Yes, they are laughing at me...

Being a father is comical at times.  Some of the things my children do makes me laugh.  Some of the things I do makes them laugh.  Now they think it funny.  Later they will find it embarrassing, which in turn amuses me.

Yes, I still like the Muppets.  Actually, I still love the Muppets.  At thirty-six years old I still laugh so hard at the Swedish Chef that I nearly cry.  Ashley simply looks at me with a confused expression, rolls her eyes, and laughs at me.  I have fun.  And so do my children.

I am easily amused obviously.  I will see something and start laughing.  My children will laugh too, only they are laughing at me and not whatever it is I find so funny.

Take last night for example.  I was surfing the web and started watching the Muppets.  I watched "Mahna Mahna," which everyone knows I love.  I got caught walking in the grocery store one day singing it, without my children.  I walked around a corner from one aisle to another and was face to face with a woman who was laughing at me.  She thought it funnier when she realized I didn't have a kid in tow. 

Anyway, back to the story.  Hannah, Riley and Cooper take after me some because they love it, too.  I can't watch just one Muppet video.  I had to find more.  I watched a newer video with them singing Bohemian Rhapsody.  Holy smokes, comedy gold.  I only wanted to see one part, though.  I chuckled through the video until it got the the Swedish Chef unintelligibly uttering his lyrics.  I started laughing so hard I had tears.  Riley and Cooper, and Ashley, were not amused by the video but by my reaction.  They laughed at me, and not with me.  If you haven't seen it yet, see it.  You will not be disappointed, I promise.
  
I hope my kids get my sense of humor.  Ashley as a great sense of humor, but I hope they take after me.  The most juvenile things still make me laugh.  As old as I feel some days, I like it I can still find humor in ridiculous and mindless things.  Secretly I think Ashley likes it too.

I want my children to remember their father not just as the guy who dished out the discipline when they misbehaved, but also as someone they could laugh with, or in this case, laugh at.  I want to create as many memories as I can before they are too old and think I'm not cool. 

One day they will be embarrassed when their friends are over and I am laughing like a little girl while watching Phineas and Ferb.  Now they find it funny.  Later, not so much.  Cooper will shield her face and hurriedly move her friends into her room while trying to ignore me and instruct them to do the same.  Hannah will plead with me to not say or do anything dumb before she introduces me to some boy she is going out with.  I, being the father I am, will say something ridiculous just to see her reaction.  Riley will actually be in luck because I will probably have been admitted to a home by her sisters by the time she is old enough to have friends over.

Maybe I should video some of this stuff so I can use it later.  Then my children will always know how funny their father was and they can have repeated laughs at my expense.  And, they can be embarrassed.