When they are not shitting me to tears with extreme public tantrums, slapping each other on the head & running for their lives, creating masterpieces of art on furnishings (what's with their paper aversion? And why is it always with markers or nail polish?) my darling little comedians can have me in stitches.
The Wondertwins, Lily and Grace, at 3 years of age, have been working on their comic routine. They still like their poo poo and wee wee and bum jokes (well, who doesn't?) but I've started to get little glimpses of more sophisticated humour.
Lily: Knock knock, Gracie.
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| Grace & Lily, my funny space aliens. |
Lily: Banana.
Gracie: Banana who, Lily?
Lily: Carrot.
Fits of 3 year old laughter.
Gracie: Knock knock, Lily.
Lily: Who is dere, Grace?
Grace: Lemon.
Lily: Lemon who?
Grace: Just lemon, Lily. That's all.
It took Ella a while to cotton on to the idea of Knock Knock jokes. About 6 or so years. We'd give her examples of them:
Tim: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?
Tim: Lettuce.
Me: Lettuce who?
Tim: Let us in our feet are freezing.
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| 2 men walked into a bar...no, wait...it was 3 men & they...no, wait...a man and a horse walked into a bar...& something happened... but I can't remember. But it was funny. |
So Ella would try.
Ella: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?
Ella: Aunt.
Me: Aunt who?
Ella: Let us in our feet are freezing.
and...
Ella: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?
Ella: Doctor.
Me: Doctor who?
Ella: Let us in our feet are freezing.
It was obvious she had missed a very important developmental milestone - the acquisition of pun and play on words. I've worked with hearing impaired kids who had difficulty with jokes, particularly those that have the manipulation of words, sounds and homonyms. Funnily enough, Ella is extremely strong in literacy - but is just one of those kids who took a hell of a lot longer to grasp humour and hold on to it.
But with the twins, I'm fascinated daily with their language growth.
In the car they like to play 'I Spy'.
Lily: I spy, my little guy, someping aginning wiv train.
Grace: I spy, my pretty eye, somepink aginning wiv green and it's a tree.
We're getting there.
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| I spy two cuties. |
The other day, unprompted (OK, she's heard Audrey try a million knock knocks before, but unprompted on this day) at the table we had from Matilda:
ReplyDeleteKnock Knock
Who's there?
Moo
Moo who?
Moo-tilda
Hysterical laughter, she knew she'd been funny! Just turned 2. Natural comic. Doesn't take after me, that's for sure, I'm with Ella.
Hilarious! And very clever!
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