Laughter

A quick post today while I sort out how to discuss other things . . .

Thursday morning I spent the morning hours at home with Hannah. She has been battling pink eye all week, so Lynda and I have been trading off time at home and time in the office. It's been a new adventure every morning, checking our work schedules, determining who could stay home with her the whole day or maybe only a half day (where we switch at lunchtime like a tag team). Add to that the fact that Sarah and Grace have both battled brief stomach illness also this week and that Grace has had a pretty severely congestive cold . . . and you can see that it's been mostly working at home with week.

Such events come with the territory when you have small kids--the littlest of which spends a great deal of time in a daycare toddler room that is wall-to-wall runny noses and God knows what else during the winter months.

But Spring is slowly approaching. Flowers may not yet be ready to bloom, but the Spring Ritz crackers are migrating north again after spending the bitter weather farther south.

What, you didn't know about the annual migration of Spring Ritz crackers? Sure, they LOOK like regular Ritz, but they are slightly less buttery (to help you fit into that swimsuit . . .) and they have a flower patter baked right in.

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When I was taking the older girls to school Thursday morning (they are finally feeling well enough to go . . . though Hannah needed another day), I discovered something that I truly love to do. And in this week and these past weeks when all I seemed to do was think negatively . . . it was good to think of something nice.

I LOVE to make my girls laugh. And I do it in the finest Ken Martin (my dad) style, with carefully selected teasing stories. I like to spin out baroque tales of improbable things that I will do, watching their faces as they digest the outlandishness of it all. Sarah is old enough, wise enough, and experienced enough to know when I start down this teasing path. Often she plays along to extend the fun. But Grace is still impressionable enough to always ask if I really intend to do what I am describing.

On Thursday, for example, I began riffing on the fact that Sarah was heading over to a friend's house that night for a sleepover (teacher work day on Friday means no school). From there I informed Grace that she would have to take care of Hannah on Friday since Mom and I would be going out to relax and party. Grace would be responsible for feeding Hannah, feeding herself, and cleaning up the house.

Grace laughed, but always took the time to ask--"Daddy, are you and Mommy really going to do that?" But she always says it with a smile in her eyes. I usually play out the tease a bit longer before letting her off the hook.

But we all get a laugh and a smile out of it. And that is very meaningful to me these days. I hope I will always be able to get them to laugh and smile.