When my sister Julie got married in Spring 2010, all of the Chatfields descended upon southern California and got their party on. Jack was 16 months old and I was about two seconds pregnant with Lucy. The week was stressful, as are most wedding weeks, but it spawned something magical.
The "Baby Jack" dance.
When one deals with small children, animals, or similarly-tempermented people, one tends to sing silly songs in order to appease them. Jack and Lucy have been the recipients of several songs about diaper changing or "please just stop being so energetic, I'm the tiredest mommy in the world." But other songs have just been non-sensical, as is this "Baby Jack" song.
When it was first sung, Jack immediately started "dancing" like in the first part of the video below. He is not fond of dancing, but he has a great prowess for anything physical. I have tried to do the "Baby Jack" dance several times; my quads have screamed and my eyes have watered—that dance is not for the mentally weak!
That dance has been retired, now that Jack is twice that age and can actually walk without falling. The song lives on, but only in sporadic bouts of nostalgia.
Enter Lucy.
She just happens to be a baby, which makes the "Baby Jack" song perfect to sing to her with a few tweaks. Namely, we change the "Jack" to "Luce"; dang you, double-syllable names and your inability to fit into already-created nonsense songs!
When Lucy spontaneously started doing this dance to our "Baby Lucy" song, my jaw dropped. Could this dance be genetic? Could it be innate in the Flanagan children? Or could it be that Jack has been teaching her behind closed doors?
Whatever the case may be, 12-month-old Lucy can now enter the pantheon of videographic evidence of the "Baby _____" dance.
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