I have always considered my education to have been decently comprehensive, but comparing it to what my 2-year old has picked up in daycare, I'm beginning to see several holes. I entered the US education system at age 4 when I went to pre-school at a local church and when I began elementary school and moved beyond that, it was during a time before music programs were being cut for more "academic" sessions, so music was a big part of my education. Well, apparently my knowledge of children's songs and nursery rhymes is severely lacking!

These days we are always playing the game of "Guess That Song" with Abby. It's a lot of fun, but I have had to resort to a lot of internet searches to solve the clues. Abby's favorite time to sing to us is in the car. As we're driving along, she'll start humming and singing out loud, typically accompanied by a lot of hand gestures, which they do at daycare to make the songs more interesting for the kids. At first, she mumbled words, tunelessly. Now, it's very obvious when she's singing.

Can you guess that song? Let me try to recapture some of our first clues. Let's try a couple of games.

We'll start off easy.

Game #1 Clue....
(We're driving in the car. I didn't quite realize she was singing.)
Abby mumbling softly: "un...un...un...bumblebee...mama...OUCH! He stung me!!!"
Me, startled: "You okay?"
Abby: "Yeah!...Squuuuuuish.....a mess a mess! Mama, mama, I made a mess!!!!"
Me, still no clue she's singing: "Ok, clean it up."
Abby: "I lick it...hehehe...all clean!"

At this point the singing is over and she ends up spitting on her hands and licking her arm for the next 5 minutes before we can convince her to stop. My mother figured out she was actually singing one day and asked Paul if he knew any songs about bumble bees. Luckily, Paul knew immediately what it was.

Answer: Baby Bumble Bee - one of the less insane versions

Game #2 Clue...
Abby: "Chompa monkey tree...can't catch me...SNAP! Yaaaay, sing again?"

And that was all we got for months. Complete with hand gestures as she sang verse after verse, but neither Paul nor I ever figured this one out and it drove us nuts until we finally asked another parent from Abby's class, who clued us in.

Answer: Teasing Mr. Crocodile

Thanks to bussongs.com I now know the lyrics to Teasing Mr. Crocodile as well as a ton of other songs she's been singing.

In case you were curious, this is how Teasing Mr. Crocodile goes:

Five little monkeys
(5 fingers held over other arm (4 for next verse, etc))
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
(teasing faces, hands up to face like moose antlers or one hand in front of nose)
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
(finger up to mouth like SHHHH)
Quiet as can be
SNAP
(Both hands clap together like a crocodile's mouth)

Four little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

Three little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

Two little monkeys
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

One little monkey
Sitting in a tree
Teasing Mr. Crocodile,
"You can't catch me."
Along came Mr. Crocodile,
Quiet as can be
SNAP

Missed me!