Letters to Joseph-September...Comforting You and Getting you to Sleep

You are a very happy baby, but like most, you need a lot of interaction when you are awake to keep you satisfied. You particularly like to be bounced on one knee, a bit of a cliché, but you settle down every time. Even as I write this, I’m bouncing you and you are smiling. We bounce you while we knock our heel on the ground and sing 1-2-3-4-DOWN went McGinney! Your Great Great Grandfather Hot used to say ‘Down went McGinney!’ when one of the kids would take a spill, so that is where it came from. Your Grandpa Steve mentioned the other day that it’s actually ‘McGinty’, but ‘McGinney’ has stuck like glue, so that tradition will have to adapt.

At night when it’s time to go to sleep, we swaddle you up tight, because you tend to like to flail your arms around, and we turn on your favorite song, Midnight Moonlight, and sing and dance all around the dark bedroom with you. The song is about five minutes long and you are almost always asleep by the end of it. I think you like the banjo. In fact, you’ve always liked music. When you were in my belly, you started jumping all around when you heard music, particularly live music.

“If you ever feel lonesome, and you’re down in San Antone…Just beg, steal, or borrow two nickels or a dime…Call me on the phone.

I’ll meet you at Alamo Mission, and we will say our prayers.

The Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mother will heal us, as we kneel there.

In the Midnight, in the Moonlight, in the Midnight Midnight Moonlight.

If you ever feel sorrow, for the deeds you have done, no hope for tomorrow, in the setting of the sun.

The ocean is howling for things that might have been, and that last good morning sunrise will be the brightest you’ve ever seen.

In the Midnight, in the Moonlight, in the Midnight Midnight Moonlight.”