We have laughed so hard before at……..
oh a wide variety of our own mistakes, and blunders. Maybe something was said, a story was told , a memory shared or one of us did something goofy.
Nobody does it better than Mom when it comes to laughing at oneself.
She was often silly and game for anything. She did not let the fact that others may think an action or comment wasn’t as funny as she did, stop her.
Mom laughing at herself always causes me to laugh and then once two people start laughing (at anything really) it is hard to remember what the original trigger was that started the laughter. Thats just fun.
Mom has told us about an” album” that Uncle Hap had, with various sounds of people laughing and when you listen to it you can not help but join in. Mom, Dad, Aunt Jay and Uncle Hap would listen and laugh …. the kind of laughing that makes your eyes water and your cheeks hurt. Even as she tells the story of the times they listened to it, she smiles and giggles and sometimes actually laughs out loud. Thats fun too.
Did you ever see that scence in Mary Poppins where they are all laughing and it causaes them to float up to the ceiling, well laughing does raise you up. There is a lot of research that says so . I heard it was just as good as crying, releaseing the same hormones/endorphins.
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One of my all time favorite memories of mom laughing at herself was the day we took the kids on the paddle boats in the duck pond at the zoo.
Katie jumped in the boat. Megan was old enough to paddle and wanted to paddle the boat with me. Mom had already started getting in the front seat.
“Ma’am you will need to sit in the back corner so it will be balanced.”
He said this while he was standing with one leg on the dock and one leg holding the paddle boat. (Haha)
By now Mom was already in the boat and decided to step through the middle of the seats to take her spot in the back.
She was in her mid 60’s and fairly agile. Keep in mind, these paddle boats are relatively small.
As she stepped between the bucket seats , Megan hopped in the front. Mom had hit her foot on, I’m not sure what , but we figured it was probably the back of the seat.
She lost her balance and went toppling , it was almost a slow motion scene really but in a flash there was a splash and she was hanging onto the paddle boat half in (one arm and one leg) the boat and the other half (the other arm and leg) in the water.
Immediately I jumped in to the paddle boat to help her
” are you okay Mom,”
“oh ya I’m fine I just don’t want to get any more of me in this duck poop water. “. So realizing she was ok I was relieved and she started to giggle, so ….. I started to giggle.
The young man holding the paddle boat with his feet was not giggling nor was he helping, too hard for him to help when he was trying to hold the paddle boat to the dock. That is really a bit funny too.
Some people behind us waiting their turn in the boats we laughing with us and others were not.
We were laughing and trying to get her back on the boat and it really didn’t take long at all but it seemed like a a very long time as we were going through it but we laughed the whole time. It was very funny.
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Another time when Barbara and I were picking Mom up at the airport this was years ago, I think she was visiting Rob and family in Texas . As she was walking toward Barbara and I, she smiled and she had something red all over her teeth, I mean it was vivid red and a lot of it .. so we were laughing, literally laughing at her, and she kept smiling at us. She thought she was eating a slice of apple when really it was the red wax around a piece of Gouda cheese. “I thought that apple tasted bad ” So funny.
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I envy people who can make mistakes or do or say something stupid and still laugh about it. The ability to laugh at oneself, is truly a gift. Mom is better at this than anyone I know and thank goodness my kids have learned that from her.
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She does still laugh at herself but not like she use to. She may giggle now and then about something she said or thought but somethimes she gets upset and often times she will make a comment;
“thats so stupid”
She feels differntly about her mistakes now and most often they are not very funny to her. She still laughs and giggles and even makes funny comments but it is the laughing at herself that is gone.
I’m going to take over and we are going to laugh at me and my blunders, mistakes and silliness now.
Raising Mom 
good one……
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