I get a kick out of our children.

Now, the big kids can be hilarious….but their humor is a little more mature than the younger ones, so what they say is less random and not quite as surprising as the weird things the little guys say.

Of course, at this point, Sparrow is practicing non-verbal humor for the most part.

At about 7 months, her vocabulary is kind of limited.

So I guess that leaves our 4-year-old to fill the weirdness gap.

I think that he handles that pretty well.

He says some funny things.

A build up like that is kind of like someone at a party announcing the punch line with a disclaimer that it’s going to be the most hilarious thing that anyone has ever heard.

It’s not usually very funny after the disclaimer is released.

You just don’t do that.

You can’t give the element of surprise away.

You can’t say, “Wait for it….here it comes…..it’s going to be hilarious….wait for it….the funny part….it’s going to be great…..OK….NOW!!” and have anyone laugh.

It doesn’t work like that.

Nate was sitting on Jenny’s lap the other day and made the announcement that “That was funny. Now….let’s laugh!”

Some of the humor of that was in the delivery, of course.

Maybe you had to be there.

See what I mean about announcing that something funny is about to happen?

It’s not always so funny when you forecast it.

But it was funny when a little guy said it.

I love the confidence behind a statement like that, too.

You have to be fairly sure of your place in the world to announce that it’s time for everybody to laugh.

Maybe it’s something that only hits you hard if you’re sitting on the porch of a little mountain house, in a green mountain valley, on a humid but cool end of June Sunday afternoon?

Maybe the humor is conditional?

Maybe it only works in the right setting?

Nah….Nate would be hilarious if we were sitting in a McDonalds in the middle of Detroit.

Nate would be hilarious….and if he gave me the instruction that it was time to laugh, I’d probably find myself obeying it.

I think that the thing that makes the little moments within your family so hilarious is probably the same thing that let’s you sit through a slide show or a home movie and find it really pleasant…while someone else outside of the family might find it kind of excruciating.

You love your family….and the things that they do, for the most part, bring you pleasure.

That’s a deep realization.

Deep.

I try not to let a 4-year-old boss me around too much.

That’s not really good parenting.

It happens from time to time….but I try to maintain the “upper hand”.

I’m the boss, after all….

But if Nate gave me the instruction that it was “time to laugh”, I’d probably pay attention to him.

Nate knows funny.

It’s not always subtle….but it’s true…so when he says, “Now….let’s laugh” I say….

“Sir, yes. sir….HOW LOUD?”