Perched on the edge of a guffaw

SO came up with the above phrase after dinner the other night when Sport and LegoGuy got the giggles and couldn't look each other in the eye without busting up again. They are so silly.

We laugh a lot as a family. Sitting down to our nightly dinners, I know it will only be a matter of time before LegoGuy tells us a new "Your mama is so stupid" joke and sends Sport into gales of laughter. We laugh at our dog Bella and her youthful hijinks. When I hear a song I like and start to dance, SO laughs. (He can't help it -- I am just so bad.) When we watch our favorite movies, like the Blair Thumb and Monty Python and the Holy Grail, we roll. When we play games like Pictionary Jr. or The Game of Life, we crack up. Laughing is part of who we are.

No, Gouldie, SO and I didn't connect through an act of violence, but through humor. One of the first things I noticed about him was his beautiful smile. And he was so hilarious! I had a number of requirements for the men I dated: they had to be smart, they had to be funny, and they couldn't be too tall. (Also, they couldn't be studying for the ministry, and I didn't care for blondes.) SO met all my requirements. I've known him for 20 years now, and he still makes me loose it.

Both boys have inherited their father's beautiful smile and love of all things hilarious. True, their timing is still off when it comes to telling jokes. I can't tell you how many Knock Knock jokes I had to endure before they finally graduated to another level of comedy. The thing about kids is, they'll grab onto something that's funny the first few times they tell it, then recite it over and over until your eye starts to twitch like Chief Inspector Dreyfus in The Pink Panther.

Sometimes they are funny without meaning to be. For example: after Sport lost a tooth, he asked me where the tooth fairy got all that money. "What do you think?" I asked. “She must be a Democrat,” he replied. Another time, I made a comment about our little mutt, who had aged to the point that she didn't seem like she'd be around much longer. "Poor girl, she's on her last legs," I said. "How many legs did she used to have?" Sport quipped.

And LegoGuy is just as funny. Recently, he was complaining about being hot. “Why are you so hot?” I asked. “It’s got to be these hemorrhoids,” he said emphatically. Hemorrhoids? “You know, those chemicals making me grow.” “You mean hormones!”

Yes, laughter is what makes it all worthwhile.