Thursday 17 January 2013

Joke of the Day

Two nights ago Noli had a fitful, feverish sleep.  She woke-up frequently and subsequently awoke me frequently for one thing or another – she was too hot, she was too cold, she needed a drink of water, she needed to go to the bathroom.  Fun stuff.
She’s full of surprises though and has a quirky sense of humour even when sick and half asleep.  In the middle of that fitful sleep, she woke me up and I was trying to decipher what was wrong.  Then she stopped me and asked, “What do you get when you cross a butterfly with a bunk bed?”
“Huh?”  It took me a good ten seconds in my semi-conscious state to realize that she was telling me a joke.  “A flying bed…” I replied.  “No?  I don’t know. What do you get a when you cross a butterfly with a bunk bed?”
“A moose,” Noli stated matter-of-factly before rolling over and going back to sleep.
I laughed and said, “Good one!”  It was a genuine laugh about the whole situation.  What a cutie!!  I reminded Noli of the joke in the morning and she corrected me (herself) and said, “No…you get an elephant.”  Okay.
I was reminded of an article I read shortly after Evie was born.  The gist of which suggested that the majority of parenting is hard, tiring and pretty much not very pleasurable.  However the moments, and the article stressed that they are often short moments, of joy provide such a high, that they offset the general experience of parenting which again is difficult and tiring.  The premise is that because the degree of joy experienced from these brief, infrequent moments are beyond the norm and therefore all the hard times which are usually more frequent and sustained are deemed worthwhile, insignificant and bearable.
I wasn’t a huge fan of the article.  It was trying to answer the question of why people become parents and do the things they do as parents given how difficult it is and I think it glossed over or ignored love and a sense of responsibility as prime motivators for good parenting (life isn’t all about immediate pleasure you know! But that’s a topic for another posting I suppose).  Nevertheless the article has stuck with me.
Put in context of that fitful sleep, just once out of the six or seven times that Noli woke-up was she not discontented or wanting something.  And each time I tried to make her more comfortable or give her what she needed because, well, because I love her and that’s what I’m supposed to do.  But that one time when she didn’t need anything from me and instead wanted to share her joke with me was enough to bring a smile to my face, warm my heart and cause me to fondly remember that night.

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