I have a new favorite audience, and "yes" he is a drooling baby who can barely see in three dimensions. Nonetheless, he smiles or giggles at everything I do - even the stuff I copied from Carrot-Top. Benjamin's new awareness is beginning to restore my faith in the brochure-like talking points that our friends with kids were trying to sell us on. "Oh, it's the best thing you'll ever do in life!" "Oh, it'll just melt your heart the first time they smile at you." "Oh, being a parent is so rewarding."
Notice all of the "Oh's"? Some intelligence handbooks would tell you that when someone starts a sentence off with words like "Oh...Well...You know..." - they are lying.
All deception aside, I do have to say that getting a full ear-to-ear grin from Benjamin can convert my mood from "crappy" to "yeehaw" in an instant. And like Lay's potato chips, you can't have just one. I'll sit there from 3-20 minutes just making stuff up to keep his smile streak going. Benjamin enjoys such hits as: sticking tongue out, zerberts on the belly, freestyle nursery rhyme raps, synonyms, antonyms and repeating the word "boogie".
His reactions are priceless too. If I try something new on him, his first reaction is a wide-eyed look with a furrowed brow. It's the kind of look that makes me think he's saying, "What kind of witchcraft is this?! How are you sticking your tongue out so quickly!?!" After this mild look of panic, he becomes ecstatic and all of his limbs flail around as if they were controlled by three out of sync puppeteers - even if I tried I can't get my body to move that chaotically and random. Then he looks at me with a sense of, "What else you got?" So I do the same bit again and again until I get bored of doing it.
And the way I really know I'm doing a good job is when I hear applause coming from his diaper. I've never made someone poop their pants at an improv show, but I have in my living room. But then I had to clean it up. Makes you wonder who had the last laugh.
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