loves sitting in a lap and reading a book. After her evening bubble bath, we often tuck her into our bed. She lies there snuggled under the sheet in our 90+ degree bedroom looking out the window watching the branches of the tree out back sway in the breeze. When Cora gets hurt, all she wants is to be be scooped up in a parent's arms, her head on our shoulder, snuggling away.

Cora is also a very playful, silly, goofy girl. Cora loves rough housing and she loves the adrenaline rush of a free fall (that ends without getting hurt, of course). When I put her down for a nap, I sing, "Goodnight bunny-wunny. Goodnight Cora-bora." She laughs without fail every time at the silly, messed up words. Sometimes at dinner, Michael and I will get to laughing over a funny story from the day. Cora is too young to get the humor, but when she sees us cracking up, she joins in laughing too.

Cora's favorite things these days include...

Peeing on the big, white potty just like everyone else. Not the little, green, toilet training potty. Cora has started going on the toilet a few times per day. Whenever she is successful, she beams a goofy, proud grin. I couldn't find undies that fit my tiny girl, so I bought her 100% cotton newborn diaper covers. They fit great.

Whining. Whew. We are working on getting her to stop this one.

Wearing her things. Almost every day, Cora tells us, "Cora want her things." By this she means a butterfly purse, owl bag, doctor kit, and bead necklace. She puts them all on and says, "Cora is ready to go to the flower shop." Then, she takes them all off and does it again. Cora has never been to a flower shop nor do we talk about flower shops, so I don't know where this comes from!

Building towers with duplos and magnetic blocks.

Wearing Mr. Potato Head's accessories. When she does this, we call her "Professor Cora." She calls herself "Pwofessuh Cowuh."

Flowers. Cora picks a flower or two whenever we go out. She holds onto them surprisingly long. She once fell asleep in church lying across both our laps with a crumpled flower clutched in her hand.

Helping out around the house. Her favorite little chores include picking up toys (may this stage last forever!), throwing things away, and getting things in and out of the fridge.

Her gray bunny/blankie and pacifier. The dentist here told us to stop giving her her pacifier when she turns two. Not happening.

Her big sister, Grace. I remember when Cora was a little baby, she would lie on her stomach all day, head held high in the air watching everything her big sister did. At seven months old, she surprised us by saying, "gah! gah!" every time Grace entered the room, so we count "Grace" as her first word. This love for her big sister has continued. She (usually) lets Grace boss her around, she likes playing tag with her, and she likes giving toys and food to her. These days, their sibling relationship brings Michael and me endless joy.

Our family. Cora loves the concept of our family. When one of us returns from work and the four of us are reunited, Cora sings, "Mommy, Daddy, Grace, and Cora" to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," pointing to each of us as she says our names.

Cora, mommy and daddy love you so much. You are perfect for our family. It is such a joy to be your parents!

Things I Learned in June

I moved from the U.S. to Thailand a few months ago, so I learn approximately fifty new things every day. Here are just a few of the things I learned in June...

Playgrounds in Thailand have all the unsafe but super fun equipment that's long been banned in the USA. Things like merry-go-rounds and see-saws. And my daughters love it all, of course.

Tropical storms are fun! The thunder rumbles deeply and sometimes cracks so loud my heart drops. A single storm can bring dozens of bolts of lightening. The rain falls on our car park's tin roof so forcefully, I have to close the front door to be able to video chat with my parents. When a thunderstorm rolls in, the wind picks up and the temperature cools. After a storm, the air remains cool but becomes oppressively humid and we all sweat buckets. I am loving it all. Except the sweating buckets part.

The Thai word for "socks" is "foot bag." Perfect!

Trying to buy a car in another country is a time sucking, frustrating experience. Thank you, Lord, for easy to use public transportation.

I'm intimidating. I've noticed that when I walk toward a Thai man, he often gets a frightened look on his face and will sometimes even back away! This doesn't always happen, but it's happened often enough for me to notice. 

Why do some men act this way? Are they afraid of me? Am I misreading them? What are they afraid of... that I'm going to start speaking English and they won't understand? Why don't women act this way toward me? 

Street food is ruining my taste buds. I eat Thai street food once or twice daily. Almost every dish I eat is either sweet, sour, salty, spicy, or some combo of the above. Now, when I cook old favorites from life in California, they taste really bland. My husband and I dump on salt, red pepper, even spicy fish sauce to try to bring our old favorite dishes up to our new taste bud standards.

I'm not the only girl with a huge crush on my husband. My one-year-old is obsessed with him too. If I try to take her out of his arms, she screams at me. Daddy's girl through and through.

When I study Thai, I should always pull the eraser first out of my "keep clam" pencil bag. I make so many mistakes. But, that's how you learn, right?

This exists. A few weeks after I took this picture, I sent my daughter outside to put her shoes on. (Shoes are stored outside here.) When I went to help her, I saw one of these nasty critters about a foot away crawling right toward her little hands and feet! And did I mention they're poisonous? In the tropics, always look before you send very young children outside by themselves. Which leads me to my next lesson...

Always look before you pee. The news recently carried two stories of snakes slithering through plumbing into people's toilets. And they weren't garden snakes. No, no. One was a 3.5 meter long python and the other was a one meter long cobra. The python even bit a man's... you'll just have to read this article. Yikes. Always look before you pee.

My three-year-old is brave. When my now three-year-old was three months old, she became very anxious around strangers. Her fear grew and grew until she would scream and cry with anybody but me. I remember when she was one, we tried to get her to accept the church nursery and she cried so hard she threw up!

By God's grace, a lot of hard parental work, and good old-fashioned passage of time, she has mostly outgrown stranger anxiety.

Last month, she started attending Thai preschool. Everyday, she walks half a mile (in this hot, humid climate!), bulky, much-too-pink backpack bouncing on her back, all the way to school. She stays three hours immersed in a language she cannot yet understand and a culture that is so different from our own. She has cried a few times, she tells us she doesn't like it, and yet she keeps going. She has learned to be brave! I am so proud.

Riding the Roller Coaster of Toddler Emotions

As I raise my kids, ages 3 years and 21 months, I notice that any given day can oscillate rapidly between them being ridiculously cute, to moody, to silly and playful, to screaming in rage, and back to cute again with shocking speed. Sometimes the monster moments and the melt your heart moments come right on top of each other with hardly a breath in between.

I recently stumbled upon this vignette of motherhood and toddlerhood that I wrote about six months ago when Cora, my second kiddo, was 15-months-old. I think it captures the often-overlapping challenges and joys of parenting.

~

Last night, Cora was a hot mess.

She had napped well in the afternoon -- almost three hours ending at 4:30. However, by 6:30, our little firecracker was completely melting down. There were moments where she bowed low, forehead plastered to the ground screaming. Toddler D-R-A-M-A.

I gave her some space to see if she would just get over it. I tried to hold her. I tried to play with her. Nothing worked, she continued to cry hard. Finally, I took two deep breaths, scooped her up, and began her bedtime routine early.

As I carried her upstairs, brushed her teeth, and gave her a pacifier and blankie she calmed down realizing that bedtime was just around the corner.

I dressed her in striped green and blue second-hand baby boy pajamas. Her hair, now that it was finally released from her top-of-the-head firework hairdo, was loose, sticking up straight and wild. Her dark brown eyes were content and heavy and regularly drooping closed. She held her pacifier in her mouth just below her tiny button nose rhythmically suck, suck, sucking. She clasped her gray bunny blankie with both delicate hands holding it up to her nose, breathing in the smell and feeling the soft, gray fur.

I scooped her tiny body into my lap. I barely felt her there, not because she's so tiny (though she is) but because I am so used to her being there I don't even feel it when she is. We whispered our way through Goodnight Moon.

I pressed her little hands together between my hands like a Cora hands sandwich with Mommy hands bread. I prayed for her and she listened enraptured looking at her hands pressed between mine.

Then, we sang a little song and off she went to sleep without a tear.