Hi, Ella.
It’s your daddy. I’m that low rumbly sound you hear talking to you through you mommy’s belly. I try to talk to you every day, so you know what I sound like when you make your big arrival in October. I know, it will be different when my voice comes through air instead of skin and fluid. But I want you to hear me and know me.
Did you know your mommy sings? You found out just how good she is a couple of weeks ago, when she sang “Quando me’n vo’” from La boheme and “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess when her friend Keri was here and played for us. Mommy sings MUCH higher than Daddy does, and wow, she can hold a note for a long time! I sang “I Got Plenty of Nuthin’,” but you probably didn’t hear it quite as well as you did your Mommy.
One of the coolest things you do now is when I talk or sing to you, Mommy tells me that that you pat inside her when you hear and feel the low frequencies. So I know you can hear me…and you probably can feel me. Until you are big enough to see when you move, it’s nice to know that you are responding by Mommy pointing to where she can feel you move. Oh, did you know all your brothers and sisters sing too? Jordan, Grace, Logan, Naomi and Sean all sing in one thing or another. They all love music…big brother Jordan, you almost never see without a headphone in his ear. All the others have been in musicals, choirs, everything…using their voices with music to communicate, entertain, and have fun.
Daddy sings, but he also talks a LOT! People ask him to talk like an announcer, like their best friend, like someone they have never met…like all kinds of things. Just this past week, I had to sound like a guy who needed to go to the hospital, needed to take his wife to the hospital, talk about a sad moment in North Carolina history, and give people options for going to college. I love doing that, and I can’t wait to do the same for you, when I get to read stories about saying good night to the moon, or that Velveteen Rabbit, or any of the hundreds of books you will get to grip and mouth and watch and listen to and eventually read yourself.
Ella, did you know who you are named for? Your name comes from someone people think is the greatest jazz singer of all time, and one of Mommy’s favorite artists, Ella Fitzgerald (we’re still working on a middle name). She was incredible, and she could scat sing better than just about anyone. When you get older, we will show you this video of her scatting to “One Note Samba.”
You know, you will do something like this as you learn to talk, making up syllables that make no sense to anyone but you. And we will love every minute of it. I keep talking about singing and talking. Ella, there is no pressure on you to be a singer. You go ahead and be a teacher, or a scientist, or a basketball player or anything you want to be. We love you so much already. I just wanted to tell you that, Ella.
We love you, and we can’t wait to see and hear you. Looking forward to meeting you in October, baby girl.
