laugh or cry?

Two posts in two days! Can you believe it? It's so unusual, and if the story I am about to tell you hadn't happened, and if I didn't feel the need to get it down while it was still fresh in my head, I would never be posting again so soon.

This morning, The Babe and The Boy were playing together in the living room, which is right at the bottom of the stairs. I was upstairs getting dressed, and Daddy had just gotten out of the shower, so The Kiddos were unsupervised. The Boy starts wailing. Really crying, and saying "Owwwiiiee, Owie!" over and over through the tears. The Babe is talking to him soothingly (is that a word?), and it sounds like she is trying to explain something, but I can't quite catch it. All I heard was "why did you ask if that's not what you wanted".

I come out of my bedroom and look over the railing to the foyer, and I can see The Kiddos near the bottom of the stairs. The Boy is lying on the floor, crying, kind of rolling back and forth. He is holding is leg or arm or tummy, I can't quite tell. So, I ask The Babe what happened. She tells me, talking a mile a mintue "I was so confused, Mommy. He asked me to kick him, and I didn't understand why he would want me to kick him, but he asked me to kick him", and then she starts to cry. The poor Babe is thoroughly freaked out that she kicked The Boy, for no reason other than that he asked her to; and that he was hurt, and she felt so terrible and she just burst into tears and was more inconsolable than he was.

I rushed downstairs and soothed her a bit, and she clung tight, sobbing. Meanwhile Daddy had come out of the bedroom, and The Boy was still rolling on the floor saying "owie", so I sent The Babe up to her Daddy while I comforted The Boy. I can hear The Babe upstairs "But I thought he asked me to kick him, I thought that's what he wanted". The Boy says he didn't ask to be kicked. So, there was apparently a big misunderstanding.

The Boy is fine. She kicked him in the leg, and he has a small bruise, but he recovered very quickly. The Babe was very shaken up by the whole thing. Part of me wanted to burst out laughing because the whole situation was so ridiculous! I mean honestly, even if he asked to be kicked, I can't believe she did it! But, the fact that she was so remorseful made it easier to keep the laughs inside. Frankly, I'm proud of her. It speaks volumes to me that she felt so terrible about it. The Boy went upstairs to find The Babe and he gave her a big hug. That helped her to feel better, too.