Finding The Happy

Been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I thought I’d do a quick one before retiring for the night.

1) A new laptop

Tony got me a brand new laptop for our wedding anniversary. (Because nothing quite says I love you in our household like sparkly new technology. Ooh baby!) I’ve spent the greater part of last weekend and this week slowly migrating content across, getting the new laptop just so, and saying a quiet sayonara to The Brick that was Dell, and my netbook. (Remember netbooks? Yeah, it’s been at least 3 years which, in IT land, makes it an awkward teenager. But one that I still have a fondness for anyway.)

Several things to be thankful for – crazy end-of-year sales, enough disposable income to afford it, and the fact that I can now pass on two laptops to two families in temporary need of a means to do basic things like word processing and spreadsheeting. Yeah. I made that last word up.

2) Friends who pray

We received news to cause another mountain of anxiety early this week, but all it took were two discreet emails and I’ve been so touched by the conversations / sharing / notes / emails / texts of love, comfort and prayer that have come through. I hate waiting, but even though there is a weight on my family’s collective heart at the moment, it has already been lightened knowing that others are holding up the edges through thoughts and prayer.

3) A growing sense of humour

I have always loved Arddun’s laugh, because she has such a deep chuckle that grows into the most infectious belly laugh. She’s always found the oddest things funny. My bunny slippers. The sound of cracked pepper. My mother. (Heh!)

But lately, she’s started to appreciate pranks. She caught an episode of Raa Raa the Noisy Lion this morning, where Raa Raa was jumping out of bushes and roaring as his friends walk past, just to scare the dickens out of them. She thought that was ha-la-rious. The other day at the indoor playground in our local mall, a 5-year-old girl was standing on the hood of the bumblebee car and, with arms outstretched and hands curved into claws, went roaring like a dinosaur to her little brother.

As soon as that girl got down from the car, Arddun went straight to the hood, climbed up, and then roared for all her worth to nobody in particular. After which she chuckled to herself, before doing it all over again.

Then this afternoon, while scanning the aisles for real sunglasses for Arddun at Baby Bunting, I’d left Arddun at the play area behind the cashier… only to hurry back when I heard Arddun chuckling hysterically.

I arrived in time to see Arddun beckoning towards a fellow inmate playmate with her arms outstretched, for what I assumed was a cuddle. Or a roar. I couldn’t really tell. Because every time Arddun would amble towards this older kid with her arms outstretched (think Frankenstein here), the latter would back away with a worried expression on her face which would then set Arddun off in a fit of giggles. Like, roll-on-the-ground-laughing giggles. And then she’d get up and do it all over again.

I didn’t quite know what to make of it, but it was clearly making the older kid uncomfortable, so I told Arddun to stop freaking her new friend out for the fun of it.

I don’t know what goes on in her busy brain, but I love that she loves to laugh.