Courtesy Laughs

I've always known that I'm not the funniest person in the world, and I'm okay with that. I have a very dry and quirky sense of humor that only others with an extremely dry and quirky sense of humor get, and then only sometimes.

Luke, my two year old, has been laughing at every silly little thing since he was four months old. He has that deep belly laugh that bubbles up from his toes. Sometimes, he'll even fake laugh just to make himself laugh. He loves silly fun. Eli, on the other hand, laughs only when something is truly too funny not to laugh at.

I had a boyfriend in college who refused to give courtesy laughs. You know, the kind where you laugh when someone makes a joke just so they don't feel bad that what they said really wasn't that funny? I give out courtesy laughs like candy because I truly know how to appreciate them. I make bad and unfunny jokes all the time, just ask Kris. (He gives courtesy laughs, by the way, but they are completely unconvincing.) I always secretly thought it arrogance on my college boyfriend's part to not be nice and just laugh to make people feel better. But now...I think he was born that way. Eli certainly was. He smiles all the time, but laughs are saved for very special occasions. If it's not funny to him, forget it. Luke has always gotten more laughs out of Eli than anyone, with Kris coming in a close second. I think I've made him laugh twice in his ten months of life. I'm comforted by the fact that he hasn't laughed at anyone else pretty much ever.

Last night, though, while holding Eli I blew my hair out of my face in a slightly exaggerated way, and he burst into giggles. He was laughing like crazy, over and over again. It was great. What an ego booster! I mean, I felt like Chris Farley, only slightly thinner. After doing it about fifty times, it lost it's charm and he moved on. But it made my night.