Singing in the HOV Lane

Tonight I picked the Pumpkin up from daycare and we hit the road.

I always have this tinge of guilt when I get on the freeway.  I get on at one of those monitored stoplight entrances, and it has three lanes, one of which is an HOV lane. You guessed it, I totally use the HOV lane. I mean there are two people in the car.  I heard once that a pregnant woman got stopped for driving in an HOV lane and the cop still gave her a ticket (which she deserved); but she appealed it.  The judge apparently ruled that the child had to be born to count. I do get that, but give her brownie points for creativity.  I'm actually afraid to look up the real law because I want to be ignorant when the cop stops me and I tell him that my 6 month old daughter is my 2nd passenger. But, before you pass judgement, I use the HOV lane because it goes faster, and the Pumpkin likes the car to move, so really, I'm preventing myself from getting distracted by driving in the HOV lane so she doesn't cry and I can concentrate on the road...(well, that's what I plan to say when they finally stop me).

Today was special, because the Pumpkin was pissed.  And, really, she doesn't get pissed very much.  She's had a cold and been sounding like Darth Vader for 4 days, and the girl is still smiling and laughing all the time.  But I think today she got sick of being sick, because I got to the freeway exit (where of course they don't have an HOV lane) and she started screaming, real gut wrenching crying. If you've never been stuck in traffic with your own infant screaming in the back of the car, you just don't know what its like to have your heart ripped out of your chest.  I once watched my friend pull over in a gas station at the point of tears when her daughter did this, and wondered why...until I had my own and did it myself.  But tonight, I was stuck on the freeway with no way out.

I decided to sing.

No, I'm not going to be winning any grammy's with my voice, but  she immediately stopped crying.  I was so afaid she would start again, so I didn't stop, and barely took a breath in between each song. It was quite the medley:
1) Wheels on the Bus
2) Head, shoulders, knees...
3) Itsy, Bitsy, Spider
4) Twinkle, Twinkle
5) Supercalifragelisticexpialidocious (yes i did)
6) Do, Re, Mi (sound of music - usually I sing the entire soundtrack to her; i know its weird, but the only thing I could think of when I first had her; so yes, my child knows Edelweiss)

I'm not advocating this for everyone, because I know I've tried it before and it did nothing. But tonight it worked, so its Bad Working Mom - 1, Crying-baby-in-the-back-seat-gods - 0 tonight. I celebrated by having a beer, yay for me.
BWM