Giggly Boy

My youngest son is turning five pretty soon, and he's pretty precocious in all the right ways. He's not overtly destructive and is a true delight in our lives. Today I was sitting in "the big chair" in our family room, laptop on my lap, my eyes furrowed as I concentrated on a presentation that I was working on for a conference, when he mischievously came over beside me and climbed up onto the armrest of the chair.

Totally absorbed by what I was doing, I didn't really pay much attention, as he regularly comes over in this manner to see what I'm doing on the laptop. Well, much to my surprise, he leaned over as if to give me a kiss on the cheek and then started giggling. He pulled back, giggled some more, then leaned in again for another "kiss." He couldn't do it. By this time he had my full attention, and my presentation had to wait until I could figure out what he was doing.

I asked him what was going on, and he couldn't even answer me because he was giggling so hard. I thought maybe it had something to do with the fact that my face was somewhat scruffy, not having shaved since Sunday morning. But that wasn't it. It took me about thirty seconds more to divine that he was trying to give me a "zerbert" on my cheek, a skill he learned a few months ago.

At that point, I started giggling, too, which just made him giggle even more! He went in several times, even at my encouragement, but couldn't stop giggling long enough to actually zerbert me. While me and my little man were laughing really hard, my wife was wondering what was happening and I couldn't answer her very well. Finally, he composed himself just long enough to actually accomplish his task, which made him very happy and my cheek very slobbery. After that, he slipped off the arm of the chair and ran away.

It took me about five minutes to get focused back on my work. Very funny.

Children are truly a joy.