Lullaby, and Goodnight.

Lately I've been trying to recall the limited number of lullabies in my repertoire to share with Henry. As I was singing The Mockingbird Song (Hush, Little Baby) the other day I realized that this song is seriously messed up.

I mean, first they're telling the baby to be quiet and they'll buy him something, which is just bad parenting in my opinion. But none of the things on the list are anything a baby would care about anyway, aside from the dog named Rover. (And really, that name has been done to death.)

But then apparently Rover is useless if he doesn't bark. Anyone with a little baby knows that a barking dog is the last thing you need around the house.

And what's the deal with the redundancy? A goat for pulling, a cart and bull, and horse and cart? Why so many modes of transportation? What exactly are they trying to haul?

Finally, even if none of these items the baby didn't care about to begin with work out, he'll "still be the best little baby in town." What? What exactly is the connection here? And why just in town? Does this include the outlying suburbs? How big is this place?

And if, say, the looking glass doesn't break, what does this mean for the baby's ranking?