There's nothing that can make me smile like Melissa with a case of the giggles. When she was a toddler, my mother called it "getting fractured". Most people crack up when they laugh. Lissa gets fractured.
There have been moments lately where she's come close to full out fracturedness. When I mentioned, conversationally, that I planned on naming my new laptop Miss Piggy (becuase it's pink) she looked at me with that, "are you kidding me?" look and cracked a grin but didn't get to giggling.
Then last week, she was singing along to a Weird Al song and she got to a lyric with one word she didn't understand. She sang, "You've got to squeeze all the something you can--" and I interrupted her and said, "Let me listen, I'll tell you what the word is" and I did and the word was Charmin and the lyric was something like, "You've got to squeeze all the Charmin you can, while Mr Whipple isn't around."
And she looked at me and said, "Charmin? Like toilet paper?" and I said yes and she got a little giggle going and said, "Why would you want to squeeze toilet paper?" and I explained and all was well.
But today? Oh today I got her fractured not once but twice.
First time was when we were at my mom's house. I was bemoaning these hot flashes that I've been having and saying that now I understand what she was on about all those years when she always complained about being hot. I said, "Mom, I'm turning into YOU!!!" and then I mentioned that I was also turning into my father. My father is known for making loud and random noises, often for no reason at all. He also has certain....signature sounds. I told my mom that this morning, when I got up, I had a nice long drawn out stretch complete with a nice long drawn out noise that ended with me going, "YAAAAAAAAR" and then I clamped my hands over my mouth because that's totally a Daddy noise.
Melissa heard that and burst into a fit of sidesplitting giggles that left her absolutely sparkling.
Later, I told her a story about my poor cat. The cat was on my lap, lying on her back, and I was petting her belly absently while reading something on the computer. I wasn't paying much attention to the petting of the cat. As I was petting her, I felt something crusty in her fur. She is a super long haired cat so stuff in her fur is an occupational hazaard. So I start working at this crustiness, trying to disentangle it from her fur, while still not taking my eyes off the computer.
I'm not getting anywhere with removing this whatever-it-is so I decide to take a peek and see what's going on.
And that's when I discovered I was fingering the poor cat's butt.
I'm not sure who was more traumatized, me or the cat. But Melissa sure thought it was funny. And that makes it all worthwhile.
