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Parenting

#18: A baby's sense of humour

Our countdown of top parenting moments continues: Uncontrollable giggles from your baby make for one of life's sweetest sounds.

By Anchel Krishna

#18: A baby's sense of humour Photo: stciel / iStockphoto

There was a period of time in my daughter’s life when I completely doubted that she had any sense of humour. She spent the majority of her time crying (when she wasn’t taking two and a half hours to finish a bottle or during her 10-minute catnaps, that is).  I really wasn’t sure that my kid would ever find anything funny, much less be able to make others laugh.But like most parents of babies who start off on the fussier side, I was completely wrong.Not only did she find things funny, she began to laugh at the simplest things. It all started one day when I accidentally dropped a bag of cotton balls on her head during a diaper change. I expected her to be startled, but instead she just started giggling hysterically.And now, nearing age two, Syona is a total clown. (Disclaimer: I’m in a constant state of sleep deprivation, so I find almost everything funny.) We take a lot of time being silly around Syona and I think it has definitely rubbed off on her. One of our go-to jokes is me putting a plastic cup on my head, letting it slide off and laughing hysterically. (See disclaimer above.) A couple of weeks ago, Syona started taking the cup and putting it on her head in an effort to get us to laugh.This simple mimicking makes me laugh so hard and also fills me with pride. Syona has cerebral palsy, which means her brain doesn’t always communicate with her muscles in the way that it should. It’s only in the last few months that she is able to raise her arms above her head, much less have the coordination to attempt to actually put something on her head.There are so many things we took for granted before we had Syona. And after her complicated start  we spent some time pretty worried about her future.  Even though her body and mind work a million times harder than mine to complete a task, she (thankfully) spends the majority of her day looking for opportunities to laugh and make us laugh.Her sense of humour makes her such an enjoyable kid, but more than that, this personality trait is going to be one we all rely on to take us through the tougher moments in life.When did you realize your kids had a sense of humour? What are your (or their) go-to jokes?

This article was originally published on Aug 24, 2012

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