I've mentioned my children's lack of joke telling ability before. This is not to say that they are lacking humor. Oh, no. The joke telling thing is something I'm afraid I passed down to them.

See, I can hear a really great joke. "Oh! That's a great one!" I tell myself, and I promptly shove it into my brain, where is balances on top of a stack of crap collected over the last few hundred years.

If I tell this joke within 1.25 minutes after hearing it, I have a good shot at telling it right. Otherwise, my brain starts messing with it. I sort-of have a little problem with embellishing. I like to add a bunch of little 'extras' to make the joke 'better' - fatal mistake number one. As I retell (and embellish the crap out of) the joke, I often get swept away in my narrative. A confused look on the face of the person I've cornered for joke-repeating purposes signals that it's time to bring it on home. I stretch my little brain towards the punchline. If I actually remember the punchline, I start giggling and ruin the effect. I get a weak 'oh, ha ha' from my captive audience. If, as is more usual, I remember how the joke ends, but not the punchline, I try to wing it. Disaster. Another joke lies massacred at my feet, while the person I'm trying to amuse laughs AT ME.

To hear me tell it, I'm super funny. Known for my sense of humor, in fact. Just not for my joke telling ability, okay? So it isn't all that surprising that my kids can't tell a joke to save their lives.

Last night, I was showing my oldest a bunch of websites about hamsters. She's had this idea that she wants me to help her build a website about hamsters. I poo-poohed this idea, and decided to do a little web-surfing to show her that there are already many sites about hamsters. Another website about hamsters? I just don't see how that is needed. (Says the woman who just co-launched another site for mommybloggers...I clearly could be wrong here, but I'm just not feeling the hamster thing.)

Anyway. After squashing that dream, we stumbled across a kid's site with jokes! Wooo! I began to read through some Thanksgiving jokes. All punchlines were met with silence. "How is that funny?" my girl wanted to know. I found myself trying to explain, which kills a joke dead. "Oh, you know. Turkeys say gobble? Right? Huh? Gobble?"

Help. Us.

My girl then tried her hand at Thanksgiving jokes. "Mommy, why did the turkey run away from the pilgrims? Because he didn't want to get eaten! Get it, mom? Get it?"

I pulled her into a hug. "Oh, honey. You're just not a good joke teller." (Hi! Mother of the Year - special jury prize for crushing egos!)

"I know, M-O-M. I just keep trying, every day." She smiled sadly.

"I know, honey. Maybe you're just too funny for jokes."

"Yes. And I know everything about hamsters."

"You really do, sweetheart. You're the hamster expert."

"That's why I need a website."