Yodeling magic

When I was a kid, before there was Barney, The Wiggles, and Bruno Mars, there was Julie Andrews. This is why I decided to play some classic Mary Poppins tuneage for my 8-month-old—but he was none too impressed. There was nary an eyebrow raise in my direction or a pause in his block playing.
After a rousing round of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and A Spoonful of Sugar, I was going to give up on Julie and come back to her in a couple weeks, like I’ve tried to do with E’s carrot eating, but then it happened. He stopped. He stopped his crawling and his drooling to listen. We had found it! Welcome, friends, to The Lonely Goatherd from The Sound of Music.
Perhaps E is exploring his German heritage by loving a song about hills, yodeling, and beer. Or perhaps he now loves Julie Andrews’ bell-like soprano voice as much as I do. Or maybe he just likes songs about goats. But right now he is in LOVE with this song—sung by a woman I’ve loved as long as I can remember. Even though I have now heard The Lonely Goatherd infinity x 2 times since we first discovered it, I don’t mind in the least, because I can listen to Julie Andrews sing all day (which I’m doing), and this song truly has magical powers:
THE MAGIC OF GOATS AND JULIE ANDREWS:
1. This song can stop ANY meltdown from occurring.
2. This song can make him laugh in an instant.
3. This song can get him to fall asleep.
4. This song can calm him in the car when he’s done being stuck in LA traffic.
5. This song cannot, however, get him to like carrots.
The song is magical. But like eating a chocolate cake from Claim Jumper, how long can the magic last before it’s too much? (As far as Claim Jumper cake—a pretty long time. But BOY are those slices HUGE!) Do you think hearing High on the hill was a lonely goatherd, Lay ee odle lay ee odle loo over the phone when he’s 24-years-old and sad because he just broke up with a girl-that-was-never-good-enough-for-him to begin with will instantly make him happy? Alright, probably not. (That’s when the Claim Jumper cake might need to be brought out.) But for now I can’t even explain the joy I feel that E has his first favorite song.
I love watching his face light up when he’s listening to it.
I love hearing him giggle at his favorite parts.
I love sharing this with him.
I know he will move on to other songs and music in his teens that like any good parent I won’t be able to tolerate, so for now I’m enjoying sharing this moment with him. I love singing with him about high hills, lonely goatherds, and girls in pink coats. And even better—a whole lot of yodeling