My son's first joke....

For mother's day, when my son was just about a year old, I took myself to the mall, made the rounds of the jewelry stores, and found myself a small mother-and-child pendant, so that I would have something that connected me to him during the day when I'm at work. Little did I know that his day care provider has the exact same necklace.

So when he began to play with it, I asked him, "Who is that?" It was rhetorical, of course -- I was fully prepared to explain to him that it was Mommy and Noah, and that I wore it because I miss him during the day -- but he had an answer. "CAR-CAR!" which is, of course, the nickname he calls his day care provider. "WHAT?" I replied. "It's not! It's Mommy! Mommy and Noah!" "It's Car-Car," he replied. This went on for some time.

When I told her about it later, she told me that she's had other parents really uncomfortable that she became a part of their child's mental life like that -- that she's actually lost children because the parents were a little too jealous of the love the child felt for this woman who cares for them all day. It made me a little sad, really, and I resolutely put aside any negative feeling I had about Noah associating the necklace with her.

It's been several months, and we still have the conversation. "Noah, who is this?" I point to my necklace. See, now he knows that he can make me nuts with his answers -- it's quite a game. "Daddy!" he yells. "DADDY? DADDY? It's NOT!" I shout back. "Now, seriously who is it?" "LUCY!" he cries, indicating the dog, of all things. "WHAT? That is NOT the dog! Who is it?" "Brother!" The list gets longer. He adds to it; I act as dramatically incensed as I can that he doesn't say that it's me, and then smother him with kisses in all his ticklish spots. And ask again. And very quietly, he whispers, "Car-Car!" and then tries to cover his entire body with his hands in preparation for the onslaught, and snorts with laughter.

His first joke. At my expense. I feel so special.