Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Sigh

What to do when my child believes humor to be the most highly prized quality in a person?

Our little Helen is our resident humorist, and she knows it. I have even heard her nearly deadpanning into Owen's Leapfrog recorder. "Helen is a funny girl," she said with a only a very small hint of hilarity. She regularly cracks us up with her actions, faces and words, and we mostly love her sense of humor, because we love to laugh.

But there's the really annoying side of her that cannot be serious. We look into her deep brown eyes and try to impart some wisdom to that sweet little face without busting a gut. She leads the game by a split second, and plays it well, a twitch in the corner of her mouth, as soon as she senses it might be forgiveable to laugh. She has learned very early in life that quick smiles and jests might possibly get her off the hook, should she ever find as much as her pinky toe in trouble.

Tonight before supper, Jack who has just learned to walk, had a tremendous splat of a fall, and nearly bit through his lip. In fact, Jason fished a chunk of his cheek wall out of his mouth, so we knew it was a bad bite. We got the bleeding stopped, made some phone calls to nurses in the family, and figured out he was going to be all right. And yes, yours truly had to sit down in the recliner and close my eyes while I waited for my nausea to subside, my tunnel vision to go away and my hearing to return. As I was sending Helen to bed later, I told her give Jack a kiss on the head, not the mouth, not thinking that she might leverage herself against him to lean in for the kiss. Sure enough, his lip got another sharp bump on an end table, which set his mouth to bleeding again and his pitiful soul to ear-numbing wailing. Helen's response was to sing the alphabet song at a louder decibel level to comfort and/or tease him out of his sadness. I sent her to bed, and while we were discussing Jack's ouchy, her effect on it, and praying for him, a half smirk settled onto her face.

*Sigh*

8 comments:

Janice said...

Sorry, I know its not really funny for you, but I'm laughing :). She is just so stinkin' cute!!!

Carrie said...

Poor baby Jack!!! But I have to agree with Janice that I was laughing too, simply at the description of Helen and all the chaos. I hope I can meet her sometime!!

Unknown said...

oh, Helen is so funny! I miss your kids. =)

Grandma Ruby said...

Of all the "joys" of parenting, you got hit with the worst and the funniest together. May the Lord grant you wisdom! May He comort Jack and keep Mommy from fainting! Helen's gift of humor will likely see her through more scrapes to come.

sherri said...

Poor Jack. And Helen...every family needs a comedian...saves money on the therapy bill! I love her!

krista said...

Smile*

Hey, thanks for the gifts...I can't WAIT for Karis to see that nightgown! She is going to be living in pajamas for awhile because they will be her favorite clothes...she got a few others, too, one princess...but this one is going to be hard to beat! Stuff for Jeremy is perfect!

Unknown said...

Oh Joyce...I love that story. You do such an awesome job of creating a post with no pictures...and yet I have it all clearly in my head with your colorful words. :) Great story....poor Jack. Hope he heals quickly.

Brother Kev said...

I could learn a few tricks from Helen...or maybe teach her a few. Serves you right, Miss Sarcastic!! HA!