seriously!

One of my current favorite Benny-isms:  "Daddy... laugh, seriously!"

Laugh, seriously? 

At first glance, this would seem like a classic oxymoron... or is it?

I'm not sure where or how Ben added "seriously" to his vocabulary, but he latched onto it somewhere.  Whether he understands its meaning is debatable... likely not, I suspect.  This sentence is really the only place I have ever heard him use it.

Following this sentence is an artificial Benny belly laugh, modelling what he wants me to do.  He will repeat the sentence and the artificial belly laugh as long as it takes for me to imitate the artificial belly laugh... not just once, but multiple times.

Inevitably, at some point during this repeated exchange of requesting me to "laugh, seriously", artificially modelling it, and my artificial imitation, the artificial belly laugh turns into... well... serious laughter.

Oxymoron?  I think not.  There it is... we are laughing, seriously.

Benny most likely has no idea how profound his apparent oxymoron really is, but he knows he seriously likes to laugh.  And, I think he seriously likes to laugh with people around him.  And, in his innocence, he has a tendency to make people everywhere "laugh, seriously".

Thanks for the laughs Benny!  I love that about you... seriously!