Kids say- or sing - the darndest things

T is quite a musical little boy. It is a constant source of amazement and amusement for us to hear him hum or sing a tune – and this year he has actually begun singing words at the ends of phrases, which is really, really cute. The story I am telling today does not involve words, though – just the tune – but it was enough.

T outed one of my deep, dark secrets…my love of the TV show “Dallas.”

We were at the clinic where he receives speech and occupational therapy once a week. His therapists were working on his cutting skills, having him use scissors to cut across a sheet of paper. (This took weeks and weeks of work. He could snip once, move to another spot and snip again, but cutting several times in a row while moving the scissors forward was a hugely difficult task to learn.)

T will sometimes use humming as an escape maneuver – he’ll hum if he isn’t particularly interested in a task. This was one of those occasions.

So, he stops looking at the paper & scissors, goes to his happy “I’m not here” place, and starts humming. He’s humming the Dallas theme song. Perfectly in tune, in rhythm, everything. The therapists don’t realize it at first, but slowly, as the tune unfolds (and as I drop my head into my hands in embarrassment and complete amazement), they look at me and one asks, “Is that the theme to Dallas???”

I burst into embarrassed but hearty laughter. Yes, I admit, I watch the old Dallas reruns on the SoapNet channel during the day when T has some downtime and I’m cleaning up from lunch.

So I’m thinking of all the great stories I’ve heard of kids telling people about conversations their parents had about them, or telling embarrassing things about their mom or dad in public places…and I’m thinking that even though Thomas wasn’t verbal at that point, he did it to me, too! Kids say – or sing – the darndest things.