Conference moira::parenting_v3

    My son, Daniel, all of three months old, is just starting to laugh out
    loud. Music to my ears.

    Last night my husband, Frank, was playing with Daniel. He started to
    laugh, which started Frank laughing, then Daniel would laugh at Frank
    laughing at Daniel..... Well, you get the picture. This went on for
    over 5 minutes.

    It seems like just yesterday we were saying "Now I _know_ that wasn't
    gas! He smiled at me!!"

    First time mom, enjoying every facet of having a child.
    Norma

    Norma,
    I know what you mean! My 4 month old is hilarious..every time she
    laughs we laugh and so on. You just want to hug-n-squeeze them so much
    when they do it. It escpecially works when we hold her up in the air 
    and make funny noises! She laughs and drools and makes those "rasberry
    sounds"......
    
    Another 1st time mom enjoying it as well
    
    Sandy

.0: I was thinking the same things today.

Kathleen is 3 1/2 and makes a big deal about repeating things if we
don't hear/understand her the first time.  This morning, in the car,
I repeated something she missed and said:

	"I don't mind repeating things if you don't hear me"

Kathleen said: "What?"  

and I said:

	"I don't mind repeating things if you don't hear me"

Kathleen said: "What?"

I started to answer (or start worrying about her hearing) but I looked
in the mirror and she's sitting back there laughing!

I know she couldn't have "gotten" a joke like this before now!

    Good topic.  The other night I was upstairs putting away some laundry. 
    My 5 year old was watching some sit com.  I don't like many that are on
    at 8:00 because I think they are stupid.  Anyway...I could hear him
    giggling so loud then next thing I new he was laughing so hard I
    started laughing at him.
    
    My 3 year old has a dry sense of humor.  He is very witty and it comes
    naturally - he does not have to work at making us crack u!!
    
    -sandy
    

    Not quite a year ago, when Josh was a little past 4 1/2, he was
    beginning to get the idea of telling jokes. He had the idea that a joke
    was saying something sort of unexpected or surprising. One eveining, he
    and my wife went to the store to buy a bag of diapers. They had to walk
    past the door to get to the checkout. Josh started to go out, My wife
    told him to come back, they had to pay for the diapers yet. He said,
    "Why do we have to pay for them, Mommy?" She was just going to explain
    the concept of paying for things (althoughshe was surprised and fairly
    certain he already knew), when he continued in a somehwat louder than
    usual voice..."Why don't we just steal them? (and then to make it
    worse...) You know, like we always do!!!" Well, needless to say,
    everyone in the store got quite quiet and turned to look at her and
    Josh. My wife said she wanted to die, and could think of nothing to do,
    other than to tell him to be quiet in her most urgent voice (which made
    it look all the worse!). She paid for the diapers (red-faced and
    embarrassed), and hustled Josh our to  the car. When they got in the
    car, she turned to him and asked, "*What* in the world made you say
    that??? You know we never steal anything!" He said, "I know, Mommy...it
    was a joke!". She assured him it was not a funny one, and that in the
    future, if he wanted to try out a new joke, he should do it when only
    mom or dad were around, and *not* in public! He agreed, and now does
    have a good sense of humor, but I think we shal never forget his first
    attempt at a "joke". Thing is, it *is* funny......now!
    
    --dave--

    --dave--,
    
    That's hilarious.  Josh has my warped sense of humor.
    
    
    My 3 1/2 year old (Genna) is into telling jokes.  She has a silly sense
    of humor.  Why does the chicken cross the road?  To get to the other
    side.  She has been making up her own jokes such as this which are
    quite silly.  Why  did the horse cross the road?  So he wouldn't get
    bumped......things of that nature.  She's silly and so is her 2 year
    old sister Lauren.  When they are playing together and both laughing it
    is contagious.  It brings a life to the household which only children
    con provide.
    
    Peace,
    
    Mike

    We took my friend's son, age 5 to the art museum which had a glass
    exhibit.  He thought a glass cowboy hat was hilarious!  
    
    Some academics think humor is based on things being out of place.  This
    certainly qualified.

    Apart from fits of giggles, I didn't notice any sign of a sense of
    humour in my son until he was 2.  The instance was him telling me "a
    chair got stuck in a tree", me saying "pardon ?", and him saying
    "Stephen said a funny thing !".
    
    He's now 2.5 and one of his favourite tricks is to pick up something,
    tell me that it's something different, and then giggle.  For instance
    he could have an orange in his hand and will say "this is a potato". 
    Then he'll laugh and say "no, it's a banana" ... and so on.
    
    I look forward to the next phase in this development - whatever it is.
    
    Greg.

    I just noticed my 14 month old telling his father "a joke".  He walked
    up to my husband with a ball in his hand, held the ball out as if to
    give it to Dad, and babbled something.  When my husband reached out to
    take the ball, David snatched it away and ran off, laughing his little
    heart out!   Our translation is this :
    
    David : Daddy, want to play ball?
    
    Dad   : Sure!
    
    David : How does it feel to want?  Ha,ha,ha!
    
    Sarah
    

    
    Our son Jason (17 months) has recently been developing his sense of
    humor as well.   Here's a couple of his "jokes":
    
    Apparently, he has a daily ritual at daycare of watching the old
    TV show "Flipper".   When I picked him up one day, his sitter says
    "Jason, say Flipper for mommy".   He shakes his head and says "no"...
    she keeps asking him to say Flipper, he keeps refusing ....then
    gets a big grin on his face and says "shark"....well, it doesn't sound
    too funny, but it was!  
    
    Also, he has a book that he and daddy read almost every night before
    bed.   On one page, is a tiny sailboat on the horizon with two 
    yellow sails....he points to it and says "na-na" (banana).  Dad
    says "that's not a banana, that's a boat!".   From then on (this
    has been a month or so), he'll point to the boat and say "na-na"
    and point to a banana and say "boat" - then crack up laughing!
    
    He's no Jerry Lewis ... but we think he's a riot!
    
    cj/