I got the best gift ever this year when my 5-year-old granddaughter pretended not to kiss me at her birthday party...then hugged me hard with a happy grin on her face and twinkle in her brown eyes, delighted at fooling me.

A sparkling wit is added to the world: Welcome, Princess!

Laughter.
Tricks.
Wit.
Humor.
Yahoo!
I like to think I had a little to do with her developing a sense of humor. She gets the trickster part from her dad -- my son -- who got it from me :)
And from my other son. We were all there in the party melee of relatives crowding, mixing, yakking, eating, gesturing, all taller than she -- it must be like living in an  old growth redwood forest for her, everyone so very much bigger -- and often talking literally above her head.
But she holds her own. She's happy to go off and play with her new toys and let the adults yak. She also competes with adults in the computer games her dad got her...she's happy to win, losing just spurs her on.
She is socially comfortable way more than  I, raised in the children-should-be-seen-and-not-heard generation.  She is a kid, no question, but relates on a level with adults that I still find it hard to manage sometimes: becoming awkward and brainless in crowds or new groups. She comes from social people, and they have bequeathed her her ease, a great and valuable gift that will serve her well throughout her life.
And we have given her that 5th dimension, of humor, of looking at things less seriously, including yourself, of seeing things askew and belly laughing and playing with words and getting jokes and making puns and grandmoms smile.
And that is precious, too.
It makes the Year of 5 exciting. There is not just "real" school ahead, but a developing humorist discovering the diverse ways to introduce laughter - that one characteristic unique to humans - into her life, her friends, her family and her world.
Which may be a wee bit of an overstatement when she may just learn to tell jokes.
Which is nothing to sneeze at.
It's going to be a hoot to watch her grow.