Making Monkey Faces

When was the last time you had the giggles? Gut-busting, goofy - "I can't breathe!" - fantastically silly giggles?

Living with a 12-year-old, I've witnessed more than my share of giggle fits in the last two months, but I seldom joined in. Maybe it was the stress of moving and adjusting to new places, new faces, new workspaces. Maybe it's my home life, which has been challenging me to be a very patient, flexible person these days. Whenever the seemingly unremitting laughter would break out afresh, I generally grumbled to myself, "Damn! Is this what my mother had to put up with when I was 12? She should be made a saint!"

Then, one night, Friday night, my birthday night, to be exact, that all changed. I was hanging out with Nastya (on the left), Oxana (on the right), and Yulia (not pictured) in Nastya's room. We were knitting and just sort of lounging around. The little girls were taking turns making faces at each other and trying to make each other laugh. Good fun. My ears were ringing with the natural mirth of youth.

In fact, it suddenly reminded me of a little game my brother and I used to play called "Monkey Face". It's not a very complicated game, really. It consists of staring very seriously at one another with one's lips pooched out. The point is to laugh last. I quickly explained the rules of this game to the girls, and a new era in giggling had begun.

For the rest of the night, they played Monkey Face (we're talking hours, here). Every time the game ended, they begged me to join in. How could I resist? I'm not ashamed to say that I giggled like a 12-year-old. Then, the next morning at the breakfast table, I caught Yulia's eye, made the Monkey Face, and it was all over. Even my host dad joined in (behind my host mom's back, which was even funnier). My host mom kept muttering, "Quiet, girls. Quiet at the table," and when her back was turned, my host dad would make the Monkey Face and the room would ring with peals of laughter, mine included.

Laughter, the elixir of life. Thanks to my little brother, when life gives me lemons, I've got a Monkey Face to make.