Just call me Julie Andrews.

When Elle was wee little, I used to hum and sing to her as I tried to put her to sleep after feedings or for naps. I didn't know many nursery rhyme-type songs at the time, so I sang what I kinda/sorta knew: Musicals.

The most common one was "The Sound of Music." When I thought Elle was tiring of that, I went with a little bit of "West Side Story" and "Porgy and Bess," but it was almost always "The Sound of Music." I felt like a dunce when I mixed up verses or sang the chorus of certain songs over and over, but Elle had no idea I was hacking the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein to horrific bits and pieces. I downloaded songs from "The Sound of Music" to my iPod for a refresher and listened to them at work, which did little to help me with my lyric retention problem.

When Elle was about a month old, Tim's mom and nephew came to meet Elle and visit us. Elle was going through some sort of crazy growth spurt, and I remember nursing her and getting a little bit too excited to find that there was a "Sound of Music" marathon on TV. We watched every time she nursed that day. I delighted in those nursing sessions and also considered them additional lyric refresher courses, but after that, I don't remember singing many of the songs to Elle. I think it was just a few weeks after that she started to sleep through the night and there weren't multiple opportunities to put her back to bed at night.

Fast forward almost two years, and I'm having flashbacks to those first few months of Elle's life.

I put Elle to bed almost every night, but on the nights that Tim is home (and the Reds aren't playing), he'll sometimes take bedtime duty. I'll hear him reading her story after story, and then he promises her a few songs. They usually sing "Twinkle Twinkle" or "Baa Baa Black Sheep." Sometimes Tim gives her some REO Speedwagon. But the singing at bedtime has always been their thing.

Until this week. Elle and I did our usual bedtime routine of stories and rocking, and then she said "Songs?" I asked her what she wanted me to sing, going through some of our toddler song regulars as options for my performance. She said no to all of them, so I took matters in to my own hands and started in with "The Sound of Music."

I've added a few songs to my rotation over the last few nights. I lead with "Do-Re-Mi" and throw in "Maria" or "My Favorite Things." (There's a girl at church that Elle loves named Maria, though, so I don't want her to start calling church Maria a flibbertijibbet or tell her she's a riddle, you know?) Sometimes if we're doing a full performance I'll sing "Sixteen Going On Seventeen" or yodel like a lonely goat.

But every night, she requests "Songs?" and I ask "What song do you want to hear?" Then she acts all coy and says "Ummm ... raindrops?" This never fails to make me smile, because out of all the words and songs I sing, she remembers "Raindrops on roses."

I'll be brushing up on my lyrics again, because Elle is sharp and will soon start correcting me or notice when I mumble over words. Until then, I've also been teaching her some contemporary tunes - she now asks for "Mommy's songs" in the car and will sing along to the "Ooh baby baby" part of Usher's "Scream." Cute? Incredibly. At dinner tonight, she kept saying "Don Dokken?" much to Tim's delight. (If you don't know who Don Dokken is, I don't blame you - if I hadn't met Tim I'm pretty sure I'd still be in the dark, too.) One thing is for sure - Elle will be nothing if not musically diverse.