I was sitting in the basement with Gideon next to me when Lydia sang sweetly down the stairs. “Gideon, come heeeeere. I have a sword for yooooou.”

“No, thank you,” he called back.

Her eyes appeared sideways around the wall at the top of the stairs and she continued her sing-song siren call, “But if you come get the swooooord then you can kill me with iiiiit!”

The little boy’s eyes lit up and his face exploded into a grin. “Oh boy!” he hopped off my lap and pumped his arms up the stairs. “I’ll be right back, Dad!”

“Hmm. Okay,” I grumbled. “Just don’t make a mess of the living room okay?”

Parenting is weird.