Overheard at the Chamber of Commerce trick-or-treat yesterday. :

5-year-old boy dressed as spiderman: (pointing to 10-year-old boy in a giant inflatable skin-coloured suit) Look, Mommy, he�s supposed to be a fat man!

Mommy: Shh! We don�t say fat. That�s not a nice word. We say �sumo wrestler.�

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I swear to you that I did not make up the above. The exchange took place directly behind us in line between a boy who was in AJ�s preschool class last year and his mom. This was unfortunate, because I almost hurt myself trying not to laugh.

Lately, AJ has been the source of jokes that make us laugh, not just because we think his sense of humor is funny (e.g.: his series of jokes based on the model of �What�s white and can�t climb a tree? A refrigerator.�: What�s blue and can�t climb a door? A book! What�s brown and can�t climb the ceiling? My shoe! Etc.) but because his jokes are funny. He�s suddenly developed a much more sophisticated sense of humor (well, perhaps that�s pushing it a little). He�s now able to engage in wordplay in a way that he hasn�t before. Today AJ and his dad were talking about how many people fit into assorted sporting events. �How many people watch football?� asked AJ and dad rattled off the seating capacities of assorted stadiums (stadia?). �How about baseball?� and then �How many people watched the White Sox win the World Series?� (because the Cardinals have made no impression on him whatsoever). Then he asked, �What about tennis?� He grinned and answered his own question: �Is it TEN?� I know this probably doesn�t seem that funny to you, but it�s a different kind of joke than he�s been able to make up previously, which is to say, not real jokes at all but instead surreal juxtapositions..

Yesterday he and I were playing Sorry!, a board game with sections for each of a maximum of four players. Our cat Mrs. Stein lay down on one of the sections and I was using the one next to it. AJ was trying to figure out which of the sections on the far side of the board he wanted to use. Suddenly he grinned and shifted to the space across from me. �I�m going to play here because then I�ll be KITTY-corner from Mrs. Stein.� There were giggles all around.

Still, I don�t think there�s anything funnier than grownups who are deadly earnest. I�m sure I fall into that camp myself more than occasionally. That�s why it�s good to be reminded once in a while how ridiculous we sound. Now if you�ll excuse me, after yesterday�s Halloween candy binge, I�m going to have to go and wash my sumo wrestler pants so I have something to wear today.

[Click back if you missed pictures of AJ in his own Halloween costume. Hint: He is not dressed as a sumo wrestler.]

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