Laughing All the Way

Christian stayed over Sunday with us and he is pretty easy to entertain.  It was his first time in his memory to stay overnight so he was a bit unsure, especially at bedtime when he remembered mom hadn't said, "good night"when she stopped in after work.  He's a brave little boy and likes Gramma nearly as well as mom so he was okay with me staying with him while he went to sleep.  He seems to be a night owl so it took FOREVER for him to stop arranging the 50 or so stuffed animals on the bed, and finally lay still.  (This was 'change back to standard time' day so I hoped he would fall asleep 'early'.) HA.  Anyway, finally I looked over and his eyes were closed so I was hopeful.  However, he spent a good five minutes 'mining for gold' in his nose, eyes shut, before he was out.  Then I went to bed and didn't wake up for good until 6:00 which is 7:00 DST and a miracle since I've been waking up before 5 and not going back to sleep. 

Mom was going to pick him up after she got off work so he was still going strong in the late afternoon and about 5 pm, when it starts to get dusky with this new ...er... back to old time, he wanted to go outside.  So, we did.  I bundled up, pulled on socks and sweat pants, zipped my hoodie up to my chin and tied the hood.  So, we went out, and it was NICE.  So, I took off the hood and we wandered around, and then Christian ran around and then wanted to play.  I discovered there is NO BALL in this house.  I guess I will have to buy one.  We tried to play catch with a tiny foam traffic cone, but that didn't work.  So, I dug out a skipping thingy.  You put the circle around your ankle and twirl it around, and with one leg keep it going round and round and skipping over it with the other.  We used to do that with jump ropes.  We would tie the thing together around our ankle and go to it. I suppose they have a name, I could look it up.

But, I digress. 

The special deal about this thingy is the ribbon on the bottom can be pulled out a couple of yards and then with the push of a button, 'slurp', it goes back in.  The boys love it.  So,  C and I spent a HALF HOUR pulling it out and slurping it in.  I would hold the end and he would run until it quit and I would let go and 'slurp', it went back in, and he would laugh and laugh.  I'm figuring four times a minute, maybe?  It was the most inane thing to be doing, pulling and slurping over and over again.  It wasn't all that funny, but I got to laughing just over his enjoyment over the whole process.  He'd be sober as a judge until, "slurp" and then laugh hysterically and then I'd laugh. It makes me grin just to remember it.  

Ummm, they are basically called 'ankle skip ropes'

I looked it up.  

PS. I tried it around my ankle, and lets just say, I hope none of the neighbors were watching.