this heart of me

Dylan,

As you know, I've been singing to you at bedtime pretty much your whole life. And ever since you were just a few weeks old and I discovered you would often enough stop crying when you heard Johnny Cash's "Walk The Line" on the stereo, that song has been a nighttime staple. For the last, I dunno, six months or so it's been the one and only song I sing before putting you in your crib for the night.

You've long afforded that song special status, strenuously objecting to my singing it -- or even humming the tune -- at other parts of the day. You've also taken to calling it your "night night song", sometimes asking for it by name as you flop your head from my right shoulder into the crook of my left elbow after Mom and I complete the last hand-off of the day.

Lately you've begun singing it to yourself now and again during daylight hours, usually as a few refrains of "I keep a close watch on this heart of me". It is precious like few other things.

Dad