Poker Face

Penny’s personality is really starting to show in a big way. The problem for us is that she’s really funny. Not intentionally funny, but funny in the way she goes about things, the faces she makes, and her general demeanor.

That means that the hardest part about being her parent at the moment is keeping a straight face – we can’t laugh at her shenanigans, like when she gets tired of trying to feed herself the yogurt with a spoon so just starts grabbing handfuls, putting some in her mouth, but using the majority as hair mousse.

So what’s a new parent to do when their child sits on the floor playing with her belly like some sort of neo-Buddha meets Pilsbury Doughboy, poking herself in the tummy and giggling? Worse is when she’s doing something wrong, but in such a way that it makes you want to laugh, like chasing the dog around, crying “na-na,” her version of Newman, while the dog himself slinks from place to place, trying to find a bit of peace.

The fact seems to be that kids are just funny, probably because they do the things we wish we could still do. We want to laugh because they don’t care if they look silly. For now, our tactic is to alternate – one of us presents the poker face while the other turns and snickers. Count to ten…and switch. Maybe we should just give up and laugh out loud. After all, what’s not funny about a creamed spinach mustache?