Last night, before L went to bed, I’d put in a Nina Simone CD, figuring it was calming enough to play in the evening.

Little did I know.

A few minutes later, while trying to put the Girl to sleep, I began the CD again. She wasn’t crying, but she wasn’t settling down. I rocked her, walked her, bounced her gently, talked to her — all the tricks, but she was just not completely calming down.

When track six — “I loves you, Porgy” — began, instant calm. So I did the logical thing: hit repeat and put the Girl to sleep by playing one of the loveliest songs ever…about fifteen times.

As an aside, here’s a very sweet claymation video set to a Simone song: