Last night my wife was not feeling well and fell asleep on the couch. Our 3 year old (Bubby) sat there watching Dr. Pol (he loves the cows!) and our 1 year old (Baby Girl) and I played on the floor.Baby girl toddled into the kitchen (she just started walking "full time"). I kind of let her go and keep calling her back to me "Come back here Baby Girl! I'm gonna get you." To which she smiles giggles and toddles away. Super cute.I sit in the living room asking Bubby about the cows and he's telling me "they're sick," which they appeared to be, being on Dr. Pol and all.I hear the unmistakable sound of Baby girl getting into the cabinets and I realize I didn't lock the undersink cabinet with all the cleaning stuff, after I started the dishwasher. I walk in and again talk to her, "Baby girl what are you doing!!!" She giggles and toddles away toward the hall that loops back to the living room. As I play chase her, I walk past my phone and pick it up. Normally I put it to the side till after bedtime, but with Wife napping, I figured I would get my reddit fix real quick.Baby girl toddled back into the living room and is playing like normal. I check reddit (MISTAKE!), I swear for only like 30 seconds. Baby girl toddled to the end table and grabs a full cup of Blueberry Tea and pours it all over the throw rug and part of the couch. Now, I didn't see it (because of my aforementioned "Redditing") but from the mess, it looks like she picked it up off the table turned and then dropped it while trying to walk.I literally find out this happens because my wife says, "Brian...what the? oh no, baby girl!" I look up from phone and realize very quickly that in the short time I had not attended her, she had made a huge mess.There is literally no defense, nothing I can say, so I just take my orders to get the cleaning supplies (blueberry tea stains, apparently). My wife is noticeably upset. She is sort of throwing the rags and paper towels, not in a "bad" way but in her upset "but doesn't want to be mad at me in front of the kids" way. I prepare for the oncoming storm after bedtime where I am given the whole, "you have to watch her all the time" speech. I know i earned it, I know that it's coming, I'm preparing my apology while scrubbing the floor.Floor is drying from the cleaning and we realize it's time for Bubby to get his PJs on. We usually trade this task off as he can be sweet or the spawn of satan. TECHNICALLY, it should be her night, but I tell her to take Baby Girl and I'll get Bubby.We head upstairs to his room. He is actually very sweet and gets his PJs on without a fit or screaming or tantrum. We counted to see if we could get dressed before daddy counted to 10. We are walking back across the upstairs landing, towards the stairs and I look over the banister. I see my wife (it looks like she's checking something on her iwatch), but don't see Baby Girl. My Dad Intuition Sense tingles and I know without seeing EXACTLY where she is.As we come to the top of the stairs, THERE SHE IS!!! Half way up. I look at her and say (loud enough to get my wife's attention), "oh my Baby Girl! You know your not supposed to be on the stairs. You are so fast. I bet your mommy only looked away for a second and there you are...Halfway up the stairs." Hearing this, my wife quickly moves to the bottom of the steps, but it was too late: Everyone saw the situation. (We are selling out house, so we had to take down the stair gates...don't hate us).Baby Girl is toddling on the step (holding the railing, so I'm not overly concerned about a fall), and my wife gets to her as we walk down the steps. Baby girl is giggling, so my wife lets her stay on the stairs.I get to the bottom and continue talking to Baby Girl but making eye contact with my wife- "wow, baby girl. You saw daddy and bubby go upstairs and probably followed us, huh? It's so funny how quick you are now that you are walking, I bet that someone could look away for like 10 seconds and you would be in a totally new place, doing stuff you probably shouldn't be doing."The look on my wifes face was priceless. She knew that in the span of 10 minutes Baby Girl had taught us both that she has transitioned to a toddler that can get into everything in the blink of an eye.I still apologized for the spilled tea. "I'm sorry that I didn't realize how quick she was, I mean, I only looked away for split second and she was on the stairs, I mean...she had the glass." "Im sorry, my only defense was that I looked away for just a second, but I knew that you wouldn't accept that as an excuse, so I didn't even say it."" I guess she taught us both that she needs us to change our strategies for her."I pick up Baby girl in a big giggle hug and say "I love you Baby girl!!! You saved daddy!!!" And we jump, spin, dance away to the living room with her giggling the whole time!TL:DR While Dad was "watching" toddler spilled a glass of tea. Mom gets upset, but while mom was "watching" the toddler got halfway up the stairs. Both of us made the same mistake so my apology was basically a universal "we both messed up...be both get a mulligan." via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2JzCM0H
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