C'était une blague!

This is a common phrase in our household. Maïa learned it early on from a favourite character in a book: Binou. Binou is this tiny white cat (yes, cats again!) who has adventures that feed off his sense of humour. He hangs out with his friend, Toupie, an enormous mouse. The two are best friends (I guess the reversal in size evens out the playing field??). When Binou does something funny, it's usually followed by "c'était une blague".

If you know us at all, you know that we like to laugh. Derek's family is notoriously silly (read: Ken, his dad, is somewhere in the stratosphere of silly), and my family has been known to be a little crazy, too. So when we started to notice Maïa's sense of humour, we weren't really surprised. What has surprised me, anyway, is the precociousness of Solanne's sense of humour.

At twelve months, she really likes to joke around. When she's nursing, she'll pop off, look around, and then pretend to nurse off a shirt button or something, look up at me, and just laugh. She's making a joke; she's being silly. I really didn't know that someone so young could make jokes. But there it is: the infant "blague."

And the laugh! This is not just any laugh. It's the heartiest thing I've ever heard come out of someone so small. It's deep. It's from the belly. And it's hilarious. No one who has heard it so far can keep from laughing when they hear it.

One of Maïa'a favourite jokes is to hide in the kitchen cupboard (one we've saved just for the kids' use). If we don't immediately wonder aloud, "where's Maïa?" she prompts us. The game has become more elaborate, with us suggesting we get another Maïa at the store, Maïa jumping out and returning the pretend Maïa to the store... So now, Solanne has learned the joke. Today she got into the cupboard, closed the door, and waited...

And when I asked, "où est Solanne?" she opened the door, smiled up at me, and laughed. C'était une blague!