For Halloween this year, Sam will be a cowboy. This choice of costume wasn’t inspired by my interest in the West—I’m not foisting spurs on the boy so he can enact Charlie Goodnight driving a herd up to McKinley Pkwy. Sam came up with this all by lonesome…well not quite all alone.
The first time Sam really laughed, a true belly laugh at something in the world rather than from a belly full of gas, his father mimicked Woody from Toy Story by pointing his fingers at him and saying, “Reach for the sky”. It’s hard to resist your baby’s first belly laugh…And I did try…this all seemed a bit politically incorrect…playing fake guns with a baby? Suddenly I wished Sam had picked up a Barbi (she's not all that anorexic, right?).
Regardless of my resistance, this little pantomime kept evolving especially when the Rec Teacher at Hopevale gave my father a Woody hat to give to Sam. Dave found an old hat…good theater needs costumes.
Then Sam learned to point and say "pow" and when he did any adult he pointed to would fall down even Holly the church toddler group leader gave an Oscar worthy performance at the park (I’m not sure how she stands on guns or Barbi). The falling down routine was big fun at the lake when Uncle Billy and Gram would fall and kick and splash.
All the while Sam laughed, Sam studied especially his Uncle Ken’s performance which involved an “Uh, you got me”, a grasp to his belly, folding over, then down on his knees and splat.
After learning from all these great performance my boy developed his own sketch and whenever anyone would shoot him—he circled a small area and said, “Uh”, then folded over, fell down on his bum and splat. One day he put his swim shorts on his head. It’s the first time Sam made me laugh—a big grown up laugh—not from parental joy, happiness nor condescension just someone did something hilarious. It’s hard to resist your mom’s first big belly laugh…he didn’t even try to resist.
Now, his dad has taught him different stunts…like what to do when you get shot in the bum. Sam grabs his bum and says “Uh, Uh, Uh” or his toe which he picks up and tries to hop while holding one foot.
And whenever I start to worry that all this fun will lead to a propensity to guns, I think of what my departed children’s/high school acting buddy Cooper would have said to me, “He made you laugh.”
There are two more new entries, so scroll on down.
