Dear Addie,
You got in the car, buckled in, and yelled, "Counting Stars!" yes, Addie, you had a musical request, and I actually knew what it was, but this request was weeks in the making with a lot of musical super sleuthing on our end.
*This video you were annoyed because you had just happily asked for the song and in my excitement that you asked for the song by name wanted to record it, but you can see how you pause to think about the title of the song again.
Allow me to explain.
You see Addie, you have had a love/hate relationship with music for as long as I can remember. Certain songs can seem to send your auditory system into a war zone while others are stuck as if they wandered straight into a glue trap - who let the dogs out has been in the glue trap for a few years and running now, just saying. It all has to do with your hypersensitive auditory system and specific tones. For instance, Ruby, our trusty 100lb RW/Coonhound, has a deep bark you despise with every fiber of your being. At the same time, Finn, our chunky beagle, can howl at the wind, squirrels, turtles, and leaves all day, every day, and it barely bothers you unless you are already agitated. I know that example had nothing to do with music, but you get it; it's all about high and low tones, which are unpredictable in everyday life, so while we are weaning ourselves off of using headphones, finding more coping strategies, we often have them on hand in case you start having a hard time wherever we might be, and they are not entirely noise canceling, so it's just listening to muffled sounds in my opinion - phew...which brings me to the musical super-sleuthing of the song Counting Stars.
Anyone who knows you knows you rarely sit still or aren't making some sort of sound from stimming, but every now and again, we will hear what sounds like very melodic gibberish, if you will. It's like a familiar tune but with unclear lyrics. Like you've listened to said song with headphones on and are now just happily singing the muffled version, leaving the rest of us to guess what song it might be by the melody. This one stumped me for a hot minute, but you'd sing a little more & more every couple of days until I finally got it. I could then tell you the song's name, and you could enjoy it at your request. Boy, do you ever jam out when it's on?
*a muffled melodic version of Counting Stars recorded from the hallway outside your room (audio only)
*Jamming out earlier in the week - same dance moves every time ;)
Addie, this week, we played another round of Name That Tune (Addie Edition), successfully super-sleuthing a muffled melodic version of a song stuck in your head and to think there was a time we wondered if you'd ever speak...
"The only thing better than singing is more singing."
~Ella Fitzgerald
Keep singing, baby girl!
Love,
Mom