My Kids are Funny

My son spoke very clearly – and in complete sentences - at a very early age, and ever since then he’s been ahead of the curve verbally. My daughter wasn’t quite as advanced but she makes up for it with the sheer hilarity of what she says. Actually, both of them are pretty funny. My husband is fond of saying that if we could catch even five percent of the funny stuff they say on video we could post it on YouTube and make millions.

I write down a lot of the funny things they say, but somehow the humor is often lost without both the context and the delivery. For example, the other day my son proclaimed, completely out of the blue, “Sometimes, I just HAVE to lick my elbow.” Now, that’s a pretty funny line by itself, but when you add in the fact that it was a total non sequitur and the perfectly serious delivery complete with slightly furrowed brow, it’s REALLY funny. My daughter gets in on the non sequitur act herself, like a few weeks ago when in the middle of quietly playing with her dolls, she suddenly shouted from across the room in an urgent, almost panicked tone of voice, “I NEED A KISS!!! RIGHT NOW!!!!” Of course, I raced right over and kissed her, and she responded very calmly and matter-of-factly, “Thanks, Mum,” and went back to playing with her dolls as if nothing unusual had happened. And yet another time, she was playing with a toy giraffe near a pair of my sneakers that were on the floor, when she suddenly stuffed the giraffe into one of the sneakers and announced, “We gotta go. Come on, giraffe. We gotta go. Get in the shoe. GET IN THE SHOOOOEEEEEE!!!!!!!”

Sometimes my son is funny because he makes up words to express something that he doesn’t know the right word for. After enjoying a particularly buttery English muffin for breakfast one day, he examined his hands carefully and informed me, “Mama, I need to wash my hands. They’re all…muffin saucy.” Making up words is nothing new for him, though. When he was about 3, we were driving home from a friend’s house and he asked my husband if we were on a highway. Upon being informed that we weren’t at the moment, he quietly murmured to himself, “Oh, we’re on a low-way.” At about the same age, he noticed my niece’s pedicure and informed her that he really liked her toenail disguises.

At ages 3 and almost 5, my kids are smack in the middle of the time of life when everything is new and amazing. They’re young enough that they’re constantly experiencing things for the first time, and they’re old enough to be able to process and appreciate those experiences. And they’re full of curiosity about everything around them. Half of what makes them funny is the pure joy and wonder they find in everything that’s around them. Their joy is contagious, and you can’t help but laugh with them as they discover the joy and humor in the world around them. 

Wouldn't You Like to Know What's Goin' on in My Mind?

Sometimes I wish I could read Ryan’s mind and figure out what on earth he’s thinking. Last night at dinner, he kept looking back and forth from me, to Herb, to me, to Herb, and then giggling. What exactly did he find so funny? And then after supper, he was crawling around in the living room, and he would go a few feet one way, then stop and sit up and giggle, then turn around and crawl back and stop and sit up and giggle, and then turn around and do it all over again, back and forth and back and forth. He obviously found it amusing, but I’d love to know why.

There are times when he’s studying some object and I know exactly what his thought process is. For example, when he plays with the vacuum cleaner, he pushes it on its side and looks at the wheels for a moment, then reaches out and turns them. He’s obviously figuring out how they move and which way they move. And then he tugs at various parts of it, obviously figuring out what’s attached and what’s not. He’s analyzing how the machine is made and how it works. Sometimes he’ll push different objects (like a ball and a block) down a ramp and anything that doesn’t slide, he picks up and turns over and over in his hand. He understands that some things slide and some things don’t, and he’s trying to figure out how they’re different and what makes that particular object not slide. Those brain processes are obvious and understandable. But the things that make him laugh are often incomprehensible to me.

Laughter is such an unpredictable thing anyway, but with a baby, it’s even less predictable. I remember reading somewhere about why humans find something funny, and it has to do with incongruity and unexpectedness. But to a baby who is just figuring out the world, almost everything seems incongruous or unexpected, and therefore funny! So I guess that’s the simplest explanation of most of Ryan’s laughter. He crawls from one side of the room to the other and suddenly he sees things from a different perspective – unexpected and therefore funny! He looks at the expression on Daddy’s face and it’s not quite the same as the one on Mommy’s face – unexpected and therefore funny! He makes noises with his mouth and when he unthinkingly changes its shape, the sound changes – unexpected and therefore funny!

I’m glad that he finds entertainment and amusement in so many things that I find commonplace. I might even be a little jealous at how much pleasure he gets out of life for no particular reason that I can see. But instead, I think I’ll just try to share in his wonder and amazement at the unexpectedness – and also the humor – of the world around me.