Ba, Ba, Ba, Means I Love You

How joyous it is when traditions are passed down through families. When I was first born, my grandma made up a song for me. It's called "Ba, ba, ba," and it goes like this:

Ba, ba, ba, means I love you,
Ba, ba, ba, you love me too.
Ba, ba. Ba, ba.

Ba, ba, ba, means I love you,
I love Tannie, yes I do.
Ba, ba. Ba, ba.

I wish she could sing it for you, so you could know the tune, but I guess the words will have to do. She sang it to me first, and then to my brother Tom born two years later. I sang it to all five of my babies, and Tom sang it to his three. My mother also sang it to us and to our children. I even translated it into German, so my babies could be bilingual:

Ba, ba, ba, Ich liebe dich,
Ba, ba, ba, und Du liebst mich.
Ba, Ba. Ba, ba.

This song is precious in our family, mostly because it reminds us of our grandma's love, but the song has also become for us a general symbol of parents rocking their children. All rocking chairs are called "rockie ba ba chairs." When we moved into our house last summer, we bought two rocker/recliners for our TV room. When I sent my mom a picture of the chairs, her text back said, "Two rockie ba ba chairs!" Yep, and that was a whole year before we had a baby living here. When my children were sad or hurt, they would say, "I need to rockie ba ba in the rockie ba ba chair." The song has a life of its own, and it's lovely.

Pictured above is Shulamith sitting in the rockie ba ba chair, singing "Ba, Ba, Ba, Means I Love You" to Baby Swen. How joyous it is when traditions are passed down through families.