Banter

The other night Steve picked me up from work as we had some errands to run near Lexmark.  Steve and I were giving each other a hard time.  To understand the context, I'll backtrack.

That morning Alex tried to follow me upstairs as I ran to get my cell phone before leaving for work.  He ended up falling down on the 2nd step.  He bit his lip in the process and cried until I soothed him with kisses and his paci.  Steve harassed me for this asking why I hadn't put the gate up - "that's what it's for."  Fast forward several hours, Steve was giving Ethan a bath while Alex played in his room - all upstairs.  (NOTE: I was at work and cannot be held accountable for what happened next.)  All of a sudden Steve heard thump, thump, thump followed by instant crying.  He ran to check and Alex was screaming at the bottom of the stairs - his paci was apparently on the 4th step.  Steve has no idea how far he fell but it's likely he was at least 4 steps up as Alex wouldn't have left the paci mid-trek.  This time he got a bloody nose and a fat lip (he only bit it that morning and the fat lip hadn't formed).

So this is why we were giving each other a hard time.  Alex was fine and laughing and other than the fat lip, had no lasting side effects from either fall.  I said in a mocking tone as I got in the car, "why didn't you put the gate up - that's what it's for?"  He then tries to justify it saying Alex was playing contentedly in his room and Steve didn't think he'd get up.  I then told him I was only going to be upstairs for one minute and didn't think it was an issue since Alex was with Steve when I started upstairs.  The bath was going to last at least 10 minutes and he likely fell all the way down not just 2 steps.  I told him Alex falling in his care was way worse than when I was home.  We were actually joking during this and not truly accusing each other since Alex was really ok and both boys do fall - it's part of growing up and as long as they are ok, we kiss the boo-boos and continue on.  Some boo-boos are bigger than others (like a bloody nose & fat lip) but Alex was happy so that's all that was important.  We were even laughing during our exchange.

We were headed to Old Chicago Pizza for dinner during all this.  After 5 minutes of our banter, Ethan interrupted saying, "Mama, don't make me mad before we go to Old Chicago.  Dust don't make me mad at Old Chicago cause I'll dust be mad."  I looked at him and said, "you'll be mad, huh?" with a smile on my face because his tone had been as light as my & Steve's - he'd caught on to the banter aspect.  He then said with a twinkle in his eye, "you can dust wait till we go home and then make me mad.  It's ok after we get home for you to make me mad."  He had the cutest twinkle in his eyes and was laughing by the time he finished saying this.  I'm not sure where it came from - where that idea about making him mad later or any of it originated but he apparently wanted to join in the banter and he had the exact same twinkle in his eye that Steve has when he does that.  It was unreal the resemblance and it was just so darn cute.