I'll take Manifest Destiny for $1000 Alex...

This may have been mentioned before, but I do not think so.

Jason LOVES James K. Polk by the alt/nerd rock band They Might Be Giants. He has taken to this song more than Dakota ever took to any song. She does have her favorites, Blackbird, sung by The Beatles (and Daddy), The boy song, and the girl song (I will let well edit this later to tell the names of said songs, as they elude me at this moment). And she did have a They Might Be Giants phase when she recieved the DVD of Here Comes the ABCs. But never has one song placated her as this particular song has done for Jason.

It was one of my favorites from highschool (ah, the lovely time of life known as highschool...), and the lyrics are pretty easily memorized, and the melody is simple enough that even I can't butcher it entirely. I guess one day I must have started to sing it to him to calm him down. Dakota's calm down song (or at least the one I tried) was Deep in the Heart of Texas (the stars at night/are big and bright/*clap clap clap clap*/deep in the heart of Texas). But she never really responded to it. Jason always calmed and stared at me during JKP. And, of course, one day I played the Dial a Song compilation album in the car, and Jason calmed at that song. Now every "Jason" mix Will creates must have, nay, start with that song.

And it still works. He would not accept his bed time this evening. I said "night night" and he shook his head and screamed at me. I put the cd on, and he was quiet for a while, but then began to yell again. So the song went on repeat. And now, a half a dozen times through, he is peacefully snoring away. To anybody else, this would be like playing the drinking game "We Built this City" (where everybody gets locked in a room, with the classic Starship song on repeat, and nobody can use the bathroom or leave until everybody has finished the predetermined quantity of beverage of choice). But to Jason, this repetition is bliss, calming and comforting.

Someday, either in an AP US History class, or on Jeopardy, the words of this song will come back to him, and hopefully, he will remember his mom singing to him. Or if that is too corny, then he can just give a shout out to John and John.