By 2 years of age, children laugh about 18 times per hour when they are interacting with their mother. The mother laughs about 30 times per hour when interacting with her infant. Hooray for children! They keep us young!
This weekend was full of laughter. Here are three instances in particular.
1. Tage and I were cleaning the bedroom when Tage sneezed. More than just snot came out. A nice plump Craisin made it's way back to daylight after being housed in Tage's nose for 18 hours. She had stuck it up her nose the previous night (under Daddy's watch might I add!) while I was at Relief Society enrichment. Repeatedly, she had told him "Craisin in the nose! Craisin in the nose!" But Kevin was unable to see it and thought it had come out. He also failed to tell me of this incident, so it was a suprise when it popped out the next afternoon! I had wondered when the day would come that my dear daughter would get an object stuck in her nose...
2. Sunday morning we all made waffles together. We fought off Tage the entire time while she tried to use a teaspoon to "taste" the eggs (which she professionally cracked on the counter), "taste" the flour, "taste" the baking soda, and she finally succeeded in tasting the completed batter. She loves to taste, and always says "I taste it" or "one more taste." I laughed throughout the entire cook off. Who really enjoys eating flour straight anyways?! I think it is weird. Tage thinks it is delicious. Kevin and I both think it is funny.
3. At Church yesterday Tage found a moment to sit by our dear friend Kirsten Dugan and say hi to her daughter "Baby Nora" Upon inspecting Kirsten, Tage touched Kirsten's beautiful, red, curly hair, laughed, and said "CRAZY hair! Crazy, crazy hair! So silly!" Kirsten (whose children I'm sure have said embarrassing statements to others as well) laughed and looked at me saying "I think Tage just told me I have crazy hair." Tage then continued to laugh and say "crazy hair" for a few more minutes until Baby Nora once again distracted her.
4. Allow me a fourth laughing moment. This also happened at church yesterday. Tage escaped us, and was a few rows away, when suddenly she stopped. I saw her face tense up a bit, then go red, then relax. Then again.... tense face, red, face, relax. Suddenly, she shouts back to Kevin and I "I POOPING! YAY!!!! (she claps her hands) I POOPING!" I hide my face, and then quickly spring into action, scooping her up and taking her out of the chapel, and straight to the mother's lounge where we change her, yes, poopy diaper.
I am recommitted to laughing more. I believe it is good for you. As a recreational therapist, I have seen the importance of laughing and having a good time. It is healing and can produce results that no modern medicine can.
I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes. It reminds me to enjoy life, no matter what task I am working on. I can have fun and find happiness in anything, if I allow myself to.
"A Master at the Art of Living makes no distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his religion. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues with excellence what he is about and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. He, himself, always knows he is doing both." Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone July 1995
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