This wide-eyed beauty is my youngest granddaughter, the abovenamed Araya Sunshine Martin. Yes, if you say her first and middle names aloud, it sounds like she's "a ray of sunshine."
Which is true, most of the time!
Araya turned two during October, amidst Blog-o-ween on Mark's Super Blog, but you could say that her story started much longer ago.
You see, my big sister Sue (1958-2009) was a bona fide Flower Child (minus the drug use) of the 1960s. She always said that if she gave birth to a little girl, she would name her "Angel Sunshine." Which makes me wonder if her only child, Jamie Nathaniel Ulrich, is happy that he was born male.
Anyway, our youngest daughter Melissa is in some ways Sue's spiritual descendant. When she gave birth to a girl on October 1, 2010, "Araya Sunshine" was the name she picked.
I was inspired by the arrival of our little ray of sunshine to put together some feel-good songs with "sunshine" in their titles, and here it is.
These are the songs:
01 - Beatles Remixers Group - Sunshine
02 - Jackie Mitto - Sunshine
03 - Natasha Bedingfield - Pocketful Of Sunshine
04 - Paul McCartney - See Your Sunshine
05 - The Brady Bunch - It's A Sunshine Day
06 - GUB - I Love the Sunshine
07 - Frente! - Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine In
08 - Roy Ayers Ubiquity - Everybody Loves the Sunshine
09 - Spooky Garcia - Little Girl Sunshine
10 - The Elves - Wakeup Sunshine
11 - The Corrs - Summer Sunshine
12 - Gray Sky Girls - You Are My Sunshine
13 - Cream vs Gerald Wilson - Sunshine of Your Love
14 - Earth, Wind & Fire - Sunshine
15 - Paul McCartney - Sunshine Sometime
16 - Lesley Gore - Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows
17 - Osibisa - Sunshine Day
18 - Chicago - Wake Up Sunshine
19 - Stevie Wonder - You Are the Sunshine of My Life
I hope these songs make you happy, because that's the effect they have on me! Sometimes it is great to just have an hour or so of unbridled optimism.
If you could only know Araya and her smile, you too would be charmed into opening up your heart to let the sunshine in!
Here is the link: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?xbvaaq98umols4f
Smile, darn ya, smile!
