You Gotta Love a Sense of Humor!

Those of you who have spent more than about 5 minutes with me know that I love to laugh. I figure that most of life can be pretty much separated into "laugh or cry" and the former is SO much more fun! And while I like a good joke as much as anybody, one of my favorite reasons to laugh is the humor that can inevitably be found in everyday events.

Well, it seems that the schnitz has inherited this particular trait which I really love! He's been demonstrating it in a variety of ways over the past couple of weeks. And thanks to the wonder of internet access, now I can share them with you!

Vignette #1:
First to set the stage, you must know that my child has decided over the past several months that the FASTEST way to get my attention is to emit an ear-piercing shriek that truly, only dogs should be able to hear. My only bit of hope where this behavior is concerned comes from the fact that he is a boy and eventually will be unable to hit those high pitches! As you probably ascertained from my description of this shriek, this is not exactly my favorite behavior.

Well, one morning a couple of weeks ago (before the epiphany about the coffee maker when he was still waking up at 6 am), I was standing in the kitchen when he starts shrieking from the living room. Now, if we lived in a bigger house, this might have minimized the sound, however, we don't and the sound travelled just as well as he intended:-) Given that it was only about 6:45 and I hadn't finished my first, much less second cup of coffee, my ability to respond to just about anything was somewhat....shall we say, retarded? So I'm standing at the counter just staring at my screaming child thinking, "wow...that is SO annoying" and "hmmm...what am I actually going to DO about this?". While these thoughts were moving like sludge through my foggy brain, the schnitz stops screaming and starts staring back at me, probably wondering if I were all there (he's perceptive, that one!). All of a sudden, after about 30-45 seconds of our inadvertent stare-off we both started just cracking up, apparently simultaneously finding the stare-off more entertaining that whatever we had been occupied with before the whole episode began. A much more pleasant end to the situation than it could have been!

Vignette #2
Later that same day we made a trip to the grocery store. Since it was getting close to snack-attack time, I stashed a container of oatmeal in my purse. Sounds weird, but when your kiddo has multiple food allergies, the snacks tend to get increasingly odd:-) Well, we finished the shopping and were heading to the car when he decided that he was hungry and needed some oatmeal RIGHT NOW. I was wanting to get home and he's gotten really good with a spoon, so I decided to leave it up to him to take care of the oatmeal craving while I drove. About five minutes later, I pulled up to a red light and realized that he'd been really quiet for a while. I look in the rearview mirror and see him holding the spoon in his mouth, arm up and sticking out perpendicular to his body, totally just staring off into space. That was amusing enough, but he sat like that for probably another 30 seconds (long light!) while I'm thinking, "what does a 21 month old get lost in thought about anyway???" All of a sudden, he catches me looking at him in the mirror and just gets that look on his face that we all get when we've been caught and just cracks up! I think I ended up laughing as hard as he was!

Vignette #3:
This one tells me that I am in SO much trouble! This past Friday night, Rusty and I were hanging out after dinner, just playing until it was time for him to go to bed. We were in the kitchen playing with this Leap Pad barn toy that sticks to the refrigerator when I noticed that the back half of one of his animals was missing. Logically, I ask him, "Hey Rusty, where did the back half of your sheep go?". He looks at me and then gets down on his hands and knees and points under the refrigerator. So, being the trusting individual that I am, I lay flat on the floor to dutifully retrieve said sheep piece from under the refrigerator where my child has informed me that it resides. Yeah, about 1.2 seconds later, he TACKLES me and once again starts cracking up!!! He totally got me! The intentionality of this was confirmed when I saw that the piece was actually right behind where I'd been standing. He'd actually glanced at it right before he got down and pointed under the fridge. Ok, if he's able to pull things over on me this easily before he turns 2, I have a feeling that I am SO in for it!

I am firmly convinced that part of the reward for all of the diaper changes and lost sleep is the sheer entertainment value that kiddos bring to the table!:-)