Nightly Repertoire

It started with the first two sentences of keri'as shema. One night Ora said it as she was getting ready for bed. We weren't 0even aware she knew it. (She had learned it in daycare.) It was so cute how she tried to cover her eyes with her tiny hand and then waved a finger in front of her mouth as she said baruch shem kevod. One night I spontaneously added Hamalach Hagoel Osi. I didn't intend to make it kavu'a, but the next night, as I turned to leave, she whispered, "Hamalach." And so it happened every night. Except at one point as I turned to leave she whispered, "ABC." And then "Dreidel." And then "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." And then "Torah, Torah." It got to the point where I was afraid for her to learn new songs lest she add it to the nightly repertoire.

At some point I started speeding up the singing and eventually not repeating the lines that should be repeated. Last week I was sick and I just didn't have any ko'ach so I put her into bed and made a dash for the door. Luckily she was so tired she fell asleep and didn't complain.

At 2 am she started crying, which is very unusual for her. I can't even remember the last time she woke up in the middle of the night. I offered her anything and everything to cajole her back to sleep. More dolls, cookies, orange juice. I thought she nodded yes to the OJ, but when I returned with a cup she demurred. Finally she looked at me and whispered "Hamalach."

So I gave her the Hamalach she really deserved earlier in the night. With full (fake) chazonish gusto and repeating everything that needs to be repeated and more so. Thankfully she fell right back asleep and I didn't have to continue in such fashion with the rest of the of the repertoire.

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