Make 'em Laugh

I've come to feel that good parenting is often about timing and rhythm. In that way it's like being a good comic; you know when you have an audience's attention and interest. In the same way, I know when my baby is bored or frustrated with whatever I'm doing; he lets out an exasperated sigh or, if really fed up, just starts yelling. (I try to anticipate those moments and time activities so that he doesn't reach the point where he's lodging a full-throated protest, though it's not always possible.) And conversely, when I'm able to make him laugh, he laughs with his whole being, his eyes shining, the chuckles erupting out of him in a delightful, infectious manner. Watching me throw towels over the curtain rod in the bathroom, then pull them off again, struck him as hilariously funny today. That loosened up what was becoming a tense situation in which he was holding something he shouldn't (the cell phone, I think) and I was trying to get it away from him. He's a great audience at this point; although what he's going to laugh at is rather unpredictable. But sometimes my job as a parent is just, make 'em laugh.