Happiness Project: January Update

Well, here we are at the end of January and also the end of the first month of my Happiness Project. This month’s challenge was to sing every day with S.

Highlights of this month include:

• As mentioned in my podcast,  one evening S was sitting in my lap singing songs. We began to sing Wheels on the Bus and S began winding her arms around, shouting “come on Mummy!” Half way through the song, she realised that she recognised those actions from a different song, and began doing the actions for Wind the Bobbin Up pointing to the window, the door and so on. I caught on to what she was doing, and we began singing the song together. It was lovely to add another song to our repertoire, and I could tell S was really pleased she knew all the actions and could show them to me.
• S knows she’s not allowed to have a dvd on in bed if there is nursery the next day – but sometimes she forgets, and gets a bit upset when I remind her she can’t have one on. This has been easily resolved each time by a quick cuddle and some songs.
• The other evening we were singing and S had Ted in her lap. When it came to Wind the Bobbin Up she held Ted’s hands and had him do the actions. It was so cute to watch!
• I’ve noticed that S sings a lot more throughout the day, for no apparently reason and without prompting.
• The other evening we went to a friend’s house for tea. On the way home it was dark, and we saw some stars in the sky. S immediately began singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and sang it all the way home!

I’ve enjoyed my January challenge. I think it’s helped S and I to get through some tricky situations involving bed times and bad dreams. It has also brightened my mood. Obviously that was the point of the challenge, but I wasn’t really prepared for how immediate the effect would be.

Sometimes when S is over excited at bed time, she will kick her legs about as I’m trying to change her nappy. Sometimes I can calm her down; other times I can end up with a kick in the face. A couple of times she’s kicked my glasses, which has been more painful and quite worrying – I can’t afford to get them fixed if they break. When this sort of thing happens it can make bed time really stressful but if I can get through that and get her ready for bed, a bit of singing calms us both down.

I’ve even found myself singing without S for company. The other day I had a lovely time washing up, singing Carpenters songs to myself.

My month of singing every day is over, but I think I will do my best to continue is at much as possible – it’s definitely a great addition to any day.

There will be a post tomorrow detailing my February Happiness Project challenge.

Meanwhile, if you have a suggestion as to a challenge I could do later in the year, do please fill in the form below. The only rule about these challenges is that they must be something that I could do every day for a month, that would make me and/or S happier.