Chapter 22
Iwake the next morning, open my eyes and give a start as I see Lyric leaning over me. His face right in front of me, his nose practically touching mine, and a big smile on his face, as he pokes his finger into my cheek. I look over for Kean, but he’s missing.
“I’m awake, little man. Did you have good dreams?”
He nods and smiles as he crawls on top of me and flops down. I let out an omph. “How did you end up in here?”
“Clean nack Ver, Clean bed. No wake,” he says, grinning at me.
“So Kean told you not to wake me, so you poked me awake?”
“I no call Tus,” he says, giving me a cheeky grin as if that made a difference.
I can imagine that as he gets older, that grin will get cheekier. “Well thank you for that. We have a baby and toddler group today you’ll make some new friends.”
“We go?” he asks, frowning.
I nod. “You, me, Kean, River, Uncle Jude, Uncle Sal and Connie.”
Lyric pulls a face and lets one off.
I glare at him. “Really, while you’re lying there?”
He giggles, just as Kean and River walk in.
I cradle Lyric as I sit up. “Morning, handsome.”
Kean leans down and gives me a kiss, then drops one on Lyric's head. He holds River down, so I can kiss the baby’s head.
“Morning, Baba,” I say happily.
“Why does it smell like Lyric did a stinky in here?” Kean asks, sitting on the side of the bed and laying River between us.
“I do,” Lyric admits.
“You did,” I correct, “and while he was lying on me, I might add.”
I stroke River’s head and then notice he’s wearing his little scratch mittens. “Why the mittens?” I ask, looking at Kean.
“His nails are getting long. They look like they need cutting, and he has a scratch on his arm. How do you cut baby nails?”
“Carefully,” I reply. “We can ask over breakfast later. But now, how about we get washed and dressed?”
“We can do that, can’t we, little man. And today is my turn to bath you.”
Lyric crawls off me and over to Kean, grinning.
“Let’s try not to drown me today, what do you think?”
Lyric giggles and shakes his head as Kean carries him into the bathroom.
I pick River up and kiss his head. “Morning, Baba. Did you have fun with Daddy this morning?” I bend my knees and rest River back against them, while holding his mitten covered hands.
“We have new adventures today, are you excited?” I chat away to River, and as I do, I hear laughter from the bathroom and loud splashes.
“I’ve bought you a proper bath, it should arrive today, then we won’t need to bathe you in the sink, when we can give you one.
Shall we take your sleep onesie off, then I’ll lay you on the bed and you can have a little leg kick?
” As I talk, I undo this onesie and take it off, underneath he has a little top on and a nappy.
I lay him on the bed and play with his legs as he moves them around.
Just then, Kean walks out of the bathroom, carrying Lyric, who is wrapped up in a little frog blanket we found in one of his draws. “We have a clean Lyric,” Kean announces.
“And a clean you by the looks of things,” I comment, looking at all the water on his night clothes.
“It’s just water, we had fun, didn’t we, little man?”
Lyric nods.
“How about Kean dresses you, while I wash River, then I can watch you both while Kean has a shower?”
“Sounds like a plan, honey,” Kean says, walking out of our room and into Lyric’s.
“Shall we get you ready for your wash?” I ask River, pulling his top off. I make sure he’s safely on the bed and get the changing mat and everything I need to clean him up, and set about taking his nappy off.
Washing River is so much easier than Lyric, except Lyric likes water, River not so much. By the time I’m finished, like always, he’s letting out an angry, ‘how dare you wash me’ cry. As I wash him, I check the umbilical stump. It looks to be healing nicely. Maybe it will drop off soon.
I wrap him in a fluffy towel, and as soon as that happens, like always, the crying stops.
“There you go Baba,all done.” I carry him through to his bedroom and set about drying him, before putting his nappy on, as a now dressed Lyric comes running in, Kean following.
Lyric is wearing a little pair of jeans and a t-shirt with a wolf on it.
I wonder who brought him that, as I don’t remember seeing it before.
“Tus, Ver,” he says.
“Hey, little man, looking good there. Do you want to pick out something for your brother to wear?”
Lyric nods and Kean picks him up, showing him River's clothes.
“Dat,” I hear Lyric say.
“Good choice.”
“Five Clean.”
I laugh as they high-five each other, and Kean pulls the choice out of the wardrobe and brings it over. It’s green dungarees with a fox on the front, and a striped green onesie for underneath.
I quickly dress River, then hold him up for Lyric and Kean to see. “Good choice, little man. Now we just need to find socks and a little jumper.”
Once the boys are dressed, I take them into Lyric’s room and sit in the snuggle chair and read them a story, while Kean gets showered and dressed.
“Nack Tus,” Lyric says, as I finish the third book.
“You can have breakfast in a little bit," I tell him.
“Or I can take the boys downstairs while you shower and dress,” Kean says, walking into the room, looking oh so fine.
“How did I get so lucky? A handsome soon-to-be husband and two lovely boys,” I comment.
Kean grins. “I ask myself that every day, how did you get so lucky?”
I burst out laughing.
“Clean nack,” Lyric practically demands.
Kean swoops Lyric up and looks at him. “Try that again without being rude.”
“But nack,” he says quietly.
“And we can go and have breakfast, but ask nicely. ‘Kean, can I have a snack, please?’”
Lyric nods. “Clean, nack pees.”
Kean grins. “There you go. Let me grab River and I’ll take you both downstairs, so Tus can get de-stinky.”
“Charming,” I say, standing up.
Lyric laughs and as I walk close, he holds his nose. “Stinky Tus.”
Kean laughs.
“That better not stick,” I gripe, as I hand River over.
“But we love you, stinky Tus,” Kean says, holding River close.
“Stinky Tus, stinky Tus,” Lyric shouts, laughing.
“I’m going. Good luck opening the stairgates with your hands full, handsome,” I say, leaving the room.
I make it down to breakfast about half an hour later. Sion is holding River, and Lyric is in his high chair, eating some scrambled eggs and chopped up sausage. Well, they are on his little plate, but I’m not sure he’s actually eating them.
“Morning,” I say generally, sitting down.
“Stinky Tus,” Lyric calls out happily.
Everyone laughs and I glare at Kean. “I totally blame you for that.”
Kean grins. “Sorry, not sorry.”
“How did you get on with both boys and the stairgates?” I ask, putting food on my plate.
“Fine,” he mutters and I hear Sion snort out a laugh.
I look over at Sion.
“Kean was struggling to hold both boys and open the gate, so I offered to hold River to make it easier.”
I laugh and look at Kean. “That’s just sad.”
“I knew Sion was there, I thought he might like to hold River,” he grumbled.
“More like I offered after watching you struggle,” Sion said.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”
“Whatver,” Lyric says, grinning.
Everyone laughs, so he says it again.
“I think Lyric’s found a new word,” Cam says, grinning.
“Yeah, we’re going to have to watch our language, even more now,” Ben adds.
“Whatver,” Lyric said again.
I laugh and then look at Jude and Sal. “How do you cut baby nails?”
“Magic,” Jude replied. “I didn’t want anything sharp near Connie, so Sal used magic to cut them.”
“I used mini scissors on Doobs. I was so scared the first time thinking I might hurt her, but thankfully had seen Mum cutting them once, but using magic would have been much easier,” Nix tells us.
“I tried to make it easier by biting my nails,” Nora says.
“And one day you might stop,” Nix replies, sounding wistful.
“I’ve already stopped, look,” she holds her hands up so Nix can see her nails. “Nana and Grammy said, if I stopped biting my nails, we could have grandmother granddaughter bonding and get our nails painted.”
Emily looks at Nix. “If that’s alright with you.”
Nix nods. “If it stops the nail biting, have at it.”
“Thank you, Nix,” Nora says, beaming at her brother.
“I’ll do that then,” I say. That would be so much easier than using scissors near his little hands. I get a slice of toast and put jam on it before taking a bite.
“So, what happens at these baby and toddler groups, and should we have registered?” Kean asks, finishing his breakfast.
“No bro. Possibly for some places you need to register, but the town one is open to residents. As for what happens, anything really. There are tables set up for drawing or painting, music circles, a play area, anything goes really,” Jude replies.
“Sounds like fun, doesn’t it, little man?” I ask Lyric.
“Whatver,” he says again.
I shake my head. We might have to stop him using that word.
“Eat some scrambled eggs, little man, it looks like you’ve not had any yet,” Kean says, putting some on Lyric’s spoon and feeding him.
Lyric promptly spits the eggs out. “No,” he shouts, putting his hands in the eggs and throwing them at Kean.
There is stunned silence for the moment.
“As much as I want to see how this plays out, Doobs, we need to leave for school,” Nix says.
“I’m ready, my shoes are by the front door,” she says, standing up. “Thanks for breakfast, Nana. Bye, everyone.”
Nix stands and drops a kiss on Cam’s head and walks out with Nora.
Throughout all this, Kean and Lyric have been having a staring match.
Lyric moves his hand into the eggs again.
“Do not throw any more eggs, Lyric,” Kean says gently.
Lyric moves his hand and flicks more egg on the floor.
“No more food for you then,” Kean says, picking the plate up and putting it on the table. “Also, you and I will stay behind today as Titus and River, Uncles Jude and Sal and cousin Connie go to the children’s group.”
“No,” Lyric shouts. “I go.”
“Not with your bad behaviour, you’re not. Do you see Connie acting rudely?” he asks.
Lyric points an angry finger at Connie. “Baby,” he shouts, then thumps an angry hand down on his tray.
Kean growls at him. “Are you done?”
Lyric’s bottom lip starts to wobble. “I go,” he says softly, as tears start falling down his cheek. He turns to me and holds his arms out. “Tus.”
Should I take him out? I ask Kean.
Yeah, just reinforce what I said. Kean asks.
I’ll always do that, handsome.
I pull the tray out, lift Lyric out and sit him on my lap, so he can still see Kean. He leans into my chest and cries.
“Can you stop crying for me?” I ask him gently.
A few moments later, he sniffs and hiccups. “Clean mean.”
“Not really. You were rude. You threw eggs at him, shouted at him and spat out your food. We have rules Lyric. You can express yourself, but politely, and we never spit out or throw food at people,” I say gently.
I hear a snort from someone at the table. Pretty sure it was Cassie, as I suddenly remember the short-lived bread roll fight we had not long before Cassie and I moved in.
Lyric sniffs. “I bad?”
“Yeah, little man, you were,” I tell him. “You should say sorry to Kean for being rude and throwing eggs at him, some of which are still in his hair.”
I smile to myself when Kean starts checking and picking the egg out.
“You should also help clean up the mess you made.”
Lyric nods and I drop a kiss on his head. He looks at Kean and holds his little arms out. “Clean.”
Kean picks him up and stands him on his lap.
“I sorry I bad,” and with that, he practically throws himself onto Kean’s chest, wrapping his arms around Kean’s neck, as Kean hugs him.
I catch Adhan’s eye, and he smiles and nods.
Is parenting supposed to be this hard?