Sometimes I do this thing that's sort of a nervous sounding halfhearted laugh with a deep intake of breath at the end.

 I can't do it on command and I'm not even sure what brings it out, but it's one of those little things I realize I've done after I've done it.

 In fact, I just did it while leaving a message on someone's voice mail which is why I'm blogging about it now.

 The thing is...I hear my girls do it too.

They don't know they're doing it either.

It's very subtle.

 I have video of Mercede doing it when she was about 2 1/2 years old.

We were on our way home from a vacation in Florida, Matt was taking video while we were driving.

 He asked Mercede (I guess for the benefit of future generations), "Where did we go?"

 She replied in her cute little squeaky toddler voice with lots of enthusiasm, "To the Ho-shun!"

(The "ocean".)

 Her little brown legs were kicking in her car seat, she had little splotches of red under eyes from being in the sun every day for a week, and her blondish white curls were hanging in her face and Matt asked, "Who did we go with?" 

 She kept looking down at Summer, who was sleeping in her pumpkin seat beside her, as if she expected her to help list off the friends that we vacationed with.

 Then she looked into the camera and started listing them off, ticking her fingers as she went..."Um, Kewy (Kelly), Vawie (Valerie), Sonny, Bwee (Bree), Mawie (Mary), Sonny..."

 And it was at this point that she realized she said "Sonny" twice, so she hangs her head, laughs this sort of nervous laugh, breaths in deeply and then starts listing some more.

 When I witness either of the girls emit this crazy little mannerism it's like a weird time travel event in which I can hear myself do it, then I hear them do it and it's almost as if I'm looking in a mirror watching myself in the past but I'm obviously not because I was never that cute and I had braces and my nose was much pointier.