A legacy of sillies

So this morning I was running late, and zipped into the kitchen to grab some breakfast for the road: a banana, a yogurt, and a ziploc bag of mini-wheats. Hey, don't judge me, that's fairly well rounded. As I ripped open the new box of cereal something in the box made me stop and breathe, 'OOHH!'

My 19 yr old son (the older one) rounds the corner to the kitchen, all six beautiful feet of him, and stares at me, puzzled. 'What, Mom?'

My eyes alight, I hold up the treasure from the cereal box: a Star Trek flashlight thingy that LOOKS LIKE A COM BADGE. *cue heavenly music* I haven't been this thrilled with a box toy since I found the light-saber spoon in my younger son's Frosted Flakes.

Now this kid, er young man, is a tall, lean blond with a friendly face. He's a biker/skier/runner/hiker without an ounce of body fat on him. He's currently dressed in spandex or lycra or something like that - a form fitting, nicely put together ensemble of red & black including helmet and sunglasses. He looks like, well, a real bicyclist - you know, the serious ride-350-miles-for-the-hell-of-it kind. And that's exactly what he is. So this athletic stud stares at the thing I'm holding up in his face and...he giggles. At me or the toy, I don't know, but he giggled and I giggled, we giggled together.

That's what I love about my kids (well one of many things). I -LOVE- their sense of humor. These big tall men (the younger is 6'5") are funny as all get out. One day I made dinner with peas as a side. My younger son is picky about veggies (at least he eats them now, when he was a li'l guy he avoided anything green, unlike his brother who was and is a total health food nut). He moaned about the peas, I said something like "eat them!" and silence ensued. I was at the computer while he finished his dinner and soon I felt his presence behind me. I turned and he was standing there, holding out his plate. It was still full of peas, but they'd been herded into the shape of a frowny face. I busted up laughing, relayed the story to some friends online, and from then on when they asked about my kids, they'd ask how 'Frowny-Peas' was doing.

When they were little guys, they were always doing interesting and funny things. They were 3 & 5 when I let them play with spices & stuff in the kitchen. There were like little mad-scientists. Next thing I knew they were trying to make a bomb in the heater vent using baking soda and curry powder (hey, it smells powerful). I couldn't get the aroma of curry out of my house for weeks. The older one took up calling the younger one "butthead" briefly till we told him he couldn't say that - so he made up his own word, something like "pingkonk" which he used for quite awhile when perturbed. I have pictures of them running around with balloons shoved up their shirts and down their pants - they looked like hunchbacks with huge badonkadonks, it was hysterical.

One day, as I collapsed in giggles at some antic, I asked 'Where did you get those sillies?' My youngest pointed at me and said, 'We got them from YOU!'

It's the highest compliment I've ever received.