Wednesday, April 26, 2006

My son's warped sense of humor

The older my son gets, the more I notice what a warped sense of humor he has. He must get it from his dad. Because we all know I am perfectly normal. ;)

Once Camden became capable of laughing, we discovered his twisted sense of humor. Inducing laughter in the boy was not easy. We had to employ various humiliating techniques to get him to laugh and what worked one day (or even one hour ago) would not work the next time. One time Mark had to repeatedly beat himself over the head with a book. Another time we had to fall off the bed again and again. Yet another time, he would only laugh at extreme imitation farting noises. But these times of laughter were few and far between. At times we felt it would take an act of Congress to get Cam to laugh. He was a happy boy, smiling all the time, bouncing up and down when excited, squealing with delight, but he would not laugh. When he did laugh, we would both race to watch, thrilled to hear the sound once again!

Now that he is getting older, Camden does laugh more freely and at more things. But in the past few weeks it has become perfectly clear that his sense of humor still has some quirks. For example, during the
big birthday bash, we had Mark's sister stay at our house, along with her husband and her 6 month old baby. She was feeding A. (the baby) and Camden had to come watch. A. spit up all over the place after a few bite and Cam laughed hysterically. The other day Tai Beaux, our dog, was hacking on something and Cam laughed at that too. The sound a squeeze bottle of ketchup made caused belly laughs from Cam again and again.

But yesterday? Yesterday showed me how far gone he really is. Cam was pinching me, hard. Telling him "no" or "stop" caused him to smile because he was trying to gauge my reaction and see if I really meant what I said. Which I did. He did it a few more times and I decided that the next time he pinched me, I would say "Ouch" really loud in hopes the noise would startle him and help him realize I was serious, much like I did the few times he bit me during breastfeeding. So he pinched me and I said "Ouch" really loud. What did he do? Look at me and start laughing. In that laugh, it was over. I started laughing too. So much for my discipline techniques.

Can you imagine what he'll find funny as he gets older? I love his laugh. More than that, I love his unique sense of humor. Thus far, it never fails to take me by surprise.

17 comments:

Kristen said...

Goofy kid! LOL! Fiesty always thinks it is hilariously funny when I tell her not to do something in total seriousness, too.

Blackeyedsue said...

Your post made me chuckle. The lengths we go to when we want them to laugh are endless. On time I smacked my hand down on the mattress and dd thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. We did that for about 15 minutes and it never worked again.

Mall Worker said...

That made me laugh! My little guy is really hard to make laugh too, and the same thing never works twice!

He also giggles when I tell him no. I do not look forward to when he's older!

sheri said...

How silly! Kelly laughs at very few things, but me "yelling" ouch is 1 of them. Lovely.

Anonymous said...

He's such a cutie!!

Gina said...

we relate... yesterday the only thing that made him laugh was his dad's foot moving in the air, with a little sound effect over and over. the baby-got-back song never fails us though... giggles guaranteed!

Lei said...

That is way cute... I remember various moments like that with my kids growing up...

Valarie said...

isn't that a fun stage? I love it when they laugh.

beth said...

Yeah, while my son laughs a little more now, particularly at animals, he used to always laugh at me when I told him no or was trying to be really serious. His laugh was just so infrequent that it was hard to not smile back. And he always loves it when I yell during nursing. Excellent.

Gabriela said...

It's so funny to think about what goes through their little minds! He sounds sweet.

utmommy said...

Isn't it amazing what we will do to make our kids laugh?

Anonymous said...

oh he's a sly one, already!'

my 2 yr old would laugh all the time. for everyone BUT ME. he would turn away rather than laugh at anything i ever did. oh, the little stinkers!

The Domesticator said...

What a cutie! I hate to tell you this, but it is only the beginning!
I know you stopped by my blog yesterday and read about the joke my son did to me to get a laugh....be warned.
It is fun though, huh?
I would take a laughing child over a crying one anyday. :)

Diana Mancuso said...

It's funny what parents will do to get a good laugh out of their kids. For me, it's letting Madeleine yank on my hair. She loves it, and her laughter is worth it! Every once in a while, anyway...

Carrie said...

Sounds like my kind of guy.:) I have an odd sense of humor, too.

Mama D said...

It's kind of weird how they take pleasure in our pain isn't it? I guess this is what prepares us for their teenage years...

Dawnyel said...

There's nothing in life better than hearing a child laugh....especially if it's at the expense of their parent!! LOL