Sh*ts and Giggles

Babynater is four months old and his giggle is like a tall flute of Veuve Clicquot sipped while wearing my most flattering dress, standing before a mirror in dim lighting. The kind of lighting that lets me see the outline of myself without the harsh reality, the new gray hairs, the lines around my eyes that I know weren't there when Gee was born, when Ess came home. Were they there when Cue arrived? Did I believe they were permanent or did I think it was just sleep deprivation and dehydration?

He gave me his first bleating baby belly laugh on September 30. He thinks it's hilarious when I laugh, when his oldest brother laughs and any time my hair touches him. I would stand on my head, waggle my pony tail, make a complete ass of myself in any number of ways to hear his little pah of a chuckle. He kills me. I love how he waits for me to perform, his mouth open, his eyes sparkling, his tongue slightly rolled and clucked to the roof of his toothless mouth.

I dance and wiggle and make an all around fool of myself for him. When I stop and make eye contact there is a pause while he waits, slightly expectant, chin raised, mouth still open in a smile. Wait, is that it, oh you're done. Eheh. Eh. Heh. PAH!

And then he stares. Do it again. You know you want to. Sucker. Who isn't a sucker for a baby's laugh? If I turn away, pretend to ignore him, his little face crumples and he whimpers his displeasure.

Matt ignores us, reading his "how to fix a really old truck" book across the room. "Do you hear him, doesn't he have the cutest laugh ever?"
"It's cute," he humors me, without looking up.
"I don't think Gee or Cue giggled like this," I insist.
"You said the same thing about Cue."

No. Did I? I didn't. Cue didn't giggle like this. I flipped through my 2007 calendar this morning. There it was, written neatly in the white square reserved for November 6, 2007 - "Cue has the cutest giggle. He loves my hair."

If I could put time in a bottle with baby giggles. I think I might need a video camera.

I'm closing my comments for most of the month of November while I participate in National Novel Writing Month and National Blog Posting Month. I can't ask you to talk to me every freaking day for thirty days. That's cruel and usual punishment. My email is always open - anymommyoutthere@gmail.com.


E&E Tally: 3127 words (Haven't missed a day!)
Blog posts: 6/30