Symbiotic relationship

Ethan's favorite item to take hold of and bite down on is the knuckle where my thumb joins my hand. It seems to soothe his aching gums, but it also has helped me. I noticed that this morning my thumb was throbbing from arthritis. When Ethan put so much pressure (that kid has some serious jaws) on that joint, the pain went away. So while slobber was oozing out of his mouth and down my wrist, I let him continue to gnaw away at my finger. It felt nice.
The little man has also kind of figured out what gets a rise out of his parents. He knows that when he laughs, we love it. So he takes many opportunities - funny or not - to laugh. For example, he just thought that me dressing him in his Sunday clothes at 7 a.m. was hilarious. The kid giggled like there was some sort of inside joke that I didn't know about. My favorite is the courtesy laugh. We'll do things that used to get him to laugh (patty-cake with his feet, tickle-wickle) and he'll laugh before you actually do it like he knows he's supposed to laugh but it's really not that funny anymore.
Ethan has really become such a joy. For a few months there, I thought I might give him up for adoption. But now, he is a relaxed, happy baby. We sat at the DMV for more than 2 hours today and he just relaxed on our laps almost the entire time.