Thursday, March 29, 2007

Just Joking

Gwen and Xavier have become obsessed with telling jokes (especially Knock-Knock jokes.) The problem is, they aren't very good at it yet. A typical exchange with Gwen and me runs along the lines of ... oh, okay, I'll be honest -- this is a SPECIFIC exchange we have had again and again:

Gwen: Knock knock!

Me: Who's there

Gwen: Dinosaur!

Me: Dinosaur who?

Gwen: Dinosaur doesn't know where to lay her eggs! HA! HA! HA! HA! Isn't that funny?

Adam keeps trying to explain to them what makes good humor. ("A joke is funny because it is true." "A joke is funny because it is ironic." "A joke is funny because it is a play on words.") This is still above their heads at this time. They don't even quite understand that delivery matters. For example, I might tell them a joke that runs along the lines of "Knock knock ... who's there? ... Cows Say ...Cows Say who? ... No, cows say moo!" and Xav's version will be "Knock knock ... Who's there? ... Cows say ... Cows say who? ... That's not what a cow says!"

The other day, to illustrate how jokes work, Adam told them the following joke:

Two penguins are standing on an ice flow. One penguin says to the other, "You look like you are wearing a tuxedo." The other replied, "How do you know that I'm not?"

You can tell Xavier is trying hard to get it, because when it was his turn to tell a joke, he said, "Knock knock!"

Adam: Who's there?

Xavier: Two penguins standing on an ice flow.

Adam: Two penguins standing on an ice flow who?

Xavier: You look like you are wearing a tuxedo!

Poor kids, they'll get it sooner or later. If they only knew how funny they are without trying.


Gwen is about to keel over from excitement: she has her first loose tooth! She is so proud of it that she is telling everyone about it. The problem? It is (probably) loose because she slipped crawling across the tile floor yesterday and smacked her mouth. In fact, I think it is less loose tonight than it was yesterday, which probably means her body isn't ready to give it up.

Hopefully the Toothless Sixes will kick in before she figures that out.

2 comments:

r.m said...

Haley too is eager to lose her first tooth. She keeps insisting that various teeth are loose and gets quite put out when I tell her that they don't really seem loose to me. It doesn't help when her big sisters are loosing teeth left and right. It's pretty freaky how often Grace and Mattie have lost the same tooth on the same day - guess they really are identical...

Mandy said...

J.S.'s son (who was born two weeks after Haley) is also dying to start losing teeth. Since they're all the same age (within a month), maybe they'll all start together :).