The Boring Song

To classical music lovers it is known as Tchaikovsky’s waltz from the Sleeping Beauty ballet, to Disney fans it is the ‘Once Upon a Dream’ song from the Sleeping Beauty movie. In our house it is “The Boring Song”. We spent a lot of time discovering Sleeping Beauty in September. We watched the Disney movie, we watched and danced to the Russian Ballet with Nureyev, and we read the book by Charles Perrault. All four of us were constantly humming the waltz happily floating around the house pretending we were Princess Aurora (well, maybe James didn’t float, or pretend to Princess Aurora, but you get the picture).

By the end of September it had all become too much for Ashley, she was done. She didn’t want to hear anyone humming it in the house again. It was now officially The Boring Song.

We all consistently tried, and consistently failed, to break the habit of humming the waltz. Even Ashley caught herself humming it on numerous occasions. We all would laugh at our struggle to stop humming the song. But then Caitlin discovered that she could get a lot of attention (she didn’t seem to care that it was negative) if she hummed it to Ashley. Can’t you just see her twinkling blue eyes and her wicked little smile that accompanies the intake of breath before she lets loose with The Boring Song. Ashley has tried to be patient, she understands the concept of a habit and has been stoic in our attempts to quit humming. But faced with her younger sister consciously and effortfully flaunting those dreaded notes at her, it is just too much. An example from this afternoon of many similar interactions that have taken place between the two of them lately:

Ashley (calmly working away on her art): “You’re humming The Boring Song Caitlin.”
Ashley, 2mins later (still relatively calm): “You’re still humming The Boring Song Caitlin.”
Ashley, less than a minute later (sounding irritated): “STOP humming The Boring Song Caitlin.”
Ashley, 30 seconds later (all restraint lost): "Scream…CAITLIN…scream…
(Adult intervention required, Cailtin flees with a giggly scream of her own that sounded slightly scared and slightly thrilled! )

The irony of it all really is that when James and I played the Favorites game in bed with the girls this morning and asked Ashley: “What’s your favorite song?” Her response was: ‘I know you’, which is her name for…anyone want to take a guess? You got it: THE BORING SONG! When we all laughed and pointed out that it was The Boring Song, Ashley giggled and said, “I know” in a way that just seemed to say, “I can’t help myself.”

And finally, shortly after her little Tchaikovsky attack on Ashley this afternoon,  Caitlin heard me humming the waltz as I prepared dinner and had the nerve to say the following to me with such reproach in her voice:
“You’re humming The Boring Song. Stop humming The Boring Song. It’s boring for me too.”

Btw, for those of you not familiar with the tune to The Boring Song you can hear some clips at the following links:

Tchaikovsky’s Waltz clip:
http://www.amazon.com/Tchaikovsky-Nutcracker-Complete-Sleeping-Highlights/dp/B0000041A8, scroll down and click on ‘Listen’ beside track 9. The Sleeping Beauty, Op. 66 (Highlights): Waltz to hear a clip of the music.

Disney’s ‘Once Upon a Dream’clip:
http://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Beauty-Soundtrack/dp/B000056QE7, scroll down and click on ‘Listen’ beside track 8. An Unusual Prince/Once Upon a Dream