Jack has been really working on laughing out loud lately. At first, he'd only give a little grunt laugh when tickled around his collar bone. (In fact, I wasn't even sure it was a laugh the first few times I heard it. I thought it was more of a sound of discomfort and pleasure mixed together). Anyway, when you were lucky enough to get the laugh, he only had a few to give. Over the next couple of weeks it became easier to solicit a laugh with a tickle - now his underarms were a tickle spot as well. But still no laughing without being tickled.
Until last week. I was sitting on the couch with him just talking to him with him really concentrating on what I was saying. Of course he was smiling and cooing, which made me smile and chuckle back. Then all of a sudden he gave me a little laugh at some stupid mommy noise I was making. I continued to talk to him with a laugh in my voice to see if he'd mimic it. Sure enough, he was laughing right along with me. It was the most adorable thing to-date!!
These days, he has more laughs to give when getting tickled - and they sound more like laughs instead of cute grunts. He even has some force behind it now which gives him a bit of a chuckle. I got a precious video today of him laughing:
The laughing when NOT being tickled is still more infrequent which makes it even more fun to hear it when he decides something is funny. He REALLY loves being raised/lowered above your head and is brought just to the very edge of laughing every time but he never quite gets it going. Just a HUGE smile and some cute little coos.
Today Aaron was making his puppy give him kisses and apparently Jack thought it was hilarious! So there it was - the elusive non-tickle laugh! It's just adorable to watch him start expressing himself more and more.
Another thing to note is that Jack has really been talking lately. He has mastered the "ahhh" sound and loves to show it off. It's funny because he either doesn't do it, or does it a bunch of times in a row when looking at someone or something.