The Un-Funny Bone

Many times on this blog I have bemoaned the simple reality of aging: her, not me!! The bittersweet farewells I seem to wave at every milestone, both large and small, the tiny baby, toddler, preschooler I miss, yet can barely remember. BUT...there is one aspect of little kid-dom that I promise I will miss not at all, in fact, I pray please please please let her sense of humor NOT remain the same!!! Has anyone ever listened, really listened to what a five year thinks is funny? No? Well, let me tell you: you're not missing anything. Flipper's largely undeveloped sense of humor is almost painful to witness: hence the following "conversation"--keeping in mind that all of my comments are silent. Usually.

"Know what Elijah and I call helicopters?"
No, do I want to?
"We call them helicopoptors!! Isn't that funny?!? HELICOPOPTORS!!!" (this is repeated about three thousand times)
Please make it stop.

Kids Flipper's age find, perhaps blessedly, almost anything funny: the dog farting, underwear on the floor, someone tripping and falling down, the most basic and simplest of cartoons, NPR theme music...wait! I find the theme music funny too! But you get my point: it is unbearable, because not only is juvenile humor, well, JUVENILE, and therefore pretty UN-funny, but what we (adults) find funny either results in tears: "Oh, honey! Mommy was just being sarcastic!! I'm not serious!!" Or it requires a long and excruciating "explanation" that results in nothing resembling either enlightenment or a better-developed sense of humor. These things take time, I know. But I can barely bring myself to contemplate the truly terrifying: what if it doesn't change?? Because I don't think I can take poor Flipper's particular brand of "humor," and I use that word loosely, for years to come. Hopefully, like all other phases, I can utter the mantra of parents everywhere: this too shall pass.