blogs
Happy Talk
Our family is at the beach, "our" beach (Topsail), one that we have been coming to since 1971. Which is a long time.
Flipper, the beach kid, the kid whose life right now seems to be one llooonnnnggg vacation, has made some remarkable strides and breakthroughs recently. There is the swimming in the ocean, which on the surface seems like a good thing, but like so many little developmental leaps, has turned out to be not-so-good.
Where she was once fearful of the waves, of her body being pummeled about, dunked and dowsed...well, that fear is gone. Now she is fearless, and I am the one terrified, as she has no qualms about the current rapidly bearing her away down the beach, or pulling her out to sea. Now, I actually have to get up out of the chair, face my Bain de Soleil SPF 4 washing off (the horror!) and supervise much more closely. Which I do, don't worry.
But her other big breakthrough is that she has finally glommed onto "our" humor, the humor that rules our family. I read a book once called "Habits of Healthy Families" or something similar, and one of the "habits" of the healthy happy family was "family jokes" or "shared humor." In our family, much of that comes from laughing at another member of the family. We all take turns being the one laughed at, although our mom usually dominates this exalted position.
Before, Flipper HATED for us to laugh at her, the things she does and says. But as any human that has spent more than about 5 seconds around a young child, you know the sheer impossibility of trying NOT to laugh. We fail at it often, and her response, depending on her mood, is usually not a happy one.
But this week...it all changed. We made my father very happy by watching his favorite musical of all time, South Pacific. What, none of you have a favorite musical? Just my father?
Flipper watched most of the movie quietly, got up a few times to present her own "interpretive dance," a dance that had no connection to anything happening onscreen, and we all had to promise not to laugh. I failed. But, then, this morning, she spontaneously imitated Liat, the young lover of Joe Cable ... and Kathryn and I have never laughed harder in our lives. She gets it.
Even if we are, indeed, laughing AT her and not WITH her...it was and is hilarious. She is OK being laughed at! She isn't taking herself so maddeningly seriously! She'll go far in this world, I am convinced, when she can laugh at herself and, to some degree, play to her (captive) audience.
This will be one of those things that we will remember, imitate and laugh about for a long, long time to come. Like the fact that my dad has a favorite musical. Below..."Happy Face." Not seen: us, choking back hysterical laughter, tears running down our faces.
Leigh appears every Monday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Leigh at Flipper and Me.
Leigh Sparacino
Leigh is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.
Leigh grew up in Durham, attended college in
North Carolina, left the area for an island off the coast of Georgia,
the high mountains of Colorado, and her favorite mountains in western
North Carolina, before returning to the Triangle eight years ago. She lives near
Carrboro with her 4.5-year-old daughter Flipper and two dogs. She
is single in marital status only, surrounded by friends, family, and
her daughter's very involved and loving father. She works part-time and
tries to be as involved as possible in her daughter's school, The
Emerson Waldorf School, where Flipper is a kindergartner. She likes
wood, glass and other natural materials for toys, loves the principles
of Waldorf education and hates plastic. She might be the only person in
the world with no TV and who hasn't been to a movie in 15 years, but races
to the mailbox every Saturday for the most recent issue of People
magazine. In other words, a contradiction. Or just human.
Our family is at the beach, "our" beach (Topsail), one that we have been coming to since 1971. Which is a long time.
Flipper, the beach kid, the kid whose life right now seems to be one llooonnnnggg vacation, has made some remarkable strides and breakthroughs recently. There is the swimming in the ocean, which on the surface seems like a good thing, but like so many little developmental leaps, has turned out to be not-so-good.
Where she was once fearful of the waves, of her body being pummeled about, dunked and dowsed...well, that fear is gone. Now she is fearless, and I am the one terrified, as she has no qualms about the current rapidly bearing her away down the beach, or pulling her out to sea. Now, I actually have to get up out of the chair, face my Bain de Soleil SPF 4 washing off (the horror!) and supervise much more closely. Which I do, don't worry.
But her other big breakthrough is that she has finally glommed onto "our" humor, the humor that rules our family. I read a book once called "Habits of Healthy Families" or something similar, and one of the "habits" of the healthy happy family was "family jokes" or "shared humor." In our family, much of that comes from laughing at another member of the family. We all take turns being the one laughed at, although our mom usually dominates this exalted position.
Before, Flipper HATED for us to laugh at her, the things she does and says. But as any human that has spent more than about 5 seconds around a young child, you know the sheer impossibility of trying NOT to laugh. We fail at it often, and her response, depending on her mood, is usually not a happy one.
But this week...it all changed. We made my father very happy by watching his favorite musical of all time, South Pacific. What, none of you have a favorite musical? Just my father?
Flipper watched most of the movie quietly, got up a few times to present her own "interpretive dance," a dance that had no connection to anything happening onscreen, and we all had to promise not to laugh. I failed. But, then, this morning, she spontaneously imitated Liat, the young lover of Joe Cable ... and Kathryn and I have never laughed harder in our lives. She gets it.
Even if we are, indeed, laughing AT her and not WITH her...it was and is hilarious. She is OK being laughed at! She isn't taking herself so maddeningly seriously! She'll go far in this world, I am convinced, when she can laugh at herself and, to some degree, play to her (captive) audience.
This will be one of those things that we will remember, imitate and laugh about for a long, long time to come. Like the fact that my dad has a favorite musical. Below..."Happy Face." Not seen: us, choking back hysterical laughter, tears running down our faces.
Leigh appears every Monday on TriangleMom2Mom. Read more about Leigh at Flipper and Me.
Leigh Sparacino
Leigh is a TriangleMom2Mom featured blogger, appearing every Monday.
Leigh grew up in Durham, attended college in North Carolina, left the area for an island off the coast of Georgia, the high mountains of Colorado, and her favorite mountains in western North Carolina, before returning to the Triangle eight years ago. She lives near Carrboro with her 4.5-year-old daughter Flipper and two dogs. She is single in marital status only, surrounded by friends, family, and her daughter's very involved and loving father. She works part-time and tries to be as involved as possible in her daughter's school, The Emerson Waldorf School, where Flipper is a kindergartner. She likes wood, glass and other natural materials for toys, loves the principles of Waldorf education and hates plastic. She might be the only person in the world with no TV and who hasn't been to a movie in 15 years, but races to the mailbox every Saturday for the most recent issue of People magazine. In other words, a contradiction. Or just human.
