"You'd better not laugh!"

Sometimes it's hard to keep a straight face when faced with your preschooler's genuine emotions. Tonight I had spent quite some time getting Gabe to settle down for the night, when Zeke requested over and over his desire to hold his baby brother for a while.

"He's going to wake up and fuss," I told him.

"I wanna hold him!" was Zeke's reply.

"I just got him to go to sleep. You can hold him tomorrow."

"I wanna hold him!"

"I'm telling you, he's going to wake up and cry and I don't wanna hear it!"

"I WANNA HOLD HIM!!"

"Okay," I said calmly. "Then he'll start to cry, and I'll be mad because you didn't want to listen. Alright?"

I stood up and brought Gabe over to where Zeke was sitting on his bed and placed the sleeping baby in his big brother's arms. About 5 seconds later, "WAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

"See? He started crying. Are you happy now?" I asked in the calmest possible voice I could muster.

I felt a small twinge of guilt as Zeke hung his head and that bottom lip started to quiver. Great. I'd made my 3-year-old cry. Fan-bloody-tastic! Now I've got two of them to listen to. I put Gabe in his crib with his pacifier and patted him on the back to help him calm down. Meanwhile, Zeke proceeded to tell me how it wasn't him that made Gabe cry and, of course, that I was a meanie and he was no longer my friend. I had to try not to laugh.

I sat down in the glider. Zeke went and stood just outside his room and wouldn't look at me despite my asking him to come back inside for a talk. After some coaxing and threats to cancel an upcoming trip to Atlanta, he finally climbed onto my lap, where I proceeded to explain very calmly why I didn't want him holding his baby brother at that particular moment. He said he understood, that I was right and he was wrong, although he still wasn't my friend, and he wanted me to stay with him and let him sit in my lap. Gotta love the conflicting statements!

Before I knew it, a small chuckle escaped from my lips.

"It's not funny!" said Zeke firmly.

"I know," I said with a grin. I chuckled again, a little louder this time.

"It's NOT funny!" he said again. This time the right corner of his mouth curled up a bit. I pointed at it.

"You'd better not laugh!" I said, trying to sound serious but failing miserably. I burst out laughing. So did Zeke. We laughed and laughed until I had tears running down my cheeks. Zeke hugged my neck and told me how silly we were and that he would stop being so mean.

"Are we friends now?" I asked. He nodded and hugged me again.

A few minutes later, the lights were out, Gabe was sleeping soundly in his crib, and Zeke was doing his best to lie in my lap like he used to when he was little (granted he's a bit tall for that now). It only took a couple of minutes before he was asleep, and I carried him over to his big boy bed and covered him up.

Kids. Sometimes they just crack you up, no matter how hard you try not to.

But at the same time, I think that can be a great thing, too.