The Catbird Seat

You’re probably wondering what “Cinderella”’s mice and meerkats have to do with each other.

They make Elizabeth laugh so hard that her eyes water and squint closed.

Don’t ask me why.

Actually, I think it has to do with the scampering.

I first noticed it while we were watching the beginning of Cinderella when Jacques (the mouse) distracts Lucifer (the cat) so that the other little mice can make a mad dash to the chicken feed that Cinderella is handing out in the backyard.

Jacques kicks Lucifer’s elbow out from under him, sending mean ol’ Lucifer face down in his milk. A frantic cat-and-mouse chase ensues. As does Elizabeth’s laughter.

I just can’t describe how hard she laughs over this. Wait, yes I can.

But I need to save it for the meerkat story.

Yesterday, a friend and I took our kids (4 total; ages 1, 2 & 1/2, 3, and 5) to the free movie at Regal Cinemas in Oviedo. Prior to the movie, they showed a piece from Animal Planet called “Meerkat Manor.” It was basically a fun, yet educational, look at the behavior and habits of meerkats.

From the time Elizabeth saw the first meerkat, she was laughing. She started with a giggle. Which made me laugh. The more they showed those black-eyed meerkats, the more she laughed. And the more we laughed. (Michelle and me.) She would barely get her breath, and then a scene of meerkats running across the savannah would be on the screen, and she’d lose it all over again.

I’m not kidding. She laughed so hard and loud and contagiously that I couldn’t hear what the narrator was saying about those darned meerkats. She laughed so much that the lady in front of us turned around to see the baby that was laughing so much. And then the lady laughed. And then Elizabeth squealed with laughter again.

And then I laughed so hard I was practically crying.

I don’t know if the sheer size of the meerkats (remember that it was on the BIG screen) contributed to her laughing fit, if she was so tired that she was “giddy”, or if it was more of the “scampering rodents make Elizabeth laugh” thing, but I have truly NEVER in my life heard a baby laugh that much. About anything.

So here’s the description of Elizabeth watching meerkats:

She is consumed by her laughter. It bubbles and trickles and sprays out of her like the water shows at Epcot or Sea World.

I wish I could’ve recorded it on an MP3 player and attached a sample. It’s almost unbelievable how much she laughed.

You’re probably now wondering what otters have to do with this.

Nothing, actually, except that I was hoping to find a video at the public library that had small scampering animals in it; my thought was that I might be able to recreate Elizabeth’s laughter for Paul to hear. The closest thing I could find was a DVD on penguins and otters.

So far the only thing that has happened from watching it is that I’ve learned that otters have more hair per square inch than most dogs have on their whole body. The densest hair of any animal, actually.

Oh, and I’ve learned that otters are so at home in the water that they rarely come to dry land. They even have their babies in the water. Not a lot of scampering in the ocean, I’m afraid. So much for the scampering.

And for Elizabeth laughing.

We haven’t gotten to the penguins yet, so there’s still hope. Or I might have to order “Meerkat Manor” from Animal Planet. Either way, next time I’ll have my MP3 player at the ready.

(I just checked. It airs on Fridays at 8pm ET on Animal Planet)

Filed under: General, Catbird, Local Color, SAHM, Elizabeth on June 29th, 2006