Common Interests

Today was fantastically uneventful. Even so, that didn't stop me from making a new discovery. I went over to my godmother's today with my parents. My cousin (G), his wife (D) and their daughter were visiting from Newmarket. As one of the youngest members of my extended family (on both sides) I never really got to be around young children much. I was the young children. It's only now, with my cousins having children, that I'm getting the opportunity. Now, I've talked about babies finding me hilarious. Have I talked about me finding babies hilarious?

Picture it. Sicily. I'm kidding. I definitely do not live in Sicily. If I did, I doubt I'd be staring at a curtain of snow. Nevertheless, picture it, a baby laughing at me while I'm laughing my face off at a baby. The other adults in the room? Yeah, they're laughing at us. So, lots of people laughing, none of them for the same reason.

Baby Laughing:

I was sitting next to my cousin's wife and she was holding her daughter. She knows I'm uncomfortable holding her daughter so she sits really close so that she'll climb all over me and I won't have a choice. It's quite clever. She also knows I'm too lazy and polite to move. Anyway, her daughter was sitting on her leg, but her feet were hanging over onto my leg. I was told she liked to high five, so I raised my hand. My cousin's wife grabbed her daughter's hand and started high fiving me. Her daughter was giggling. And then, I just reached forward, palmed her head and sing-songed "face plant!". The baby just burst out laughing for about five minutes. I was right behind her and so was my cousin's wife. It was so random.

Me Laughing:

My cousin's wife, we're going to call her... D, had her daughter in her arms and was pretending to eat her neck. She was claiming to be a vampire. I asked her if she was a Twilight vampire. She said she was a True Blood vampire. I laughed and told her that I didn't know the difference. Neither did she. Either way, the vampire thing had her daughter laughing so all was good. A while later, her daughter marches up to the couch we're sitting on and tries very determinedly to eat D's foot. She was climbing on the couch, zeroed in on her foot, grabbing at it and pulling it to her mouth. Meanwhile, D is laughing and trying to pull away without kicking anyone (because I'm sitting so close... HA! Her plan backfired!). I took that moment to laugh at her struggling and tell her that her daughter was only following the example she'd set with the whole vampire thing.

Given what I witnessed today, I do not want to see this kid at sixteen when she really wants something. If that's how she goes after a sock when she's not even one, it's going to be hell trying to say: "No, you can't have the car"; or worse yet: "No you can't go on a date with that boy/girl". She was even more determined in going after D's cellphone. Kids and their technology...

Both Laughing:

One of my other aunt's was present. She decided that she'd like some pictures so she rans to get her phone. The second the camera was pointed at my cousin's daughter, she perked up, stared straight at it and smiled her million dollar smile. She was laughing and playing around, always looking at the camera. I was giggling at that point. When she raised her hand and placed it under her chin and started shifting her weight from foot to food to get different poses, I cracked up. There was no one around prompting her or anything, she just started posing all on her own. The more pictures my aunt took, the more the baby was laughing and moving around and smiling. The more she posed, the more we were laughing. She's cute and she absolutely knows it.

Lots of laughing today. Oh, my discovery! Children and I have a common interest in one another. We each find the other hysterical.

Lauren.