Sunday night and it was that time right after dinner and right before the boys needed to start getting ready for bed.  I was perusing through the stack of school papers that had been dumped on the table on Friday and quietly ignored.  Stapled to the back of a weekly newsletter from Cody’s teacher, a newsletter that was a week old mind you, there was a bright yellow piece of paper titled Me Math.

Crap.  Homework.  And it was already a week late.

I called Cody over and asked him to get his pencil.  While he sat and worked on his math I got out my aged spiral bound notebook that contains various items, one of which is eleven years of notes and thoughts for each Practice Thanksgiving I have ever hosted (except the first one, because at the time I did not realize I was starting a tradition).  Practice Thanksgiving this year is on October 12th.  Yes, that is this Saturday and I have not even counted up who said they were coming nor have I created the menu.

We worked quietly for a while, side by side.  When he was done, I asked him to go put his math folder in his backpack so it would not be forgotten come Monday.  Off he went, through the kitchen, around the corner past the couch with a sleeping dog, and into the entryway where I hope he tucked his folder into his backpack.  Then he came back through the kitchen toward me in a full on fit of giggles.

His giggles turned into a full on head-tilted-up-mouth-wide-open roar of a laugh.  He could not stop although he tried several times to speak, the syllables that found their way out were unintelligible.  It was contagious and I found myself laughing hard which, of course did not help matters.  Finally it died down and I was able to ask yet again what was so funny.

Apparently as he was walking past our dog Haley who was sleeping on the couch, he farted.  That in and of itself is a hilarious enough topic to cause a seven year old boy to fall into fits of laughter.  But it got better, for Cody’s fart was boisterous enough to wake the dog and cause her to stare at him wide eyed in complete surprise with a hint of panic.  Haley’s reaction to Cody’s passing of gas was the catalyst for his three to four minutes of uncontrollable laughter.

Just another reason I love raising boys…