tickling is a major staple in our house. we have numerous tickling games, tricks, ploys and methods. but we are also a house of rules and some tickle-related rules we have include:
- no tickling someone when they are going to sleep, sleeping or waking up.
- no tickling someone when they are eating or preparing food.
- no tickling someone when they are sitting on or standing in front of the toilet.
if i could only pick one of those to enforce going forward it would be number three, without question or hesitation. although number one is pretty sucky too.
many of these battles unfold a little bit like this:
TROY
alex, come here, i want to whisper something to you.
(alex starts walking towards me, albeit suspiciously. if bella's in the room her head snaps up and looks our way. if she's somewhere else in the house and heard my words she runs to the room we are in.)
BELLA
ALEX! don't do it! it's a trap! he's going to tickle you.
(many times alex has already moved too close and i grab him up, throwing him over my lap, tickling him madly.)
ALEX (through great laughter)
DELLA! DELLA! help me della.
(and bella does answer but as soon as she arrives to save him i push him away and grab her up throwing her over my lap and begin tickling her.)
BELLA
ALEX, HELP! HELP ME ALEX!
(and like bella, alex rushes to her rescue and i trade the kids out again. and so our game goes. sometimes i think the sport would go for hours but one, if not both of the children, in their excitement resort to hitting, kicking and biting to save their ally and they are big and surprisingly strong and their father is delicate so this is usually how the games end, with me massaging a bitten arm or rubbing a punched temple.) 
