The Giggle Bug Cure-All

I do the whole "cranky" thing well. (Go with your strengths, right?) So when I got hit with a massive sinus headache last night, had it prevent me from sleeping all night, and then got up feeling miserable, I had to physically keep myself away from my family so my crankiness would not rub off on them. One cranky person out of five is not so bad, but five cranky people all stuck inside one house on a frigid day is not something to be attempted lightly.

I managed to take a nap just after lunch, and woke up feeling a bit less cranky, although still headachy, so I declared the afternoon to be "Movie Afternoon" and put on a movie to watch with my kidlets.

Pig Jr. decided he was less than thrilled with my choice of movie. He plunked himself down on my lap and started arguing about why he should not have to watch it. (My response? "So don't watch it. Nobody's forcing you.") For some reason, his four-year-old mind considered that to be a challenge, and I tickled him instead of trying to come up with some bizarre form of logic that would make him give up his arguments.

The next quarter of an hour was filled with tickle attacks from both parties, and attempts of a forty-pound kidlet to try and tackle me. I guess nobody ever told him that wrestling maneuvers are better suited for people more equally matched in size and weight. Pig Jr. was giggling the whole time. He found it hysterical when Mommy grabbed both of his hands and made him clap. He thought it amusing when Mommy tickled his neck. He thought it entirely unfair that I was able to stop his attempts at wrestling, pouncing, tickling, and other giggle-inducing maneuvers, but that did not stop him in the slightest. For those fifteen-ish minutes, my little Giggle Bug threw himself wholeheartedly into his energetic play. He only stopped when I realized it was shower time for him and he went to go get cleaned up and into his pajamas.

It strikes me as ironic that I was trying to avoid my family so my crankiness would not wear off on them, yet the contagious part wound up being the silly antics of my adorable son. I love that boy.