The middle child...where do we begin?! The middle child is said to be a loner or not liking to take the limelight for anything. For purpose of this story...throw all those text book critiques out the window...this is no typical middle child!
Our Middle Child, who we like to call Miss Averie, is anything but loner. She may walk to the beat of her own drum...however, she strives for the limelight! For example, we will take our dinner this evening...
First of all, Averie, is our little greeter. Anyone and everyone who makes eye contact with miss thing gets a hi, hello, how are you greeting accompanied with a wave or tiny handshake. We call her the politician of the family...she does not blend in to the background! As we sit down for our nice Italian Cuisine (i.e. Fazoli's) this evening Averie jabbers away with her occasional intelligible speech/jargon run down of the sequences of her busy day. As we are listening intently to her conversation she slowly starts to get drowned out by the ever present limelight seeker we call Miss Halle. Sure enough Halle steals the show with her daily tales of school, soccer, and mean friend stories.
Please do not think...Oh, poor Averie she will make a lively comeback here in few short verses!
Halle proceeds to move the conversation to her favorite topic...Knock, Knock Jokes! Oh, the dreaded Knock, Knock Jokes! I am not talking laugh out loud KNOCK, KNOCKS....I am talkin the kind where you know you need to change the topic fast because it is the end of the day and there is only so much fake laugh gas left in your system! As you all know, when you do not laugh at one of these terrible jokes the water works will start and you will be comforting your child with...Of course I think your funny honey! Mommy just missed the ending or Mommy didn't understand what you were saying! And yes, by doing this I am only fueling her thoughts of...I am definitely the funniest person ever and my Mom is SO NOT the brightest crayon in the box! No win situation for Mom!!! So the knock, knocks continue...we are now on Knock Knock number 102!
While the jokes are coming one after another Averie starts to take part in trying to understand why everyone is laughing...not their normal laugh...but these strange cackles at Halle...
Side Note...So as you all have done before you hold your toddler on your hip with your hand cupped under their rear for support! Occasionally your child has a little gas and you make a funny comment to inform them...hey there, I know whats goin on down there! Well, in our family we like to say...Who's that knockin at your door? Does someone need out? And then we all giggle and move on! No harm, no foul!
Back to Averie! Averie's head, at this stage of the joke telling, is swinging back and fourth looking from Halle to myself. She is desperately trying to participate in this strange/exciting conversation between us but there is never a long enough pause for her to jump in! Then it happens...Halle says "KNOCK, KNOCK" and I say "WHO'S THERE?!" The pause...Averie has her chance and she jumps, full force, with matter of fact perfect timing..."DADDY'S POOPY!!!!"
Tears of laughter roll down our faces!!! She has to think we are the strangest beings she has ever come across! Here we are at the dinner table enjoying dinner and our poor middle child thinks we are talking about, what is by far, the grossest thing you could talk about at dinner time. To her Knock, knock, accompanied with a laugh, is referencing what happens after we digest our dinner...not something that occurs during!!
So instead of my middle child being an underachiever I would have to say she is by far an overachiever. She sat so patiently, processing the concreteness of our conversation, waiting for the perfect opportunity to show us her knowledge of our dialouge. How, you ask, does she do...she passes with flying colors STEALING THE LIMELIGHT AT THE PERFECT MOMENT!!!
