Chapter 7
Once River has been fed and burped, Kean swaddles him back up and lays him in his crib.
We stand watching him for a moment as he falls asleep, before we both flop down on the sofa, leaning into each other.
“I never thought we would have two at the same time, especially a toddler and a newborn,” Kean says softly.
“Me either. I’m glad we do, though, even though it will be hard work.”
“It will, but we also have a house full of help. Shall I ring Adhan in the morning and tell him?”
I think for a moment. Until the adoption papers are signed, something could still go wrong. “Let’s not, we can surprise them when we get home.”
Kean laughs. “And what a surprise,” he quickly sobers. “Should we take the boys to the funeral, do you think?”
“Maybe not River, but Lyric probably. It might help a little. We could always check with Justin, he’s bound to have been in this situation before and can advise us.”
“Yeah, that would make sense. We might need different baby books.”
I look at Kean. “Did you not read that folder?”
“Which one? We have several from different agencies. I just don’t remember reading about a situation like this.”
“The blue one from the Acorns Agency, Chapter Fourteen, I think it was. I need to reread it, as I kind of skimmed that section, thinking we’d never be in a situation like this, especially with a toddler and a day old.”
“Yeah, in all the scenarios I thought of, this one wasn’t it. Still wouldn’t change the fact that they will soon be ours, though. I’m glad you knew Reggie. Did you know Doris?”
I shake my head. “No, but Monica did. We could always ask her to write something about Doris that we can share with the boys.”
Kean kisses the side of my head. “That’s a lovely idea,” he breaks off, yawning .
“Let’s try and get some sleep before River wakes for his next feed.”
“Good plan. Also, can I just say, I love the names Lyric and River.”
“Yeah, me too. Love you, handsome.”
“Love you, honey.”
And after a much too short kiss, we both settle down on the surprisingly comfy sofa and fall asleep.
It’s the sound of Lyric screaming and crying that wakes us with a start.
We both jump up and rush to his side. I sit on the side of the bed and try to comfort him, but he pushes me away. “No, mama.”
It breaks my heart that Doris isn’t around to see her boys grow up. I send a prayer to the Goddess asking her to help me be a good parent. “I’m sorry, Lyric, she isn’t here, but Kean and I are.”
Lyric cries harder.
I’m at a total loss of what to do, but Kean swoops Lyric up. I think the move shocked Lyric, and he stopped crying. Now he’s hiccupping and sniffing.
Lyric’s scream was so loud that River wakes up with an angry, ‘do you mind I’m trying to sleep here’ cry, a loud cry, this boy sure has some lungs on him.
While Kean is helping Lyric, I pick River up, just as the door opens and Jess rushes in, looking concerned.
“Is everything alright?” she asks, looking concerned.
“Lyric had a bad dream and River woke up because of the noise,” I explain, while rocking River, hopefully back to sleep.
“Poor things. Here, try this for River,” she says, pulling something out of her pocket. The something is a dummy. She takes the plastic cover off the rubber part and pops it in River’s mouth. He stops crying and starts sucking on it. She clips the dummy onto his little blanket.
I breathe a sigh of relief. “Thanks.”
She grins and walks over to Kean. “Do you want one for Lyric?”
Kean looks undecided, looks at me, then back at Jess, “I don’t know, what would you suggest?”
“If he’s not had one before, probably best not to start using one now.”
“He might be a thumb sucker,” I say, remembering I saw him sucking his thumb when we first arrived and when he sat on my lap earlier.
“If he is, when he’s more settled, try and break him of that habit,” she suggests.
“We will,” Kean assures her.
She rubs Lyric's back. “Do you need anything, Lyric?”
His lip trembles. “Mama,” he whispers, as a big fat tear rolls down his cheek.
“I’m sorry, Lyric, that’s not possible, but you have both these lovely men here to look after you,” she says gently.
“I’m Kean, my partner is Titus, sorry we should have introduced ourselves earlier.”
Jess smiles. “Don’t worry about it. I recognised the ‘I’m still in shock’ look.”
“Pretty sure we’ll be wearing that look for a while,” I point out.
“Nope, pretty sure your new, soon-to-be look will be exhaustion,” she replies.
Both Kean and I smile at that.
“Yeah, I think so too,” Kean says.
“I’ll leave you now. Shout if you need anything. If not, I’ll be back later with River’s bottle.”
“Thanks, Jess,” we both say together.
I look down at River, who is now fast asleep and lay him back in the cot. I then go to the baby bags Monica brought in. I should have looked earlier, but better late than never.
I have just opened the bag when a smell hits my nose. I look over at Lyric and Kean.
“Dude!” Kean exclaims, looking Lyric in the eye. “How can one little boy make such a big smell?”
Lyric holds his nose.
“I don’t blame you, little man, that really is stinky.”
“I’ll get you a clean nappy,” I helpfully say, because going by the smell, that nappy is going to be nasty.
“Oh no, honey, this nappy’s yours,” Kean says, grinning evilly at me. “We’re sharing all the duties, remember?”
I get a clean nappy out of the cupboard while huffing. “I don’t remember saying or signing anything saying that.”
Kean lays Lyric on the changing table. “Shall we have Titus change your stinky nappy? He has to learn to take stinky nappy duty in his stride.”
Lyric nods and points at me. “Tus.”
I grin at him, walking to the changing table with the clean nappy. “Good going, Lyric. Can you say Titus?”
“Tus,” he repeats.
“Nice, little man, high five,” Kean says, holding his hand close.
Lyric looks at it, a confused look on his face.
“This is a high five,” he says, picking up Lyric's hand and touching it to his. “High five.”
Lyric giggles and holds his hand up.
Kean laughs and gently taps his hand. “High five,” he says.
“Gain,” Lyric says, holding his hand up.
“It’s again, and you play with Kean while I deal with whatever died in your nappy,” I say.
I listen to Kean and Lyric laugh as I take his nappy off.
“By the Goddess!” I exclaim. I don’t think I have ever seen a nappy so full or smelt one so bad.
How I don’t throw up, I have no idea. I clean him up and put a new nappy on, quickly putting all the soiled bits in the nappy sack.
These sacks have a fragrant smell that doesn’t really mask the foul odour.
I put his legs back in the baby grow and do the poppers up. “There you go, stinky, all sorted.”
He holds his hand out to me, grinning.
I touch his hand with mine, saying, “High five.”
I look at Kean. “I’m going to wash my hands, be right back.” I pick the nappy sack up and take it into the adjoining bathroom, dumping it in the bin and washing my hands.
I look at myself in the mirror, and I look a bit rumpled, but I honestly don’t care. I got rumpled looking after our children.
We get Lyric settled, and I remember I was going to look in his bag. I look inside and see a teddy bear. I pull it out and lay it next to Lyric.
“We probably should have looked in the bags sooner,” Kean says, opening River’s bag. Inside was another teddy bear. Kean lifts it out. “I hope his parents bought him this bear.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Kean takes the teddy and lays it at the bottom of the cot, then walks to the sofa.
I join him and we both sit, leaning against each other. I kiss Kean’s cheek and hold my hand up. “High five.”
Kean laughs and high-fives me. “Hey, it worked, Tus.”
“I can’t wait to hear him say your name.”
“It’s so cute. I thought, given what’s happened, we’d leave it up to Lyric to see if he wants to call us daddy or papa or pops.”
“Yeah, I thought that as well. I fancy being Papa, what about you?”
“I quite like Daddy or Dad,” he confesses.
“We have parent names.”
“We do. Let’s try and sleep again. We’ll be up soon to feed River.”
I kiss his cheek again. “Love you.”