I have been singing the same song to my oldest son Andy since he was 18 months old. The song is “You can close your eyes” by James Taylor. I’ve sung others but that was the one that stuck. It is our bedtime ritual. I can’t even count how many times I’ve sung it. Tonight as I sang to him and looked at his sweet chubby cheeks I realized that some day I won’t be singing to him every night. Someday he will be going to bed after me. I will lay in my bed listening to my husbands sleepy breathing waiting for the sound of my  son pulling up in the car. These thoughts terrify me. Right now his world revolves around me. I’m not trying to be narcissistic but it does. The day is coming when this crazy time of kid littleness will be over and all I will have are pictures and memories. I recently read a wonderful essay by Anna Quindlin about parenting. She talks about not always looking to the next thing but really being in the minute with these little people because it really will go by in 2 seconds. I thought of that tonight. I thought about his chubby toddler hands and his blue newborn eyes blinking in wonder at the blinds in the living room. He is my first, he is the trailblazer, he is the leader to the other two coming up behind him. I want to remember nights like this one when I’m fed up with parenting, when all I want is to run and hide from the weight of responsibility that kicks me in the gut sometimes. That song will forever encapsulate Andy’s childhood. That song will send tears rushing to my eyes on the day he gets married. That song is a gift to me and to him because I know that that is the song he will sing to his little one and so the legacy will continue. So, that is the impact music makes,it really does change people, even little people and maybe some big people too.