Yesterday Zoë was drawing at her little table and I was just in the other room when we had this conversation:
Zoë: Mom! Do you want to see my drawing?
Me: Of course I do (not looking up from my book)
Zoë: Look! (Suddenly she is standing right in front of me holding a blank piece of paper.)
Me: (Looking hard at the paper to make sure I'm not missing something) Honey, what I am supposed to be looking at?
Zoë: This! (Holding the paper higher.)
Me: Um, I don't see anything.
Zoë: You're looking at a polar bear in a snow storm.
Me: What?
Zoë: A polar bear in a snow storm! (followed by maniacal laughter)
Me: (finally getting the joke) Very, very funny!
I laughed quite hard once I realized it was a joke and the joke was on me. Up until recently Zoë has basically had no sense of humor -- it was bad (and badly told) knock-knock jokes or nothing. I love to tease and I have had to work hard at not teasing her because she doesn't take it well at all. So to have Zoë tell a joke like that is huge step towards an actual sense of humor. I know she still isn't ready for real teasing, but there is a glimmer of hope.
4 comments:
I can totally relate: when Ashlee was about Madeline/Zoë's age, she had no sense of humor whatsoever--she took everything literally and was almost a little too serious. Mattio was like, this will not do, and began joking with and teasing her. Now she's got a great sense of humor--although sometimes I can do without the sarcasm :)
Madeline, on the other hand, was born with enough humor for 3 kids, so now the trick is to get her to take stuff seriously. It'll be interesting to see how Eleanor turns out!
I bet she'll be teasing with the best of them soon (probably about your inability to put down your book). No child of yours could possibly not eventually develop a sense of humor.
I hope you're both right because some days it is so hard to hold back on the jokes and teasing. And as well as I can dish it out, I can definitely take it so I would be thrilled to have her tease me more.
My nephew (the ice cream bowl thrower ) is a lot more like Madeline. He's had a sense of humor since day 1 and I love to tease him.
I love this! It is so funny, Samantha seems to be developmentally a year behind Zoe. Whenever you tell something like this, Samantha does it about a year later. She is currently telling the worst knock-knock jokes to anyone who will listen!!!
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