Arms

So, the other night Sami was in our bed and in the middle of the night she had a whimperfest where it is one of those where she's semi-coherent but not enough so for you to actually reason with her? And it went on for like 10 minutes which in the middle of the night is 3 hours.

The next morning after we'd been up for a bit I asked her about her hard time in the night (that's what we've taught her to say to help her express when she's having problems controlling her emotions); asked her what was going on and such.

Me: Honey, you had a very hard time in the night.

Her: Yeah.

Me: Do you remember what was bothering you so much?

Her: I didn't know where to put my arm.

Me: (Huh?) Oh! What do you mean?

Her: I didn't know where to put my arm.

I dropped it for then. And then about 20 minutes later I thought I'd try again to see if I could glean a little more detail.

Me: So honey, when you had that hard time in the night what was it again that got you upset?

Her: (consistently) I didn't know where to put my arm.

At this point I figure she's just having a difficult time articulating the problem. So a couple hours later I asked again and got exactly the same answer. Which was totally amusing me. So I shared the story with her father.

Him: (nonchalantly) "Oh. I had a time I remember--it was for like a whole day--when I was about 8 or 9 or so I guess, where I didn't know what to do with my arms. So I kind of know what she means."

Me: (with giant wide open eyes sensing a bit of insight into the inner-workings of his mind) Hm.

Him: (apparently feeling encouraged by my stoic interest in the story because I'm not smirking...yet) Yeah. It was like, 'My arms! What do I do with them!?' It felt like they were just kind of dangling there and in the way and I didn't know what to do with them.

Me: BRAW-HA-HA... what?!?! What are you talking about?

Him: (sensing I've ambushed him by playing along straight-faced only to get to the really funny part) Well....

Me: Okay. Wait. You didn't know what to do with your arms? What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Him: I just didn't.

Me: But just for that day?

Him: I guess.

That's just the sort of thing that amuses me no end. I laughed about it then. I laughed about it about 4 more times that day when it would come into my head as I went about my housework. I laughed about it when I related it to my sister on the phone. I have continued to laugh about it even as I type it here.

Last week as I'm driving to an after work party at my boss's boss's boss's house in a loaner car because mine is in the shop:

Me: (calling home from my cell) Hi. I was just driving to the party in this loaner car, and it is making me crazy.

Him: Why?

Me: Because I'm so used to my manual transmission car, and in this automatic I don't have to shift and I find I don't know what to do with my arm. BRAW-HA-HA.

Him: I'm glad I provide so much amusement to you.

Me: Me too. Thanks. I'll be home early. Love you.

Him: Good bye.