A Contagious Laugh

We are having Vacation Bible School at my church this week. We started yesterday (Sunday afternoon/evening), and are continuing in the mornings today (Monday) through Thursday. I am doing the crafts for preschool and kindergarten, and so all 3 kids are also participating. Kindergarten (with my oldest, Rebekah) is next door to the craft room, preschool (with my 2nd daughter, Reanna) is right down the hall, and the nursery (with my son, Ryan) is on the other side of the craft room. So I can often hear what all my kids' classes are doing. I haven't heard my daughters individually yet, but I can often hear Ryan. Laughing, cackling, giggling, and having a good old time!

He has a contagious laugh.

I can't help but smile when I hear his laugh (if not laugh outright myself). I've seen him make other people smile and grin too. Ryan has no idea he's doing it (at least, I don't think so), but his joy and glee at everything just cannot be held in, and others just can't help but smile at his enthusiasm and happiness. They sometimes don't even realize they're grinning right back at him.

Yesterday, at the end of VBS, my oldest got one of those blow-out party toys, where you blow hard into it and the paper curl straightens out and makes a horn sound. Well, I had picked up Ryan first and was holding him in my arms (he tends to run off in every direction at once if you let his feet touch the ground), holding Reanna's hand, and then we went to get Rebekah from her class. Then we began to walk out of the building while Rebekah blew her toy, making that party horn sound.

Ryan thought it was hilarious.

I stopped to talk for a minute with the resource room lady, trying to ignore my children while they continued to toot and laugh, and in the middle of a sentence, the resource lady just stopped and started grinning at Ryan. We totally lost track of our own conversation. Every time Rebekah tooted her party horn, Ryan cackled.

I continued down the hall, children in tow.

The pastor was at the end of the hall, saying hello to people and thanking the workers. We were still a few people away from him when, yes, Rebekah tooted her horn. Ryan threw his head back and gave a great big belly laugh. Everyone turned to watch him, grinning, as he continued to laugh with abandon.

What a ham. He's only 2 and a half right now. I don't know what I'll do with him when he starts realizing what he's doing. Isn't the 3rd/youngest child supposed to be the clown? Mine is definitely heading that way.

Fortunately, by the time we got to the car, Rebekah had blown out her horn completely, and it stopped working, so I didn't have to listen to it the whole way home. But every now and then, remembering Ryan's laugh, I just chuckled.

Contagious.