Why I don't get to babysit

Last night I went to a friend's house for a belated Chinese New Year celebration. Every year her family hosts this event and it's so much fun. Moreover, I know this friend from high school and she has kept in touch with some people I haven't, so it's also like a mini-reunion. Anyhow, there was one couple there who she knew from university, not from high school. Our high school group were going through old yearbooks (something I would rather not do), so this couple were just sitting to the side and I went to talk to them. They were a great couple, and they had the absolutely cutest 4 year-old boy. He never said a thing - but he was all smiles and contentedly sitting in the next room watching tv.

At one point I sat next to him and he and I bonded when he started jumping on the couch next to me and I kept picking him up and tossing him onto the couch. Later when we were all sitting again as a group, he stood in front of me and started pressing on my belly. A game I play with my oldest niece is that when she presses on my belly, I pretend to vomit on her. Then after a while we decide who I'm going to projectile vomit on. I decided to play the game with this kid.

He was right into it. It started with me saying, "If you keep pressing my belly, I'm going to vomit on you." Of course he did it again and I made suitable barfing noises. The I would say, "Shall we vomit on Jillian?" [who was sitting next to me]. He would press my tummy and I would turn my head and pretend to barf on Jillian. And so on and so forth. We were having a blast [and were discreet enough believe it or not that everyone else could continue with their conversations] until I said, "And shall I barf on your daddy?"

I that point his father clued into the game and came up to his son and said, "You do not press on a woman's tummy!" His father wasn't yelling or angry, but clearly the game was at an end. Then he looked at me and said, "He's at an age where he's figuring about body parts and everything is about poo or snot." And I thought, "But that's fun!" [not to mention that I was the one making the puking sounds]. Then I felt bad - I suppose I shouldn't have encouraged the kid to feel he could poke strangers, but I figured as long as he wasn't grabbing my boobs, it was no big deal.

All was well though. Undeterred the boy moved on to marching back and forth in front of us with exaggerated arm and leg motions - very soldier like. That game seemed to cause no issues. I'll just have to keep my special vomiting game reserved for my nieces.