Chuckles

People are starting to ask me whether the babies’ personality differences are becoming more apparent. We don’t want to label and stereotype them for their future years, so we don’t overplay the differences. There seem to be some though: Rhea, inquisitive and active from birth, has been the first one to crawl and to cut a tooth (two in fact). Lara, as mum has pointed out, looks at you so intently when you talk and makes noises in reply. She is almost talking back with her facial expressions. She is not as busy as Rhea and doesn’t smile quite as much at the moment, although strangers think she is the more outgoing one because she smiles at them, whereas Rhea looks alarmed when they poke their heads in her face. Lara scrunches up her nose when she laughs – better than Samantha from ‘Bewitched.’

Laughing is something they do a lot of, and they are amused by largely the same things. From around four months old they thought it was funny when we sang ‘The Hokey Pokey’ with them lying side by side, moving their arms and legs for the actions. This was (and still is!) a good party trick because it makes other people laugh to see their synchronised moves. The ‘Heel and Toe’ with accompanying actions is a good workout for Steve and I and the babies and looks suitably amusing for an audience. I also sometimes tease the babies by copying what they do, such as deep breathing, hiccups or sneezes. They are delighted to have these involuntary actions reflected back.

Now that they are nine months old we can play more and more games that amuse and distract them. We can throw them in the air repeatedly and catch them, and that usually gets some excited laughs. I can billow a sheet or towel over their faces as mum did to me when I was little on hot summer nights, and delight them as I was delighted (actually, it’s still quite fun!).

I can make one of their toys kiss them slowly then faster and faster on both cheeks, which I often do when they are grizzly at being changed yet again. Another change-table game is a song I made up that accompanies me manipulating their chubby bare legs after a nappy change, around and around and around and around, then running with a one-two-one-two-one-two. I’ve played that game from when they were only a couple of months old, and the baby awaiting her nappy change from her cot still smiles when she hears me playing it with the other one.

The unexpected also sometimes amuses them, like when we put Rhea in a stone cold bath on one of the hottest days of summer, and she squealed and laughed and shrieked with the thrill.

I can play more sophisticated games now too, like pretending to be incredulous at their being so high up in their high chairs while I am on the ground wiping the floor of their food scraps. I can hide and reappear, and now they ‘get’ that. I call them ‘ragamuffins’ when they wriggle or get up to mischief (Lara was a larrikin but she didn’t find that as funny). ‘Are you a ragamuffin? You’re a ragamuffin. You’re. A. Raga. Muffin.’

Their favourite game though was developed by Steve. It involved first saying ‘raaaaaaaaaaa’ like a scary lion, while bringing your face up close. They don’t know that lions are scary so they think that’s hilarious (especially when they are tired!). Over time we refined that game so that now we also bite their clothed bodies gently while we are being scary animals. This is a ripper of a game, and rewards us with deep, throaty chuckles.

We have lots of good laughs with the babies. I have my own laughing club with them, which makes me feel good too. And like they say in the child development books, you are your child’s favourite toy. Anything else, however expensive or fancy, is second-best.

The next stage, when they laugh with each other, will add another layer of fun. It has started already as they begin interacting with each other. From that to two little girls getting up to mischief together will be as much fun for us as for them.