Laughter

I took my Daycare Family of four to Story Time at our local library yesterday. My little family is young, but getting older each and every day. My one-year-olds are now (almost) one and a half. My two-year-olds are two to three months away from turning three. My borrowed children are growing up.

None-the-less, I tend to feel like a brave warrior when I take them out on a group outing. Everything we do hinges on the (almost) three year olds willingness to walk and the 1-1/2 year olds ability to adhere to my expectations. Can I tell you just how amazing they are? I am and I will.

My little family-of-four and I go on many little adventures. A lot of them involve the library, all of them involve a fair amount of walking, some of them involve a playground and many times we have impromptu 'picnics' when we find ourselves off-site near lunch time. It keeps all of us happy.

Speaking of happy, let me get back to the reason that I started to write about our day ...

We have been to the library's Story Time several times lately. My 1-year-olds are the wild card. So very much hinges upon their ability to be still and quiet. They are awesome.

The last time we went, I thought that we may have to give Story Time a break. It was a little bit tense because one of my Little People did not want to be still. She is not yet 1-1/2 years old. Maybe I was expecting too much.

Then came yesterday.

Our story-teller was fantastic. She either has a very good reputation and people flock to listen to her read her stories or we were all a little stir crazy from the rain and clouds. She had a full house.

With a room full of kids, comes a great risk of a room full of noise. Yesterday's crowd had the potential to be quite loud. But do you know what happened instead? They laughed ...

It all started with our story-teller's reaction when her book "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" went off track and held many little-known verses and variations from the well known "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song that you are probably hearing in your head as I write.

Our story teller was very animated and humorous. Several children laughed when our story/song took an unexpected turn. With each new verse, came more laughter.

Laughter is contagious. One verse became funnier than the next. Laughter became the primary focus of this particular story. The laughter united our (very large) group.

You could feel the lasting effects of the laughter after the story was over. She segued into another song with "tapping sticks" so that the kids could all tap along. Each and every one of my Little Guys lined up to receive their tapping sticks and it simply made my heart sing, to watch them join in on all of the actions (my 1-1/2 year olds are wonderful observers but they don't follow the actions very often).

It was such an interactive and interesting experience. Our story-teller captivated her audience and we forged an out-of-story-time-experience with the laughter.

I walked out of the Story Room feeling lighter. One little story and one little person's infections, unbridled joy rerouted my day.

Laughter. I don't laugh long enough, loud enough or often enough. It felt wonderful to be in a room filled with laughter.

It does a person good to seek out laughter when life feels too heavy. What tickles your funny bone? I may go and check out some cat videos on YouTube when I feel that my smiling muscles are needing some exercise. Or maybe my most favorite comedian...

Happy Friday!! Let laughter find you and carry you through your day.