Chapter 31
Iwake up Sunday morning wrapped in Kean’s arms and lay there for a moment, listening to the gentle beat of his heart.
Kean was up for the night feed last night, so I’ll do this one, which I’m sure is due soon.
I gently kiss Kean’s chest and pull out of his arms. Kean grumbles but doesn’t wake up.
I would happily stay there, lying against him, but we have children who will need seeing to.
As I stand up, I check the time; any minute now, River will wake up and demand his feed.
I look in on Lyric first, who is fast asleep, with a stranglehold on his teddy and then walk into River’s room to see him just starting to wake up.
“Morning, Baba,” I say as I unswaddle him.
“Did you have good dreams?” I pick him up and kiss his little head.
He grabs my finger and tries to suck on it.
“How about we change your nappy and then I get you your bottle?” I ask.
I make quick work of changing the nappy before walking into our kitchen and making the bottle up.
“We have the Easter Egg hunt this morning. I know you’re too little to have chocolate, but we can have fun looking with your brother and daddy, plus your cousins and uncles.
” I give River his bottle and go back into his room and sit in the rocking chair, gently rocking back and forth.
I love our time here, just River and me. That’s not to say I don’t love all the other moments with Lyric and River, but this feed somehow feels special. I can’t explain it really, and I'm probably being silly, but still, to me it’s magical.
I hear a noise by the door and look up to see Adhan there. “Morning, you’re up early.”
“Morning. Cam and I are off to hide the Easter Eggs.”
“You should drag Ernest out with you; he can make bunny footprints and the like,” I suggest, grinning.
Adhan laughs. “I’d not thought of that. I might go and do that, thanks.”
I laugh to myself as Adhan walks back towards his bedroom. I decide to give him a helping hand, waking Ernest up, and taking a leaf out of Ernest and Temp’s book, I send my magic out to zap him awake.
I hear a muffled yelp and looking at River laugh.
“So Uncle Ernest is awake. Do you think he’ll guess I woke him up?
” A few minutes later, River finishes his feed and I sit him on my lap, holding his chin up as I rub his back, burping him.
He lets out a loud burp and jumps, looking startled.
“Did you really just scare yourself, Baba?”
“Your ugly face probably scared him,” Ernest grumps out from the doorway, looking rumpled but dressed, a laughing Adhan by his side. “There I was in a lovely, and I do mean lovely, dream, and I’m rudely flung out of it, because someone, meaning you, Titus Compton, zapped my arse with magic.”
“Arse Unk Nest,” Lyric calls out.
I try not to laugh at the look of shock and apology on Ernest’s face.
“So Lyric’s awake,” I say unnecessarily.
“Arse, arse,” Lyric shouts happily.
“I’ll let you explain to Kean how Lyric learnt a new word,” I tell him.
“Arse, arse, arse,” Lyric carries on happily.
“Why is my son saying arse?” Kean demands, glaring at us before walking into Lyric’s room.
“Clean arse,” Lyric shouts.
I’m not the only one who laughs at that.
“So is that Lyric asking for a clean nappy, or is Lyric calling Kean an arse?” Adhan asks, chuckling.
“Ernest,” Kean calls out from Lyric’s room. “Come here.”
Ernest’s shoulders slump. “Well, crap,” he mutters, walking off to join Lyric and Kean.
“Want to take bets your brother will make Ernest change Lyric’s nappy?” I ask Adhan.
“This I’ve got to see,” he replies, and walks off to Lyric’s room.
I look at River. “Shall we go and watch as well?” I get up and join the others in Lyric’s room.
Adhan has his phone out and is recording Ernest’s face. I don’t think Ernest has noticed yet.
Lyric is lying on the changing table, Kean standing close by, arms crossed over his chest, watching.
“Are you sure I can’t just use magic?” Ernest pleads, looking at Kean.
He shakes his head. “No magic. Come on, Ernie, it doesn’t take that long to undo poppers.”
“This is cruel and unusual punishment, isn’t it, little man?
” he gripes, opening the poppers, and moving the flaps out of the way.
“Okay, I can do this. Well, I think I can, I’ve never changed a nappy before.
” And with that, he undoes the nappy and turns green.
“Oh, for the love of books, that’s disgusting. ”
I have a look and yeah that nappy is full and messy.
“Use the wipes and make sure you clean everywhere,” Kean tells him, grinning.
I look at Adhan’s phone, which is still trained on Ernest’s face, capturing all his facial expressions.
Ernest coughs and turns away to pick up a wipe when Lyric decides to have a pee. He manages to hit Ernest in the face, just as he turns back around.
We descend into laughter, and Ernest yelps and jumps back, putting his hands up to protect himself from more pee. He waves his hand, and Lyric is clean and in a clean nappy and poppers done up. “I hate you all,” he says, dashing out of the bedroom and running towards his.
Kean picks Lyric up. “Nice, little man, high five,” he holds his hand up.
“Five Clean,” he says, tapping his hand, giving his cheeky grin.
“And to think I have all that on video,” Adhan says, laughing.
“I’ll attach this to the family chat, a surprise Easter present for everyone,” a moment later, he says, “Done. Now I need to hurry him along so he can help with the eggs. Funniest morning ever. High five, Lyric,” and he holds his hand up.
“Five Unk Addy arse,” he says, grinning and patting Adhan’s hand.
“No arse,” Adhan says, bobbing him on the nose. “See you all later.”
We watch as Adhan leaves the room whistling happily.
“Morning, honey,” Kean says, walking over to us. He kisses me hello.
“Hey, handsome. Morning, Lyric,” I say, kissing his head
He holds his arms out. “Tus.”
I take Lyric and hand River to Kean. “Morning, Baba,” Kean says, dropping a kiss on his head.
“Shall we go into our bedroom? We have presents to give out,” I say, poking Lyric in the side and walking into our room. I drop Lyric on the bed, and he laughs. Kean sits on the bed and places River in the middle of it.
I pick up the bag I’ve the presents in. “Here you go, handsome,” I say, passing an egg and a wrapped present to Kean. I outdid myself with this jumper present and am secretly proud of it. I know it should only be eggs, but what the heck.
Kean’s egg has lots of little eggs inside a cup that says, ‘best dad’ and laughs. He opens the wrapped package and pulls out the jumper. It has ‘boy dad’ embellished on the front in gold. Kean looks at it and grins. “Wait, is this a baby holding jumper?”
I nod. “It is. You can sit both boys in there, although not at the same time.” I pull out another egg and pass it to Lyric. “And this is for you.”
Lyric has a chocolate button one.
“Chocot,” Lyric says, holding the egg out to Kean.
“Just a little, because you need to have breakfast,” saying this, Kean opens the egg and breaks it up, giving Lyric a little piece and putting the rest on the bed.
Lastly, I pull out a little white bunny for River and show him. “Look, River, you have a rabbit,” I say, laying it next to him.
“I have presents as well,” Kean says, reaching under the bed and pulling a bag out.
“Here you go, honey,” he hands me an egg identical to the one I gave him.
I laugh. “Great minds,” I say, leaning in and kissing him.
“Yep,” he pulls back and takes out another egg and shows Lyric. This is a button one as well.
“Next time we’ll coordinate eggs,” I say with a laugh.
“We will,” he pulls out a little brown bunny for River.
I look at Lyric, and he is covered in chocolate. It looks like he did a sneak chocolate attack while Kean and I weren’t looking.
“Look at you, you messy thing,” I pick the rest of his egg and wrap it up, putting it back into the box. “Let’s leave the rest for later, you need a hose down, and the bed needs changing, cause your chocolate hand prints are all over it.”
Lyric grins a chocolate grin. “Five Tus.”
“After we’ve cleaned you up,” I tell him, picking him up and carrying him into the bathroom.