The Tushy Song

One of the little monsters I used to spend my days with was a little guy still in diapers. We had a rocky beginning where we would spend a large part of the day distracting him from realizing he was away from his parents, sister and former nanny. As with many kids, one of the most traumatic parts of being little was having his diaper changed. Frankly, I don't blame him - you're wet and smelly, and then all of a sudden you're cold too, and all things below the belt (above too, if you're wearing the kind of overalls that just kill me with cuteness) are exposed. Not my idea of a good time, either.

So I started coming up with all sorts of ways to keep this little one from screaming his head off, especially during one of the least pleasant parts of the day for both of us: the cleaning up of the poop. One day when changing him, I started singing the first song that popped into my head, which is called Tishialuk Girls, an Irish Canadian tune. I honestly can't remember if I thought of it because Tishialuk sounds a bit like tushy, but anyway I sang it and he quieted down. I started calling it the Tushy song and we sang it whenever I changed him. Most of the lyrics aren't anything that would make sense to a 20-month-old (or to me either, if you must know), but here are the last four lines:

Aunt Rae wants me to wed her daughter
Takes me from my heart's delight
Give me a girl from down in Tishialuk
Shines in me eyes like diamonds bright

I would substitute "Benny" for "girl from" and would pause after "shines in me eyes like" and after a while he would grin and say "diamonds bright!" I heard this song on the way home tonight. I still can't hear it without putting Benny's name in there and pausing before "diamonds bright"! Gets me every time.