African Music

Around the time we brought LB home my mom gave LB two CDs. One of African music designed for kids and one of familiar toddler tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb." For the most part LB seemed to enjoy the toddler tunes more and has learned a lot of the hand motions to "itsy bitsy spider" and "skinamarinky dinky dink." I can also usually distract him if he is upset by singing him those songs. However, I am happy to report that over the past couple of weeks LB has really started to enjoy the African Playground CD. Here is the LINK to the CD if you are interested. I highly recommend it! There are two songs on the CD that no matter what he is doing he will stop and dance. It's like everything else goes away and it is just LB and the music. Even if he is in another room and the volume is low he still recognizes his two favorite songs. It's one of the pros of LB's supersonic hearing. The best part about all of this is that one of his favorite songs happens to be the only Ethiopian song on the CD. He LOVES it. I had actually heard the song, Hoya Hoye, before on another blog and recognized it because we heard kids singing it once when we were in Ethiopia. There is something about the song that puts me in a good mood. We have enjoyed the CD so much that just a few weeks ago we purchased the Dreamland CD that is part of the same series. We have started playing it at night while we are trying to get LB to wind down before bed. Something about the music just allows you to exhale more deeply. It is that peaceful. There is also an African Reggae CD that is on my wish list. I should be their spokesperson.

Here is a video of Hoya Hoye that I found online. Listening to these kids sing makes me want to go back to Ethiopia so badly. Enjoy!