#like the never feeding your toddler on a highchair thing

[shouldprobablybereading]

Watching all sims forums basically descending into the weirdest form of mommy blog ranging from “here is my schedule for feedings and naps” or “help! my infant won’t sleep unless I am holding her” to the most extreme ridiculous forms of child abuse the game inflicts

[twistedberri3z]

Sims 4 Livestream

Hello, Fellow Simmers!!

(From Tumblr and YouTube!)

Here is a summary of the livestream of “The Sims 4 Infant Update & Growing Together Livestream” That is 2:34:53 in length. I thought I’d summarise it for people that don’t have time to watch it and some of my opinions!

I did watch the new Infant & Growing Together livestream with SimGuruMorgan, Scott & Nova (I think that’s them? Nova for me is confirmed, please correct me if I’m wrong) 

(Edit from rewatching LS : SimGuru’s Frost, Graham, Morgan, Scott, Nova, Lakshmi : I missed this because I was late to the livestream last night because I did know it was going to happen but I never knew what time so I came in when they were messing around in CAS.)

Newborns

• I love the option to change the outfits. 

• More interactions!

• The new bassinet

Infants 

• I AM SO EXCITED FOR THEM THEY LOOK ADORABLE! 

• before I go into more detail on this I do want to play with them first. (I will do another community post after I play with them I won’t produce a video straight away as I have school for both releases!) 

• The traits look adorable.

• Portable Cribs, Cribs and Little Crib Beds look absolutely amazing!

• The outfits look so adorable. 

• Play mats look awesome! 

• Sensory toys seem like a good thing for infants to learn with!

• Feeding Options

Toddlers 

• Not really much that I want to point out 

• Baby Proofing is funny to see them break free 

Children 

• Picking on the little children

• New Aspirations 

• Carrying the adult skills 

Teens were not mentioned

Next Category : Gameplay of Infants (SimGuruGraham, Morgan, Nova, Lakshmi & Guests Steph)

• Six traits : Cautious, Sensitive, Calm, Intense, Wiggly, Sunny

• Age up is adorable!

• Base Game outfits? I hope they include some new outfits from Existing Packs!

• Baby helmets had me laughing

• Skin details look amazing

• Going in the bath looks so cute as they are in the carrier

• Moodlet for being cared for!

• First try baby food!

• Happy, Unhappy traits

• Highchair!! 

• Children interactions with Infants

• Being awake too long (Realistic!)

• Play lullaby’s 

I will eventually make a video on it even if it is late and I will make a CC family named the Lintons and you can change them up to your liking and it is for all to play with as I do not have any expansion packs on my laptop which is the place where I have my gallery. You will get sneak peeks from my community posts!

Next Category : CAS (SimGuruScott, Morgan, Nova & Guests Nicole, Steph)

• Growing together outfits! Like I had hoped for from the Infant Section. I will mention this again because I really hope they do some gameplay with the older packs that can use infants CPC (Cross-Pack-Compatibility) It has been confirmed that there will be CPC across the infants and growing together pack and releases.

• New outfits, Accessories for all age groups

• Skin Details (Base Game)

• The new hairs for all age groups

• Skin Details (Growing Together)

• Body Freckles

• Family Dynamics (In the section you can see Supportive, Jokesters, Difficult)

• Nova mentions family dynamic Distant

• New likes and dislikes category (Sim Characteristics & Conversation Topics)

• Up to 50 likes and dislikes

• Depending on sims interests they will either have good or bad compatibility

• Cross Pack Compatibility for Likes and Dislikes

•Nova mentions new pie menu for conversation topics 

• 4 New Child Aspirations under multi skill (Playtime Captain, Slumber Party Animal, Mind and Body & Creative Genius)

Next Category : Growing Together Gameplay (SimGuruScott, Morgan, Nova & Guests Rach)

•World named San Sequoia, 3 Neighbourhoods  AnchorPoint Wharf, Gilbert Gardens, Hopewell Hills

• Rach & Scott explains Ol Stumpy

• They explore Hopewell Hills

• Compatibility is explained (Good, Amazing, Bad, Awful)

• New pie menu so it is easier to find and talk

• Elders can give life lessons

• Family Dynamic Pop-Ups

• Cara is shown calling Delaney a plant sim and a toilet sniffer

• Kyle pop-up explained later

• Ages can gain quicker relationships with someone their age (E.g kids)

• Kyle rings to ask whether he can stay over a few days. You get two options (Uhhhhh. Sure? Why not! & Not today, Kyle. You got the wrong person. Sorry!)

• Sims can have temporary stays!

• New interactions (Share San Sequoia Secrets)

From what I can see is infants have the same lifespan setting as a toddler (7 days on normal lifespan & 3 on short but I have never personally played on long so I’m not sure how long that is!)

• Ask Temporarily Staying People for help

• New Baby Interactions 

• Change a baby’s outfits.

• New quirks for sims. 

• They can have 3 quirks per sim

• Tummy Time Interactions for infants with older sims

• Milestones in Simology Panel

• Different Milestones for different age groups

• More traits from self discovery

• Midlife Crisis

• Workplace Rivals

• Childrens can have high, low or neutral confidence and it depends on how their caregivers respond or how they do things (E.g falling off the monkey bars) they get a locked in trait when they age up and it will either be low or high self esteem that will carry throughout their life.

• Build a treehouse as a family they have to be a teen or older

• Decorate the tree house and lock it to only children, teens etc.

• Sims can relax, sleep and even woohoo in the treehouse and you can upgrade it so they can have a pole, slide, lights, bell

• Light colours can be changed on the treehouse.

• things can be put on the balcony of the treehouse (E.g toys and microscope) 

• Sabotage & Befriend Work Rival

• Bike for children

• Children can learn how to ride a bike with or without help

• 6 Kids bikes and varients

• Loose teeth

• Kids can wiggle and Pull out loose teeth and if it comes out you can see a gap where the tooth fell or got pulled out

• Kids can place the tooth under the pillow and when they wake up they will get money and they will get a milestone and a certificate.

• There is keepsake boxes and you can designate them to a sim you can put stuff in it and ponder the meaning of family.

• Sims can pass on the keepsake box if they are close enough with another sim. 

• sims can make friendship bracelets and it is an object in build mode that you can buy and create them with the object

• Sims can exchange friendship bracelets and they can wear them

• Under the affection category you can do a fist bump or under the malicious category you can demand the friendship bracelets back

• Sims have a diaper changing table and it works for infants and toddlers (Toddlers only work if they are not potty trained) 

• Infants get a Milestone if getting their diaper changed goes wrong such as peeing and pooping on their caregiver.

• You can baby proof gates and toddlers have the interaction of “BREAK LOOSE!” They have a chance to get out and they get an energised moodlet if they succeed.

• 3 new events : Baby Shower, Slumber Party and Family Reunion

• As a reward for family reunions you can get photos of you family and put them in the frames. 

That is all I really wanted to share with you!

Links are under this :

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=asyS-TKbckM (Live Stream from the sims team)

https://www.tumblr.com/sims4-lilshadow (Tumblr) 

https://m.youtube.com/@TS4_SHADOW (Youtube)

After Speech

Hello Everyone!!! 

I am going to make a family called the Linton family when both releases! I am super exited for both updates! 

[yamithediaperdork]

Eternal Baby of the family (Twilight)

Being treated like a baby by your parents would be hard enough to tolerate for one or two years when you were 17, but for one poor vampire who had been turned at the age of 17 103 ago it had been his daily life for 20 of those years.

Of course after 20 long years of being diapered and dressed like a toddler you'd of thought that Edward Cullen would of adapted to what was his life and learned to stop fighting but Edward wasn't the type to give up the struggle regardless of how many spankings and mouth washing and all that it earned him.

He thought that as long as he proved he didn't want the baby treatment, hated the baby treatment and tried to be a big boy his daddy Carlilse would see the truth and finally let him at least act like a 17 year old.

It never ONE dawned on him that all Carlilse wanted was him to be a good little boy for one whole year and the diapers and baby treatment would go away, like it had for Edwards other siblings in the vampire house hold.

Thus the day started liked any other, with Edward waking up in his crib in his animal print nursery and in a light red sleeper that puffed out at the hips from the many layers of diapers Carlilse and Esme insisted that he wear at all times.

Though despite the thickness of the diapers that forced him to waddle he was greeted to anther morning routine, having to inhale the stench from the massive load he made in them because of all the high fiber meals he was given.

with his vampire body he couldn't put on too much weight so his 'loving' parent made sure he ate lots and lots so he'd be able to make TON'S of presents all throughout the day and night. Combine that with all the fluids he had to drink and was it any wonder he was going though entire packs of diapers a day?!

kicking his Paw patrol blanket off Edward managed to sit up despite the bulk and filth around his hips and groaned, there was a LARGE wet spot on his crib, though they had rubber sheets on the mattress. his groan wasn't born out of shame of his diapers leaky or hating his sleep would have to be cleaned, but rather whenever his pampers leaked it was 'proof' to mommy and daddy dearest that he needed MORE layering and he was already up to 6 diapers at a time!

"great..gonna be bumped up to lucky number 7.." the big baby pouted.

Some of you might be wondering why, If Edward was a vampire that he stayed here and let them treat him like this and well, the fact of the matter was Carlilse and Esme were just too much for him to try and take on and even if he escaped what then?

He had no money, nothing to his name and would of ended up coming back on his own anyways. Till he could get out of diapers and start a part time job he was trapped.

Carlilse hummed softly as he made his way towards the nursery, Esme had taken the other kids out job hunting, feeling they were mature enough now to hold down a job but for the oldest of their vampire kids (and the stinkiest) it would be nothing but anther day of diapers.

After babying Edward for so long Carlilse had come to love it, and while Esme was always hopeful that Edward would figure out good behavior for a year would mean freedom, Carlilse liked to go out of his way to keep his little man grumpy and trapped in baby land.

He could smell Edward's morning glory so to speak before he even opened up the door and smirked, getting ready to ham it up.

"Phew yew! I could smell you from the front lawn! SOMEBODY made daddy a super stinky and super big present huh?" Carlilse asked, holding his nose and waving a hand as Edward glared at him and pouted. "oh I see a certain somebody who's diapies sprung a leak! You know what that means little man."

in truth Edwards diapers SHOULD of held up despite his heavy wetting, but a certain daddy dom MAY of poked holes in all of the diapers with a thumb tact to ensure flooding and leaks would happen.

"I know daddy." Edward sulked and looked away, a blush coming to his face.

"Aww, it's ok buddy, I know you can't help it." Carlilse coo'ed, walking over and tickling Edward under the chin. :Who's ready to a morning bath and then some num num's?" Carlilse asked.

"C-Can I wear more then just my diapers at breakfast? Emmett and the others are soo mean!" Edward whined.

"heh, don't worry about them, they already ate and are looking for summer jobs like big boys and girls." Carlilse said and smirked as a super huffy look crossed over Edwards face. "Awww don't be jealous! you have a job too. Making lots of stinky presents! and instead of a silly pay check you get MORE diapers!" Carlilse coo'ed.

Somehow, this didn't improve Edwards mood.

after getting out of his destroyed diapers and a quick bath, Edward was feeling better even if he was being taped into 7 of his puffy diapers now.

Since he could of been forced to try and eat his breakfast of bloody oatmeal (He was still a vampire after all) in his messy diapers he decided not to push his luck too much.

In his customed highchair and wearing a cookie monster bib he was at least allowed to feed himself though he was expected to get at least SOME of it on his face. It was a unspoken rule,but one he'd figured out when every time he kept his face clean while feeding himself he'd have five days of being fed.

sitting on the tray was a ba-ba of milk that he was expected to finish as well, if there was any milk left when he finished his bowl he'd get get anther bowl of the mostly bland save for the blood sludge.

in the end Edward ended up with two bowls of the high fiber oatmeal in his guts, and his bladder was already crying out in distress as Carlilse wiped the oatmeal from his face while scolding him on being such a messy eater.

with the baby fed, Carlilse led Edward back to his nursery, holding his hand and trying not to snicker at the waddling the massive diapers where making Edward do.

"So I know you likely just wanted to hang around the house today, or maybe go and play in your sandbox but sadly we have to go out first. daddies little muck butt has been making SO many presents we have to go and stock up on diapies!" Carlilse coo'ed and wasn't shocked when Edward froze.

The last time Edward had been out in public had been when he was in triple diapers and even then he'd been teased so much he'd ended up having a fit, there was no way in hell he could hide -7- diapers!

"I know, going out in public is scary to you little, you wanna just stay home where you feel safe but well your wearing the last of the diapers." Carlilse lied, then went on. "So unless you wanna sit in your own poopie and pee pee and risk leaking till mommy and your brothers and sisters get home.."

"I..I could stay here by myself!" Edward whimpered and whined, blushing and just thinking about how horrible going to the mall like THIS was gonna be.

"Stay here by yourself.. what kinda of irresponsible parent do you think I am little man?! Leaving a baby home alone, not gonna happen!" Carlilse tsk'ed and shook his head. "Don't worry buddy, if any bullies make you cry daddy will protect you!"

Somehow this statement DIDN'T reassure Edward and he started to bawl.

the hardest part of getting Edward dressed for his day out (Aside from his fussing and whining of course) was trying to find something to go over the boys massive diaper butt.

A lesser daddy would of given up and just had the diapers on display but Carlilse was no normal daddy, he was a super one!

Originally he was going to take his darling baby boy out in a onesie but the crotch snap's kept popping open. none of his overalls would go quite all the way up and pants were just hopeless.

in the end a old pair of light yellow short with the waist band wore out managed to get mostly over the diaper, the top of the padding was sticking out and Carlilse just used one of Edward's longer shirts to mostly cover up the showing diapers.

of course if Edward reached up for something the diapers were going to show and the shorts could hide his giga diaper ass anyways but at least Carlilse was trying and he almost melted when a blushing and huffy Edward gave him a small hug and thanked him for the effort.

"Awww, your VERY welcome buddy. though i think we better get you some new clothes too. looks like we've got a full day ahead of us!" Carlilse coo'ed then paused. "Speaking of full.."

and he leaned down and sniffed Edward butt, a act that despite how embarrassing it was made Edward giggle like the big baby he was dressed up as.

"Nope! still nice and clean! don't worry buddy, we'll get your diapies first."

Carlilse was quickly realizing he was a victim of his own success as he hadn't counted on just how much one more of the bulky diapers he put Edward in could change things.

Case and point, Edward was having a hard time getting into his car seat, and he was actually trying, not like when he'd have a fit about just going on a drive thought the country side.

"Ummm Daddy, maybe I should lose a few diapers." Edward said, rubbing the back of his head but grinning like a fool.

'oh you think you've won this round huh little man?' Carlilse thought.

never one to give in, Carlilse push and squished Edward till his pamper butt was seated, and then with even more effort got him buckled in.

"Look like we're getting a new car seat for you today too.Somebodies getting all his birthday presents early!" the teasing daddy chuckled.

"W-what!? But I don't want my birthday presents used up on this stuff!" Edward whined and huff.

"Well you should of thought about that before becoming such a helpless giga butt diaper baby." Carlilse said and tapped a finger on Edward nose.

Before the big baby could form a retort Carlilse was gone, the door shut and then behind the wheel.

"No fits little man. if your a good little boy and behave I'll let you walk around with daddy, any fits and you go in the shopping cart." He called back.

Edward huffed, opened his mouth to argue, and then just sighed and nodded.

"Yes daddy."

Adorably Edward conked out in his car seat on the way to the mall, the car ride affecting him like it would most babies and he had to be gently woken up when they reached the mall's parking lot.

wiping the drool from the big babies chin he gently shook him awake.

"Edddddy...eddddddy~ time to get up~" Carlilse coo'ed softly.

"Nggggh.. five more minutes.." Edward whined, more asleep then awake.

"Sorry buddy but we're here. come on, open those big beautiful eyes for dada." Carlilse coo'ed.

Edward yawned and slowly opened his eyes, confusion going across his face for a second as he looked around the car and the parking lot, before his memory kicked in.

"Oh man..I totally zonked out there.." He said blushing.

"Heh, it's perfectly natural." Carlilse said, working on getting the seat belt undo and then Helping Edward out of the car. "Now Hold daddies hand till we're inside, I don't want you running off and getting hurt by a car."

of course any car that ran into Edward, diapered or not, would be the one to be wreaked, but it just helped with the cute image of Edward being a helpless big baby.

Getting into the mall Edward had the naive hope that he'd be able to let go of Carlilse's hand and not look like a total 'daddies little man' but atlas, it wasn't meant to be.

"The mall's a big place Eddy, Hold daddies hand so you don't wander off and get lost. it's that or we go back to using the baby leash." Carlilse said.

Edward, who hated having to hold hands shuddered as he recalled the dreaded harness and leash. it was bad enough he was being treated like a helpless baby, without making him feel like a dog on a leash!

"I'll be good." Edward grumbled as they pasted a group of middle schoolers who burst out laughing and pointing at Edward as they waddled by, one of them making a video.

"Bwhahaha look at the big baby!"

"his diapers are MASSIVE!"

"what a dork!"

"oh look Eddy, you made new friends!" Carlilse said, smirking and tugged Edward over towards the kids. "Say hi to everyone Eddy." Carlilse encouraged, and Edward knew what was expected of him and in a effort to get out of it hammed up some baby behavior.

Turn back and hiding his face in Carlilse's shirt he whimpered out a soft "nooo..scared.." and whimpered every so cutely.

Carlilse knew what he was doing and decided to roll with it, but what Edward didn't know was while he was hiding his face in daddies chest, the back of his shirt was lifted to show off the top of his diapers.

"Shhh shh, It's ok little man. Sorry, he's just super shy. maybe next time." Carlilse said to the cackling teens.

Pulling back from Carlilse Edward went to lisp out a thank you but then his tummy gurgled and a massive poot came out, and while the thickness of the diapers muted it somewhat, there was a good chance the whole mall would of heard it if he hadn't of been padded.

"Gee, such a nice way to thank daddy stinker." Carlilse teased and ruffled Edward's hair as the teens were laughing harder, at least till the smell hit them.

As they walked away Edward could hear them gagging and coughing, one of them claiming his eyes were burning and couldn't help but giggle evilly.

"You enjoyed that a little too much." Carlilse chuckled, though considering how semi evil he could be, he was having a 'i'm so proud of you' moment with Edward.

their destination was twice upon a childhood, a niche shop that catered to little and the like and was third biggest of all the shops in the mall.

Edward had only been there once and still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that some people wanted to be treated like he was when it was a ongoing living hell for him.

He'd actually been told by anther little when he was there how lucky he was and how jealous he was of Edward, who had dryly remarked he'd of swapped with him any day of the week.

As the shop drew close Edward was getting tummy craps and whined a little holding his tummy.

"Um..Daddy. I have go potty." Edward said, trying to use his little guy voice in a effort to butter Carlilse up.

"And?" Carlilse asked, grinning with amusement, and seeing right though the little guys efforts.

"Well, it's gonna be a uh-oh." Edward explained.

"I repeat, And?" Carlilse said, speeding their walk up knowing it would only make Edward lose control even faster.

"C-Come on daddy! I can't..you know.." and Edward blew a raspberry. "In public! L-Let's go back to the car!"

"How would that help? we need to get you more diapers before you can get a bum change."

"I..I could stay in the car and wa-"

"Leave a baby in a car alone?! Never! now stop fusing mister man or your going in a cart seat when we get in there!" Carlilse said in a tone that made it clear that was final.

Edward however wasn't listening and stomped a foot, yank his hand away.

"NO! I wanna go back to the car! Now! NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!" He huffed and jumped up and down making a scene and worse, steering up breakfast and ruining any chance he had of making it back to the car.

"Little man, that is enough!" Carlilse said and started towards Edward who suddenly paled and hunched over, a massive series of wet farts escaping and despite himself he hunched down, one hand on the floor and anther one holding his tummy as he shamefully loaded his diapers.

"-sigh- And you wonder why your still in diapers." Carlilse said, then turned to the crowd. "I'm sorry for little Edward making a scene." he started and then as a horrid stench started to fill the area he added. "And I know he's sorry about the smell. "

Edward who felt like he was pushing out his skeleton as he unloaded grunted and groaned, the occasional cry of "POOPIE" was the only thing anyone could understand as seconds turned into minutes.

the Short's turned they're best but they had already been at their limit before the massive mass of baby fudge pushed out the back and to the surprise of no one but Edward they ripped apart and basically hung around his waist like a loin cloth of sorts.

with his pampers filled to the brim, both front and back, any and all fight was out of Edward who whimpered and slowly stood up, legs forced apart even more and held out his arm's.

"D-Daddy!" he whined and Carlilse came over and picked him up, the big babies legs wrapping around him and arms holding tight as Carlilse got a arm under the boys smelly rear and patted his back.

"Shhh, shh..It's alright. your just a baby Eddy. it's all right. Come on, let's go get you some clean diapers and new outfit. if you're a good boy we'll get you some stuffies too. hows that sound?"

Edward nodded dumbly, and it would be till later in the day when he'd realized with that last display, the last of Edward's big boy mind had ended up in the seat of the diaper that had been tossed out, and that Edward would never be able to be anything more then a helpless big baby.

The end

[writing-radionoises]

encouragement

ship: pre-relationship beast! shin soukoku

genre: post-canon hurt/comfort

prompt: after dazai's death, atsushi is picked up by odasaku and temporarily lives with odasaku and akutagawa. akutagawa attempts to encourage some healing in atsushi.

notes: i want to kiss beast atsushi so bad and so i threw all of that onto akutagawa. there's not enough soft beast shin soukoku so of course, i provide enjoy!

“So, he’s staying with you?”

Akutagawa nods at the brunette at the door. Ango Sakaguchi, a government worker and a good friend of Odasaku’s. By default, this makes him a good friend and probable father figure to Akutagawa.

“The mafia disbanded and scattered to the wind, most of the executives have abandoned their posts and gone into hiding,” Akutagawa explained, “Odasaku-san found him half-dead in an alleyway, and you know how he is about kids.”

“No trouble with his ability or anything of the sorts?”

Akutagawa nods a no.

“He’s under control, kids don’t mind him. Don’t worry about Nakajima, we’ve got it under control.”

“Are you certain?” “Yes. I have a child to tend to, out with you,” Akutagawa shoos the government worker with a stern look as a toddler calls out for him in the background.

Ango gives him a strange look before hesitantly waving a goodbye, and Akutagawa closes the door behind him.

Akutagawa lets out a sigh, grabbing his tattered coat from off the coat hanger and throwing it over his shoulders as he picks up the small child calling for him.

She’s a new child Oda has picked up, no older than three or four. However, Oda unexpectedly went out of town, and so Akutagawa is stuck playing babysitter for two children.

Nakajima has proven himself to be a child at times.

The small girl clings to Akutagawa’s jacket, mumbling something softly to herself as Akutagawa gently bounces her, heading towards the kitchen to find Nakajima already at the table.

Most days were the same. Nakajima awakes late, enters the kitchen, sits at the table and spaces off for most of the day. He’s not talkative, though Akutagawa can’t say he is, either.

The tension between them is strong after what Akutagawa had done to Nakajima, though also because of their shared experience of the death of Osamu Dazai.

The shared knowledge of the book, which is held within Akutagawa’s possession.

He thought about using the book over and over again, though never quite goes through with it.

The truth is, Akutagawa finds himself not upset with his life.

Outside of Gin’s sudden hatred and distance from him, his life is rather good.

Odasaku is a good man who cares very much for him.

The agency serves as a family, they all care for Akutagawa more than anything.

He’s developed a knack for caring for children, helping them come out of their shells.

He  can cook and function like most of any normal human being these days.

There’s no telling what his life would look like if he tried to change it.

“Who was at the door?” Nakajima deadpanned from the table.

Akutagawa glanced over, almost surprised at the other’s voice.

“A man, don’t worry about him. He’s a friend of Oda’s.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Nothing special,” Ryuunosuke replied, “As I said, don’t worry about it.”

Nakajima falls silent once again as he sets the toddler in a highchair, grabbing a fold out stool from beside the fridge to reach up and grab the cereal for the toddler.

The toddler seemed calm and happy now with a tray of Cheerios in front of her as Akutagawa sits beside her, across from Nakajima, and watches the child half-mindedly.

“He’s a clever man, I bet he works for the government,” Nakajima continued, his eyes glued to the table as he pulls his jacket a little closer to his face.

“Clever…” Ryuunosuke mused, “You could say that. He is a government worker, he mostly just checks in on the agency every once in a while. I suppose he got word that you’re staying here.”

“... He should’ve arrested me.”

“Perhaps, but I think he has bigger fish to fry.”

The two fall silent once again as the toddler crunches down on the cereal happily. Akutagawa runs his hands through his hair. He can only wonder what’s going through Nakajima’s head, he hasn’t been the same since he witnessed Dazai’s suicide. Though, it’s understandable. Akutagawa struggles to remember that Dazai was not pure evil like Akutagawa remembered. In Atsushi’s eyes, he was a good man and mentor.

Akutagawa would argue, based on what he had seen Dazai do to Atsushi, though it’s not a fight worth picking.

Nakajima looked up from the wooden table, looking at Akutagawa with curious eyes.

“Why do you let me stay here, after everything I’ve done?”

Akutagawa glanced back over at Atsushi from the toddler, shrugging.

“I believe everyone needs some encouragement.”

Nakajima’s brows furrowed in confusion, looking away from Akutagawa as the conversation ends.

Akutagawa isn’t certain if he brought clarity to Nakajima’s mind, or confused him more.

“Go out and do something with him, something fun. Bring some life back to that boy for me, I’m getting worried for him.”

That’s what Odasaku had said to Akutagawa a day prior. Akutagawa had expected this to happen eventually, Odasaku always had him handle the tougher children.

Though, Nakajima wasn’t necessarily a child.

Akutagawa wasn’t quite sure how this would work out, he rarely interacted with adults like this, he had only a handful of friendly encounters with Nakajima.

One way or another, Akutagawa managed to get Nakajima in the car to drive off. Nakajima didn’t ask many questions, and accepted the answer of “it’s a surprise” when it came to where they were going.

Nakajima sat beside him in the passenger seat, watching cars and pedestrians go by as Akutagawa drove out towards a park, a rather empty one as he parked along the side, climbing out of the car to get into the backseat to get out a bag of frozen peas and lettuce no one in the house was going to eat.

Nakajima’s brows furrowed as he followed suit, looking around the park cautiously. Akutagawa led the way towards the duck pond, he thought about offering his hand out to Nakajima, though he decided against it.

It was trying maybe a little too hard to not baby Nakajima.

Nakajima followed behind Akutagawa like a lost child, his hands laced together as he looked around the empty park. He sat beside Akutagawa on a park bench in front of the duck pond, he seemed to grow more and more confused by the minute.

As Akutagawa fumbled with the bag of frozen peas, Nakajima finally spoke up.

“What… Are we doing here?”

“Feeding the ducks,” Akutagawa replied simply, holding out a small handful of peas for Nakajima to take.

Nakajima took them hesitantly, looking over them before tossing them out to the ducks beginning to crowd around them.

Akutagawa did the same, the silence between them filled with the quaking of happy ducks. Akutagawa resisted a smile, instead opting to bounce his left leg.

“Are you trying to get information out of me?” Nakajima asked, looking over to Akutagawa.

Akutagawa nodded a no, “I’m getting you out of the house.”

“You didn’t need to.”

“What, and let you sit there and rot away? I think getting out might’ve been the best for you, it’s easier to get over things when there’s more going on around you,” Akutagawa explained.

Nakajima looked down at his lap, falling silent as he nuzzled into his coat once more.

Akutagawa didn’t push for more answers, continuing to watch the ducks as he shifted his head from side to side half-mindedly.

“... If you’re trying to get me to talk more, it’s not working,” Nakajima hummed, brushing his bangs out of his eyes as he fidgeted with his fingers, “I don’t like talking.”

“I don’t either,” Ryuunosuke replied, “Though, I suppose I can talk enough for the two of us. Kenji-kun tells me getting to know someone is a give and take thing, I’m working on it, however… I’m much more used to talking to children than people my age.”

“You… Work with children that often?” The silver haired boy asked, hesitantly, to which Akutagawa nodded.

“Yes, I work under Odasaku, so it’s natural. My past makes me relatable to children we help, my background as an older brother usually makes me likable to younger children. I don’t mind it, talking to children is… Easier than an adult. Children only understand so much, they lack the knowledge of social normalities most of the time, it’s easier for me…” Ryuunosuke explained, “I grew up with very little social interaction, I spoke with my sister and a few other orphaned children, though that was about it. I never learned how most people communicate.”

“Your sister…” Atsushi mused, eyes glued to the ground.

A slight pain made its home in Akutagawa’s heart from the mention of Gin. Even now, it’s difficult to think about her. He’d never let her go, and never love anyone quite as much.

He isn’t sure if anyone would quite understand how he felt about his little sister, not even Tanizaki could quite understand. Akutagawa grew up alone, raising Gin himself up until Dazai stole her away.

It was less of a typical brother-sister relationship and more of a father-daughter relationship.

“Her name is Gin, right?” Atsushi asked, breaking Akutagawa out of his thoughts.

He nodded, “Yes, her name is Gin… She’s a sweet girl at heart, I’m not sure how she really lasted in the mafia…”

Akutagawa propped his head up in his hand, trying to take his mind off of whatever pain he was feeling. This wasn’t supposed to be about him, he shouldn’t dump his baggage on the other.

“... She was strong,” Nakajima commented, “I only met her a few times, but she was strong, physically and mentally. I don’t quite get how she survived Dazai, either, especially now… I barely survived Dazai…”

Akutagawa looked over to Atsushi, watching the boy continue to feed the ducks, a little more confident and out about himself.

“For the sake of my sanity, did he ever hurt Gin?” Akutagawa asked.

Atsushi paused, looking up in thought before eventually nodding no.

“Not to my knowledge. He didn’t hurt physically most of the time, he would manipulate you into hurting yourself,” Atsushi explained, “I’m sure… I’m still under some of his manipulations, but I’m not ready to address that…”

Akutagawa knew he was referring to the collar, though decided not to comment on that.

“That’s alright, address it when you’re ready. Healing is a long process,” Ryuunosuke reassured, “We’ll be here when you are ready to address it.”

A slight smile came to Atsushi’s face.

“Thank you, I’ll try my best.”

Akutagawa smiled back, watching the other happily watch the ducks.

A part of Ryuunosuke thinks Atsushi’s smile might be the cutest thing he’s ever seen.

[drblueneck]

Jagged Pieces/Wreaking Havoc snippet

So y’all had me wondering about what Jealous!Minato would be like in JP, and what could trigger his jealousy. This is my answer. Enjoy! I’ll post this later on in Wreaking Havoc when it’s edited and perhaps add some little things :)

It all started with food.

Hajime was never a fussy baby, happy to stuff his mouth with whatever edible thing was in sight. Hajime was also not a sharer: what was his was his alone, something he surely took after his father who would always berate Kujin or Naruto when they borrowed something of his without asking. So Minato was quite surprised when Hajime presented a pile of mushy… something… in the palm of his hand to Kujin of all people.

“Is that for me? Is it, Haji-chan? Is it for Uncle ?”

The red-head was bent over the toddler, a huge grin stretching his lips as he waved a spoon around. He had insisted to help Minato feed his son so that he could finish some mission report, and though it often meant having to wash his hair afterwards, Kujin always took pleasure in caring for his honorary nephew.

“Um, um!”

Hajime waved his fistful around, leaning over his highchair to bring it closer to Kujin’s mouth.

“Yum yum, yes ! But it’s for Haji-chan, not Uncle, come on, eat it!” Seeing the toddler unreleteningly trying to shove his tiny fist in Kujin’s mouth, the redhead turned towards his friend, pale faced. “Dude, do I really have to eat this mush?”

Minato had been staring at them, eyebrows raised so high they disappeared under his fringe. He blinked twice at Kujin’s question before abruptly frowning. He neatly gathered his papers and put his pen down before crossing his hands sternly in front of him.

“Eat.”

“Dude, no.”

“My son offered you his meal. Are you going to refuse his gift and be the first to teach him what disappointment is?”

Mouth agape at the sheer betrayal from his friend, Kujin was about to spew some dirty insults when Hajime’s tiny fist finally found its destination. Kujin gagged around the mouthful, Hajime giggled, and Minato grumbled something laced with venom.

And then it happened again as they were in the garden.

Hajime was crawling around the high grass, stopping every once in a while to pull at some herbs or to dig his fingers in the damp dirt. Kujin was supervising him while Minato was tending to a patch of flowers that Naruto insisted he watered while she was away.

The man was focused on trimming the plants, thinking half-fondly about his banshee of a wife and entertaining the idea of trashing the flowerbed just to bask in her angry reaction – that would lead to a good fight between them, and perhaps they could even have some angry make up sex afterwards if Naruto was not too upset – when Kujin’s surprised cry got his attention.

“Oooh, is that for me Haji-chan? You shouldn’t have. Like. Really!”

Hajime giggled, clapping his hands together as his gift of crushed grass and wet pebbles were well received.

Inadvertently, Minato cut the head of a flower, staring holes in Kujin’s skull.

The third time, Hajime gave Kujin a button.

The fourth, he gave him a quarter of the apple Minato had cut for him.

The fifth time was the one too many for the blond man as he came home to relieve Kujin from his babysitting duty only to find Hajime asleep on the man’s shoulder, his plushie hanging in the redhead’s grip.

Seeing the storm brewing in his friend’s eyes, Kujin was quick to put the baby in his crib and to stir the seething father away from the room.

“Ooookay, dude, what crawled up your ass and died? You look constipated as fuck.”

Minato ripped the plushie dripping with saliva from Kujin’s hand and tucked it in his pocket, left eyebrow already twitching with repressed anger.

“You’re stealing my son,” Minato said between gritted teeth.

Confused, Kujin tilted his head on the side like a curious bird. “Wha?”

The blond man crossed his arms and started tapping his foot on the floor. “Stop stealing my son’s attention!”

“Again, whaaaat?”

With an angry huff, Minato started counting on his fingers. “He gives you his food, he gives you gifts, he even lends you his plushie that I bought for him. He never does that with me, not even with his mother. So. Kujin. You’re a son stealer, and you need to stop.”

And that did it.

Unable to help himself, Kujin burst out laughing, growing red in the face with the force of it. “OOoouuuuh hoho this is sooo good hahahaha ! Minato! Dude! I can’t evenPWHAHAHAHA!”

“Stop laughing, it’s not funny!”

“It iiiiiiiis pffffhahahaha!”

Fed up, Minato kicked him in the shin and Kujin stumbled back, hopping in place as he held onto his shin, still unable to stop his laughter.

Finally, he calmed down and wiped the tears from his face. “Dude! Your son is a freaking HELLION! He’s been putting up a fight everytime your back is turned! His gifts are POISONED! The mush he fed me was something he had already chewed on, he gave me a worm along with his pebbles, he fished the button from the toilets, and he’s been screaming his head off for the last two hours before I finally put him to bed.”

Kujin clapped his hands on Minato’s shoulders. Hard.

“So. Brother. Teach your spawn some manners, because I swear to God he’s more of a little turd than you are. But still cuter than you.”

Usually, Minato would’ve surely bashed his friend’s head in for the insult. But this time around, he basked in it, weirdly happy.

“Oh. I guess like father, like son. Thanks for the babysitting Kujin, I’ll take it up from here and spend some quality time with my son.”

And if it was said with more proud and possessiveness than should be reasonable, well.

Minato couldn’t care one bit.

OMAKE

“… and he praised him afterwards! Can you believe that shit?!”

He slapped some more coins on the counter, wordlessly asking for a new drink. Naruto clucked her tongue, still nursing her second beer.

“Tch, so typical. He completely spoiled my baby! Haji-chan used to cling to me and be so cute…” she almost crushed the glass in her hand as she spat the next words, “and now he always just wants daddy!”

“Ugh, I’m never babysitting for you guys again. You’re raising the Devil’s child, mark my words.” He would know after all, Minato had to have been born from the deepest pit of hell to be like he is.

“Well I’m never having kids again. Traitors, that’s what they are. You grow them for nine months and what do they thank you with, hm?”

Kujin gulped down a new shot. “I don’t know, cut your hair, like they do with their babysitters?” he said bitterly, fingering at the shorter red locks falling from his braid.

“Worse! Their first word is ‘daddy’! ‘DADDY’! HOW IS THAT FAIR?!”

“Fucking Minato,” they both muttered, clinking their glass together.

[nataliedanovelist]

GF - Two and a Half Men

Summary: Shermie leaves his son with his twin brothers, fully trusting them to take good care of the baby for an afternoon. What a terrible mistake.

~~~~~~~~~~

It was Spring Break, a glorious and yet hectic time in Glass Shard Beach. No one wanted to go to that trashy shoreline for a vacation when compared to the nicer beaches along the Atlantic, but lower-middle class families and broke college students settled and still had a good time for a cheaper price. The weather cooperated perfectly and Ford had worked so hard on his Science Fair project that he could afford to take a break while they were out of school, so today he and Stan were babysitting.

Shermie counted off the list of things for his brothers to remember while Stan held the baby. “Now remember, he needs to take a nap after he eats or he’ll be fussy later, he likes cereal the best and he can snack on that if he wants, but he needs to eat his peas or carrots for lunch, or a little bit of both. Also make sure he drinks his milk and for Moses’ sake, if he makes a mess, please wash him! Now, whatever you do, don’t lose Ottie! Last time we lost him Alex screamed for hours on end, I had to get a new one, so just keep an eye on him, and…”

“Shermie, can you relax? Geez.” Stan rolled his eyes, bouncing his nephew. “We’ve got this. We can handle the little guy for the day.” “I know you can, I just want to make it as easy for you as possible.” Shermie shrugged off the baby bag and held it out to Ford. He took it and immediately sunk to the floor with it. “Sweet Lord, Sherman, what did you put in here?” Ford groaned as he hoisted the bag on his shoulder. “Rocks?” “Everything Alex needs.” Shermie answered and patted the full-stroller that was by the door. “Clothes, diapers, wipes, breast milk, formula, bottles, blankets, toys, Ottie, sunglasses…” “Why in the world would he need sunglasses?” “For his eyes, Stanford!” Shermie defended. “Great, this is perfect, we’ll be fine!” Stan said cheerfully and grinned like a salesman. Shermie checked his pocket watch and winced. “Shoot, gotta go! I’ll be back later tonight to pick him up.” Shermie bent his knees and little and tickled under Alex’s chin and cooed, making the baby laugh and grab his finger. “Alright, Lil’Lex, love you, sport.” And Shermie kissed his tiny hand and headed to the door. “Oh, and guys,” His eyes darkened and the twins felt shivers go down their spines. “If anything happens to my son, I will never forgive or trust you again… Bye, have fun!” And Shermie was gone. Stan sighed with relief. “Finally! Now that Stuck-Up’s gone, the real fun begins!” He lifted his nephew above his head and asked in a wittle-baby voice, “Who’s ready to be the best chick-magnet in the world? You are, yes you are, you little stud!” “I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.” Ford said cautiously as Stan put the baby on his hip and bounced him as he was getting a little bit fussy. “Hey, you’re the one who admitted to needing help with girls.” Stan said and reached into the stroller for the stuffed otter. He gave it to Alex, who cheered up and hugged the toy, and then said, “Trust me, girls love babies! They’ll see us taking good care of little guy here and bam! You have your pockets full of phone numbers! Now go put on your trunks!” Ford was uneasy about taking Alex out to the beach and trying to talk to girls, but he ultimately decided that it would be fun to take their nephew out and let him play (and it might help to find a new girl for Stan since Carla dumped him), so he did as he was told and changed and then watched Alex while Stan changed. About an hour later, Stan was holding Alex by his hip with a towel over his opposite shoulder and Ford walked next to him with that torturous baby-bag. The stroller had no chance in the sand, so they left it home and decided that if the beach didn’t work a walk around the park certainly would. Stan happily strode around topless in his red swimming trunks while Ford wore a white t-shirt with his blue trunks. Alex wore a white t-shirt, too, as well as little baby-trunks with ducks on it, and he threw down his little green sunglasses every time Ford put them on him. Stan laughed and said, “Squirt’s got good taste already.” Ford sighed and pocketed the sunglasses in the bag, hoping the baby wouldn’t become blind and Shermie wouldn’t be mad. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Stanley? What if he gets into some glass, or goes into the water, or is stepped on…” “Sixer, you’re somehow worse than Sherm.” Stan lightly punched his shoulder. “Relax, we all deserve to have some fun. Alex doesn’t live by the beach; he won’t get to grow up like we did, playin’ here every day. Let him enjoy it with the best uncles in the world.” He threw the towel down on the sand and sat Alex down while making rocket-ship noises. Ford smiled and said, “Alright, but he really should put on sunscreen.” And he pulled out a bottle and lathered up Alex’s soft skin. The baby giggled and blew raspberries while Ford rubbed his arms and legs and face. The six-fingered teenager used his birth-defect for great evil and tickled the ribs and little baby-fat as he applied the sunscreen and smiled at the beautiful laughter his nephew made. Stan smiled at his brother, glad to see him coming around a little bit more when it came to kids, and he ruffled the little brown fluff on Alex’s head for being a good sport; he can remember throwing a fit at the idea of sunscreen when he was a toddler, meanwhile Ford would hold his breath and pray the chore would be done quickly. “Aw, how cute.” A girl in a light-purple bathing suit suddenly cooed as her long brown hair fell by her shoulder when she bent down to get a better look at the baby. “What’s his name?” Ford could feel his face getting very hot, despite the admirer standing in front of the sun. “This is our nephew, Alex.” “Aw, you two are great uncles.” She complimented sincerely and wiggled her fingers at the baby in greeting. She glanced up, saw her boyfriend waving at her, and she told the three boys to have a good day as she jogged across the beach. Stan gave out a low whistle. “Hot tamales, this kid’s gonna score us with some gorgeous babes.” “Stanley,” Ford chuckled as he shook his head and he reached into the baby-bag for his book, but Stan snatched it from his hands. “Hey!” “Nu huh, Sixer. No nerd stuff.” Stan put the book back in the bag and laid down on his back to soak in some sun. He shielded his eyes with a pair of sunglasses and said, “If you’re so bored play with Alex. Ooph!” Alex had climbed up on Stan’s chest and sat right on his ribs, not that the six-month-old was very heavy. Stan lifted his sunglasses to his forehead and smiled at the baby. “C’mon, squirt, I’m tryin’ to get a good tan here.” “No, Stan, no naps.” Ford mimicked his brother from earlier and stood up. “Why not let him try the sea and splash in some water?” “Good idea.” Stan picked up Alex and left their stuff on the towel and walked to the shoreline. Alex looked down at the waves that gently crashed on the shore. They rolled close to the sand and splashed peacefully. Stan helped Alex stand by holding him by his hands and Ford sat on his knees just where the water touched the sand at max. The baby awed at the splashing water and wiggled with chills when the water touched his little feet, but then laughed with delight over the new experience. Stan then sat Alex down next to Ford to sit and he wiggled his arms up and down as he squealed with joy. Here, the sand was squishy and fun to grab and the water was going away and coming back, like magic. Stan laughed as Alex shoved a fistful of sand into his mouth and Ford scrambled to help the little guy spit it out. Alex didn’t cry, merely confused as to why something so pretty tasted so bad, but the uncles were too distracted by Alex’s sand-eating that they didn’t notice a bigger wave coming. It wasn’t dangerous, but it did splash Alex on the face and spooked him and made him fall backward and cry over being overwhelmed. “Oh no, oh no,” Ford cooed and picked Alex up as he stood up. “Perhaps snack time would be more efficient with real food and away from the sea water.” “I think Shermie packed some peas and carrots to give him.” Stan said as they went back to the towel. He rummaged a bit and found two containers of food, a baggie of cereal, and a small spoon. Ford sat Alex in his lap so he could use his uncle as a highchair and Stan opened the mushed-up peas. “Alright, lunchtime squirt, open up.” Alex, however, turned away at the spoon filled with food and put his lip out. “Oh, what, you’re too good for my peas?” Stan asked and tried again, but Alex dodged the spoon and scowled. “Oh, come on, ‘Lex. Work with me.” “Maybe a snack or milk first?” Ford suggested. “Nah, he’s just being picky.” Stan reasoned. “Look, Alex, Uncle Stan loves ‘em, look.” He put the spoon into his mouth and thought he might vomit. His face turned as green as the mashed-up peas and he spat the disgusting food back into the container. “Who in God’s name would feed that to babies?!” He yelled in horror and hurled the food into the sea. “Stanley!” Ford scolded, trying not to laugh but he was snickering all the while. “That was awful!” Stan shouted and coughed and gagged. “No way I’m feeding that to my nephew.” Ford sighed with a smile on his face and said down to the baby, “Good rule, always make Uncle Stan test it first.” “Whatever, he can have his cereal instead.” Stan plunged a hand back into the bag and pulled out a bottle of milk. “Here, kid, something to wash down the sand with.” Alex happily accepted the bottle and even held it himself. His uncles smiled, and one of them finally noticed the giggling happening a few feet away. Stan saw four cute girls sitting at a picnic awhile away, probably in college. They were giggling at them and awing at the baby. Stan smiled and tossed them a wink. The girls giggled again and stood. “And now to reap from the benefits of babysitting, Sixer.” Stan whispered. “Keep it cool.” “What?” And Ford finally noticed the four girls. One with flaming red hair and a yellow bathing suit sat on her knees next to Ford and cooed, “Aw, how adorable! He’s very cute.” “Um, thank you.” Ford said, his face turning red. “I would have also accepted ‘handsome’ and ‘extremely cute’.” Stan stared at amazement that his brother came up with that on his own and grinned proudly. The girls laughed with him, a lovely change from at him, and the girl with tanned skin and black hair said, “Oh my gosh, you’re so funny! Is he a cousin or something?” “Our nephew, Alex.” Ford informed the girls as the one with tanned skin sat with her knees by her chest in front of the baby for a good look at him. “Wow, you two are so good with him.” A blonde girl with blue eyes sighed admirably and smiled at Stan. “Yup, he’s our little buddy.” Stan said smugly. “Just making sure he has a good time.” “Aw, well you guys have fun!” And the blonde girls squeezed Stan’s shoulder and the red-head waved at Ford with a cute wink as they resumed their picnic. “That was the longest a girl didn’t talk to me out of pity.” Ford said breathlessly. “We should totally take him to the park and catch more babes there.” Stan advised as he took Alex’s bottle to make sure he didn’t drink too much at once. “Or we could just take him just to spend some quality time with our nephew.” “Yeah, that too I guess.” Ford snorted with laughter and noticed Alex’s yawn. Apparently the excitement of a new place and the soothing crashing of the waves, mixed with the warm sun, was making him sleepy. Ford laid Alex down on the towel on his belly, Stan gave him Ottie the otter, and Alex soon fell asleep. Ford opened his book to read while Stan laid and sunbathed for a bit. A few minutes passed and Stan rolled on his front to tan his back. While on his front, Stan rubbed Alex’s back and kinda got lost in thought over his nephew, the warm sun making his brain melt into mush and all seemed too right in the world to care. Ford was invested in his book, enjoying the story about stupid jewelry or whatever, but then Stan’s eyes looked past his twin and saw some very pretty girl in a bikini, lying on a blanket with a magazine and a nice sunhat on, her freckled body covered by a black bathing suit and her eyes right at him. Her lips were naturally red and lush, biting her bottom lip as she gave Stan this look that made him a sucker. She waved at him and Stan grinned excitedly and hurried to go talk to the pretty woman. A few moments after Stan left, Alex woke up. He blinked his tired eyes and looked around. His brown eyes landed on a seagull and he smiled at the birdie. Alex grabbed Ottie by one of his little paws and slowly crawled off the towel. He started to get the hang of the new trick and crawled faster towards the birdie, but it soon flew away and went back down farther away from the ocean and closer to the town. Alex followed it as he giggled and he was off. Stan soon walked back to the blanket with a phone number in his hand and he twindled it between his fingers. He smiled down at the towel to tell Ford the good news, but his blood ran cold. “Sixer?” “Hm?” “Where’s Alex?” “He’s right…” Ford put his hand down right where he believed Alex to be sleeping, but he touched nothing but towel. His heart skipped a beat and he snapped his book closed and scurried around the towel, even lifting it off the sand in case the baby was somehow under it. “Alex? Alex?!” “What did you do?!” Stan yelled. “You left us?!” “You were with him!” “You couldn’t tell m- This won’t help us find him!” Ford shook his head and tried to control his mounting anxiety. “He couldn’t have gotten far… I didn’t even know he was crawling yet!” “Aw, man. His first crawl and we missed it?” “STANLEY!” “Right, right!” Stan looked around and gasped with horror. “What if he went into the water?! I’M COMIN’, ALEX! UNCLE STAN’S COMIN’!” He ran into the water and looked around, even diving into the deeper parts and checking where the tide was drifting in a different direction. Ford was shaking, but he then looked down at the sand and noticed small hand prints and a disturbance in the sand. He sighed with relief that Alex hadn’t drowned and ran up to his twin, who was now waist-deep in salt-water and panicking. “ALEX! ALEX!” “Stanley, there’s a trail we can follow! I think Alex went into town!” Ford called from the shoreline and Stan splashed to him and ran back to the towel with him, gathered their stuff, and ran off of the sand. The terrified young men looked around on the sidewalk, but saw no sign of their baby nephew. “Okay, if we were Alex, where would we go?” Stan huffed. Ford held his chin and tried to think through his fear. “Babies are generally attracted to colors and sounds… perhaps something caught his eye and curiosity got the best of him…” “There!” Stan bolted down the sidewalk and Ford followed him with the baby-bag on his shoulder. On the corner and lying helplessly was the stuffed otter. Stan picked it up with trembling hands. “Okay… now all we need is a dog! To track Alex!” “Stanley, be serious!” “I am, Stanford!” Stan snapped back at him. “If anything happens to that kid I’m gonna kill everyone in this stupid town and then myself! I can’t lose Alex!” “We won’t, we’ll find him.” Ford said, his voice quivering with fear. “How many mysteries have we solved together? How many missing objects and people have we found? We just have to put our heads together and think of a plan. Again, he has only learned to crawl today. He couldn’t have gotten far. Let’s go down this road and keep searching.” ~~~~~~~~~~ Thistle strung his ukulele beautifully, picking notes and finding his tune. Just as he thought he had one, his girlfriend jumped in and sang along. “I don’t need gold, I don’t need silver, I just need you here. I don’t need fame, I don’t need glory, I just need you near. All of my ambitions have gone away, for I’m complete with you.” Carla sang as a soft breeze flew by her long brown hair. Thistle smiled as they both sat on the front steps of Carla’s townhouse in a small neighborhood by the beach. “Not bad, not bad. Pure poetry, my flower.” Carla blushed and shrugged. She listened to Thistle playing solo for a bit, the soft instrument filling the air, and her mood was improved to hear a baby’s giggling. She opened her eyes and looked around, expecting a stroller with passerby, but a lone baby sitting on the sidewalk. Carla gasped and hurried over to the baby, on one knee and looking around for anyone who might be with the little guy. “Hello? Anyone?” Carla called and then scooped up the baby. “Oh, you poor little thing. C’mere, I know.” She cooed and held him by her shoulder and rubbed his back. The baby seemed okay and unafraid. Whoever was looking after him must be close by. Carla carried the baby back to the step and Thistle looked at the little human with sympathy. “Aw, you think he was abandoned?” “No, he’s wearing a bathing suit, see? I think some tourists were distracted and this rascal left his parents, didn’t you?” She cooed and tickled the baby’s ribs. The baby laughed and Carla got a good look at the baby. Something… seemed familiar to her. Maybe it was because she wasn’t around a lot of babies, but this baby reminded her a lot of her ex’s newborn nephew. “Wait a minute…” Carla had only met Alex one time. The day he came home, Stan called her and caught her up on everything. He was kinda cute, all excited and a big lug around the little baby, and he invited her over a few days later and she got to hold Alex. He was amazing and Carla missed him, almost as much as she missed Stan. “I know you, don’t I?” Carla asked, bewildered, but the more she looked at the baby, the more familiar he looked. “Alex?” He only grinned and grabbed her hair to play with it. Carla gave in, wincing a little but she smiled and hugged the baby. “I’ve missed you, too.” “You know him?” Thistle asked suspiciously. “Yeah, he’s Stan’s nephew.” “Oh.” Thistle said darkly and his face hardened. “Trust that idiot to lose a kid.” “Oh, c’mon, that’s not fair.” Carla scolded lightly. “If this little guy is anything like the rest of his family he’s impossible to keep track of.” And she tickled Alex’s ribs, making him laugh. “I’m sure he’ll be around in no time. He’s probably tearing up the whole town for him.” Thistle only rolled her eyes and strung a few cords. ~~~~~~~~~~ Stan and Ford walked into a toy store, in case Alex somehow crawled into it for the brightly colored toys in the window. With no luck in finding him there, they went down the road and called his name cautiously; they wanted the baby to hear them but not any adults who might catch on what had happened. Alex was a smart kid and seemed to know his name by now, so if he heard them he might crawl to them, right? They entered the bakery and found it empty apart from a sleeping teenager at the counter. They even checked behind alleys and underneath parked cars. The more locations they tried and failed at, the higher their nerves got. At one point, Ford even puked into a neighborhood trash can (but that may have also been due to the pile of rotting fish outside the hatchery) and Stan was losing his mind, every sound making his heart pick up speed and his rain making him think it might be Alex or something about to take Alex. A few minutes into their search and they had wandered away from the shops and stores to an area filled with apartments and townhouses. Stan was too distracted to notice this was Carla’s neighborhood, calling his nephew’s name and praying something positive would happen. At long last, they turned a corner where music was playing, vaguely guessing Alex was attracted to the sounds, and they saw Alex in Carla’s lap as she sang along to her new boyfriend’s music. But Stan didn’t give a rat’s ass about any of that; Alex was safe. “ALEX!” The twins screamed and ran to him. Carla smiled and held up the baby. Alex was wiggling and giggling, his chubby arms outstretched for his uncles and happy to see them again. Stan scooped him up and held him tightly and close to his heart, rubbing his back and trying to control himself, but composure be damned. His kid was safe. “Alex! Thank Moses, you’re okay! Don’t you ever scare me like that again, squirt!” Ford rubbed the baby’s back as he clanged onto Stan’s chest and giggled at the extra affection. “Alexander Jackson Pines, I’m so sorry. I should have watched you more closely. I can’t believe I put something as meaningless as knowledge before my own nephew.” “Don’t blame yourself, Poindexter, that’s what I get for…” Stan stopped to find a pair of eyes on him. The entire time, Carla was smiling at the two teenagers and the baby. Ford followed Stan’s eyes and narrowed them at Carla, meanwhile Stan just stared, not a trace of anger on his face. “Um… hey.” “Hey,” Carla said softly and stood on the sidewalk with her arms crossed over her chest loosely. “Glad you found him.” “Yeah, and thanks for watching him.” Stan said as he looked at Alex instead and his smile returned. “Great, you got him back,” Thistle said coldly and stood by the door. “C’mon, baby, let’s have lunch.” “You know what,” Carla said firmly and gave her boyfriend a hard look. “Why don’t you go ahead inside? I’ll be right there.” Thistle growled in his throat and went inside. Stan didn’t know how to feel about things being cold between his ex and her new boyfriend. The little green monster in his gut known as Envy was purring with satisfaction, but he wasn’t so sure if he would ever take her back. Okay, maybe he would give it a chance, but he couldn’t imagine it lasting long. Not after Carla’s true colors were shone. Carla turned back to the Pines and kept her eyes on Stan. “Hey, I… I actually wanted to talk to you for awhile.” “Oh yeah?” His voice was calm. It was just too easy to growl or snap or yell at her. Too easy to go through with it. With Ford next to him and Alex in his arms, he didn’t feel like letting Carla have it; he just wanted to go home and take a nap. “Yeah, I… I’m sorry.” Carla said. “I’m sorry for how I left things. I’ll admit it, I shouldn’t have just dumped you out of the blue like that, and I’m sorry. If I could I totally would’ve done things differently.” “Okay, but what exactly are you sorry for?” Stan asked as he raised an eyebrow at her. “Are you sorry you dumped me the way you did, or are you sorry you left me for the hippy?” Carla narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m sorry that I hurt you, Stan, but I’m not sorry we broke up. I think it’s better this way.” “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t need someone in my life who doesn’t know what’s most important. I dunno why I didn’t see it before; we’re both free spirits, Hotpants, but at least I think of the people I care about first.” “Oh, don’t hold yourself all high and mighty!” Carla snapped. “You’re the one who lost a toddler, Stan, not me! And you’re the one who always says ‘if you want something, get it’. I’m sorry that it hurt your feelings, but I’m not sorry that I wanted a better person and I’m not sorry that I left you at all.” “Well, that’s fine by me!” Stan retaliated. “For what it’s worth, I’ll never be sorry I drove hippy-boy’s van into a ravine, but I’ll always be sorry I ever went out with you in the first place!” And he turned around and walked away with Alex in his arms. Ford and Carla looked at each other. Ford opened and closed his mouth a few times like a fish. Carla raised an eyebrow at him mockingly, but then Ford settled on flipping her off with his two-middle fingers and walking away, leaving her red-faced and alone. When Ford caught up to his family, he found Stan holding Alex by his shoulder and rubbing circles into his back. Alex hugged him back, smiling and looking up at his uncle with round eyes. Stan, however, looked like he was doing some deep thinking. “Are you okay?” Ford asked gently. “Yeah, Sixer, m’fine.” Stan said casually. “We’ve got Alex back, he’s safe, let’s just get home.” “Yes, I am grateful to find him safe and sound, but… is there anything you want to talk about?” “To be frank, no. I said everything I needed to say.” Ford smiled and patted his back. “Alright, Knucklehead, whatever you say.” ~~~~~~~~~~ Shermie let himself into the flat above Pines’ Pawns around six o’clock. “Hello? Stan? Ford? Anyone home?” He wandered down the hall and thought he heard snoring as he approached the living room. He peered down at the couch and smiled. Stan was sprawled out over the couch, lying on his back with the baby curled up on his chest and holding onto Stan’s black t-shirt. Sitting on the floor and against the couch was Ford, with a book on his lap and his head back as he slept; apparently he had been reading to them until they all fell asleep. Shermie guessed he could leave them all to sleep a little while longer and so he picked up Pa’s newspaper and read it at the kitchen table.

[chevrefoildreams]

Four years ago, I spent Thanksgiving grieving what felt like the insurmountable loss of a very much wanted and prayed for child. A miscarriage isn’t just the loss of a pregnancy; it’s the loss of all of your hopes and dreams for that unborn little one. You will never get to see them smile, hear them laugh, see their first steps or try not to giggle when they come over to you proudly with a face covered in marker “make-up” -- on this side of life, at least. I couldn’t celebrate; I didn’t feel thankful or blessed. I just felt empty. I couldn’t see the path ahead anymore, just shadow and gloom.

The following Thanksgiving, we were taking tiny steps on a turn in our path that could have only been formed by the greatest Creator of all. Little Anne-Louise was preparing to join this world and our family. It wasn’t any easy or joyful path in many respects. My pregnancy began with two precious heartbeats but only one remained with us by that Thanksgiving; a loss that comes to me from time to time when I see Anne playing and wonder what her twin would have been like. Would it have been a boy or a girl? Would he or she have had her mischievous smile and knack for finding the loophole in every household rule? If pregnancy after infertility is challenging and pregnancy after miscarriage difficult, a continuing pregnancy after the loss of a twin is something even more complicated. You feel thankful for the hope that remains, but then feel guilty for being happy after losing your child’s twin - as if they didn’t matter at all. All in all, Thanksgiving 2017 was a complex time of mixed grief and joy.

And then there was Anne. Thanksgiving 2018 and 2019 were filled with a sense of immense blessing and love, but also the adjustment to living with a small human who depends on you for their every need. It was easy to find joy in the smiles and laughter that filled the house, simple to find happiness in family celebrations now that there was a new member at the table.

Thanksgiving 2020 is different in so many ways -- we can’t gather together, our families are missing out on seeing baby Anne turn into a little girl who chatters non-stop, loves Frozen and Minnie, and who always stops to pick flowers when we are out walking. My days can feel long, but they seem to pass by so quickly and I’m able to find something to be thankful for in each one, even the harder days. Right now, I am sitting at my desk, taking my precious break from toddler shenanigans as Anne enjoys some quiet time in her room. I can hear her laughter and imagine that she’s arranging her dolls on her big doll bed or feeding them in her doll highchair.  Or maybe they are all visiting Elsa’s castle (even though it’s quite the wrong size for them!) like they did yesterday. Anne doesn’t care that there’s a pandemic raging or a complicated political transition. She had the right color pop tart for breakfast (brown) and got to go on a nice drive with her daddy, one of her favorite things to do. Her joy in life is simple and infectious. And maybe when I get up to check on her, I’ll find her sleeping peacefully on her bed, surrounded by her favorite toys. This is how I want to remember Thanksgiving 2020 - like year, a day that will be so different and complicated for the rest of the world but so happy in our little household.

[btsqualityy]

BTS Toddler Series #6: Tantrums

Kim Seokjin

“Here you go Kade,” Jin smiled as he set down a small bowl of noddles on the tray of Kaiden’s highchair and he watched as Kaiden picked up a noddle and put it into his mouth, chewing on it happily.

“I’m so glad that he can feed himself now,” you admitted as you cut a small piece of cake for yourself. Kaiden looked over at you and saw the piece of cake, which drew his attention away from his noodles.

“Ake,” he lisped, pointing to your plate. You looked down at the cake and then back up at him with a small frown.

“You have to eat your noodles first and then you can have cake,” you explained. Kaiden smacked his hands on the tray of the highchair, loud whines coming out of his mouth. 

“Ake,” he repeated, tears beginning to stream down his face. 

“Noodles first Kade,” Jin spoke up. Kaiden began to kick his feet angrily, kicking Jin in the process. “Yah,” Jin exclaimed, clutching onto his knee in pain. 

“Kaiden Connor,” you called firmly and Kaiden stopped crying, looking over at you as he sniffled. You got up and walked over to him, bending down so that you were level with him. “You have to eat the noodles and then we’ll give you cake, ok? Here, I’ll eat them with you.” You picked up a noodle and held it out for him, and he hesitatingly took it into his mouth. You continued to do that until all of the noodles were gone and then you cut him a small piece of cake.

“It’s ironic that the only time our kid has a tantrum is over food,” Jin spoke up a few minutes later, making you laugh.

Min Yoongi

“Thank you so much for babysitting her for us,” Yoongi smiled as he walked towards his car, Kinsley and your best friend following behind him.

“Oh, it was no problem at all,” your best friend shrugged. “We had a lot of fun, didn’t we Kins?” She looked down at Kinsley, who was sat in her arms and Kinsley nodded happily, making Yoongi chuckle.

“Alright, tell auntie bye bye,” Yoongi told Kinsley as he held his arms for her and she immediately began to pout.

“No bye,” Kinsley whined, making Yoongi raise an eyebrow at her. 

“Kinsley, it’s time to go home. Come with daddy,” he cooed and Kinsley shook her head before curling further into your best friend. Sighing heavily, Yoongi set his hands on the sides of her body and your best friend passed her off to him. Kinsley began to cry crocodile tears at this and arched her back against Yoongi, almost causing him to drop her. 

“Do me a favor and open the car door for me,” Yoongi requested and your best friend nodded quickly before opening up the backseat door. Yoongi quickly walked over and set Kinsley in her car seat, strapping her in while she continued to scream and cry. After making sure she was secure, Yoongi exhaled harshly as he stepped back and shut the car door.

“I’m sorry Yoongi,” your best friend apologized and Yoongi shook his head.

“Nothing to apologize for, she’s probably just tired,” he smiled lightly. “Thanks again.” Your best friend nodded with a smile on her face as she watched Yoongi open the door and get into the driver’s side. 

Kim Namjoon

“Arms up buddy,” Namjoon said as he grabbed the hem of Mason’s t-shirt. Mason lifted his arms and allowed Namjoon to pull his shirt off, doing a little dance in place once he was done because he couldn’t stand still.

“Do you want lots of bubbles in your bath?” Namjoon asked him as he leaned over the tub, checking to make sure the water wasn’t too hot. Mason pouted lightly, shaking his head,

“No bath daddy,” he said. 

“You have to take a bath if you wanna get clean for bed Mase,” Namjoon said. “Now, come on. Let me help you take your pants off.”

“No bath,” Mason shrieked as he ran out of the bathroom. Namjoon groaned loudly before running out of the bathroom after him. He checked in Mason’s room and he wasn’t there so he figured there was only one other place he could be. He walked into the bedroom that you two shared and looked around, when he saw two little feet sticking out from underneath the bed. 

“Mason, please come out from there,” Namjoon pleaded. Mason’s feet moved around but he still made no move to come from his hiding spot. “If you come take a bath, I’ll give you a cookie before bedtime.” At hearing this, Mason crawled from underneath the bed and looked up at Namjoon.

“Ookie,” he drawled and Namjoon nodded as he bent down to pick him up.

“Did I really just have to bribe my own kid with cookies just for him to take a bath?” Namjoon murmured in disbelief as he carried Mason back to the bathroom.

Jung Hoseok

“My!” You hear Berkeley shriek, making you sigh heavily as you walk out of the kitchen into the living room where you’d left them to play. 

“What is going on?” You question and Berkeley points to Lennox, who is playing with a car that you recognize as Berkeley’s.

“My,” she starts to cry and you ran your hand over her head in an attempt to soothe her.

“Lennox, did you take your sister’s car?” You asked him and he just continued to play with the car in response. You took the car from him and gave it back to Berkeley, which caused the two of them to switch emotions; Berkeley smiled and Lennox began to cry. 

“Car,” Lennox whined and you shook your head.

“You can’t just take things from your sister Lennox,” you explained. “Here, why don’t you play with something else?” You glanced inside of the toy box and found a small wind up car. You twisted the handle a few times and then handed it to him, and you watched as he set it on the ground and laughed when it rolled away from him. Sighing in relief, you walk away from them and you almost make it back into the kitchen before you hear another shout of “My!” come from Lennox.

“It never ends,” you grumble as you turn around to walk back over to them.

Park Jimin

You were standing backstage with Noah, watching as the boys gave their encore performance. Since this show was in Seoul, you decided to bring Noah along and let him do his favorite thing: watch his father on stage.

“Daddy?” Noah lisped as he pointed out to the stage. You nodded and adjusted the headphones on his ears, making sure that his ears were properly protected. 

“Yeah, daddy’s out there,” you smiled. 

“Go daddy,” Noah said and you sighed heavily, knowing what he was asking for.

“You can’t go out there right now Noah,” you said. “You have to stay here with mommy.”

“Want daddy,” Noah whined, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.

“Noah, you can’t,” you tried to explain. Noah huffed and then attempted to race away from you to the stage. Luckily, you had been anticipating on him trying to do that so you managed to grab his hand, stopping him and pulling him back to you. He began to full out cry at this point and you picked him up.

“You can see daddy when he’s done singing,” you promised but this didn’t help to soothe Noah at all. Taking a deep breath, you turned and began to walk back to the boys’ dressing room, knowing that there was no way that you were going to be able to calm him down when he couldn’t even hear you.

Kim Taehyung

“Hey Y/N, I’m getting ready to head to the studio,” Tae announced as he walked into the kitchen. You turned around from picking Spencer up out of her highchair and you set her down onto the ground as he walked over to you, pressing a quick kiss to your lips.

“Alright, we’ll see you tonight,” you grinned. Tae nodded before bending down to Spencer’s level and setting his hands on the sides on her body.

“Daddy is going to work but I’ll see you in a few hours, ok?” Tae said as he pressed multiple kisses to Spencer’s cheek.

“Me go?” Spencer asked.

“Mm, not today Munchkin but daddy will take you with him someday soon,” he promised.

“Spence go,” she stated firmly and you raised an eyebrow at her. 

“You’ll go with daddy another time,” you explained as you looked down at her. She looked between you and Tae before she began to cry, making Tae sigh heavily. 

“Tae, just go,” you said before he could say anything. “She’s gonna harp on it if you don’t and I won’t be able to calm her down.” Tae nodded and with a last kiss to your cheek, he hurriedly rushed out of the kitchen and out of the front door. 

“Hey, hey,” you cooed as you bent down so that you were able to look into Spencer’s eyes. “You’re gonna stay here with mommy and we can have all sorts of fun while daddy’s gone.”

“F-fun?” She hiccuped as her cries finally began to die down. You nodded and reached out to wipe her tears from her face.

“Yeah. We can color, or play dress up, or play with your dolls. Would you like that?” You asked and she nodded slowly.

Jeon Jungkook

“Come on Angel,” Jungkook called as he walked into Ava’s bedroom. However, she stopped at the doorway and shook her head. Ava had been on this streak of not wanting to take her daily nap for a few days now, and it was starting to wear Jungkook down.

“I know you’re sleepy Angel,” Jungkook said gently. “Don’t you wanna come take a nap?” He asked and Ava’s eyes teared up at the mere mention of the word nap, making Jungkook mentally smack himself for even saying it. He walked back over to her and picked her up, which caused her to start full out crying.

“It’s ok Ave,” Jungkook whispered as he rubbed her back gently to try and calm her down. However, it didn’t work and her cries got louder if he even made a move to go towards her crib.

“Hey, do you wanna sleep in mommy and daddy’s room?” Jungkook offered and Ava looked up at him with a pout on her face.

“Big bed?” She mumbled and Jungkook nodded.

“You can cuddle with daddy,” he added. After a few seconds, Ava nodded slowly and Jungkook sighed in relief.

“Thank god,” he mumbled to himself as he carried her out of her bedroom and down the hall to yours.

[gvbejvmes]

Drabble: 5 + 1 -- Dad

Title: Five Types of Fatherhood Rating: PG Relationships: Gabriel James/Jonathan Michaels, Gabriel James/Nancy Conrad (James and Scott) Brief Summary: Five times someone called Gabe “Dad” and one time he did it.

One

Gabe is exhausted. He’d been at the shop all day long, and all he wanted to do was take a hot shower and sleep for as long as the baby would allow. Hearing noise coming from the kitchen, he wandered over to see what his wife and daughter were up to. DJ was in her highchair munching on cheerios, which meant she wasn’t sleeping when Gabe was closing up at the shop again. So seeing her up and snacking wasn’t surprising to him. What was surprising was Nancy sitting across from DJ, talking to her. It wasn’t that Nancy was a bad mother. It was just that she didn’t connect with their daughter like Gabe had. “Say Mama.” His wife instructed. “Ma-Ma.”

He leaned against the doorjamb, watching them for a moment, a fond smile on his features. After a couple minutes, he finally decided to make his presence known. “Nanc, what are you doing?” His wife all but jumped out of her skin, which made Gabe grin from ear to ear. Scaring the shit out of his wife was one of his favorite pastimes; it always had been. There was just something about her reactions that always made him happy. He wondered what that said about him as a person. 

“Delilah is behind.” Nancy told him as he dropped a kiss to the top of her head before dropping a kiss to DJ’s head, causing the baby to squeal excitedly. She shoved a soggy Cheerio into his mouth as Nancy continued to talk. “According to the doctor she should already be talking. She should actually have a vocabulary of ten words by this point. And she hasn’t said anything yet.” His wife all but whined as he forced himself to swallow the soggy Cheerio.

Trying not to roll his eyes at his wife’s dramatics, he instead ruffled their daughter’s hair. “Maybe she just doesn’t have anything to talk about yet.” He defended before giving Nancy’s shoulder a light squeeze. “I’m gonna take a shower.” He was barely out of the room when a little voice stopped him. Eyes going wide, he spun around to look at his shocked wife and very proud daughter. “Say that again, kiddo?” He asked, unable to believe what he’d just heard.

“Dada stay!” DJ announced, sounding very proud of herself. She was grinning from ear to ear. “Dada stay.”

He blinked, finding a smile working its way onto his face again. “Okay, Deej. Dada stay.” 

Two

Sometimes being so much older than his two cousins was a pain in the ass. Without fail, the two kids tended to be at his house more often then they were at their own house. Mostly it was because Nancy was currently staying at home with the kids, but it didn’t stop it from being annoying. Having two kids was one thing, having four kids constantly in his house? That was another thing all together. But sometimes it worked in everyone’s favor. Like today.

He didn’t know why the school called him instead of his actual parents, but he figured Dusty probably told Sammy to write down the store number instead of their house number. All he knew was when he walked in the door of the school and saw Sammy sporting a black eye, he was grateful as all fuck that he was the one who got the phone call and not his mom. He was also more than grateful for the fact that Sammy looked young for his age while Gabe looked a couple years older than twenty-three. 

Before he could say anything to his cousin, the secretary noticed Gabe standing there. “Hi, can I help you?” She asked, looking as though she wanted to be anywhere other than at work. 

Sammy jumped in for him. “That’s my dad.” He lied, flawlessly, flipping his hair over his eye to hide his black eye.

The secretary looked at at Sammy and then looked at Gabe before looking back at Sammy. There was no denying they were related. They both had the same dark eyes and the same bone structure. 

“You’re his father?” She asked Gabe, obviously not believing them. While Roswell wasn’t a small town, it wasn’t huge either. They might not have known each other, but they’d definitely seen each other around town, which worked in his favor since Sammy was almost always around Gabe and the babies.

He raised an eyebrow at the secretary. “Are you shaming me for being a young father?” 

The secretary’s face went an interesting shade of pink. “No, of course not. Uh, the principal’s waiting for you.”

Gabe winked at Sammy before disappearing into the office.

Three

Gabe was definitely not a morning person, but having kids had forced him into pretending to be a morning person. As much as Nancy tried to do a majority of the parenting, the girls never let her. They’d learned pretty early on that if they knew Gabe was home, they wouldn’t have anything to do with Nancy. This meant that most mornings Gabe was the one who woke up to change diapers and feed the kids in the morning. When they didn’t wake him up, however, that never meant anything good -- most of the time.

Yawning he crawled out of bed, rolling his eyes at Nancy still snoozing away. He stopped outside the girls’ rooms when he heard talking. DJ must have heard her sister crying and decided to soothe her instead of waking Gabe up. He couldn’t help but to smile as he slowly opened the door. DJ was sitting next to the crib. “If you talkeded, Daddy would know you needed something.” She told her sagely. “Can you say ‘Daddy’?” When Cordelia just stared at her, DJ tried again. “How ‘bout DJ? Can you say ‘DJ?’”

Grinning from ear to ear now, he stepped all the way into the room. DJ couldn’t see him yet, but Cordelia could. She bounced excitedly in her seat, squealing happily. “Dada!”

DJ spun around, eyes wide. “How much you hear, daddy?” She asked, sounding very bossy for being a toddler.

He laughed, kissing the top of DJ’s head before scooping Cordy up from her crib. “Nothing at all.” He lied as nuzzled the baby, delighting in her happy squeals. “Nothing at all.”

Four

“Do you want coffee or tea?” Gabe asked around a yawn as he moved around the kitchen. Juliet had spent the night, which was a step in the right direction. Or at least it would have been if his husband hadn’t been locked away in his office for the majority of the night prepping for a court case.These days Gabe wasn’t sure what was more important to Johnny: his career or his family. When he got like this, Gabe couldn’t help but to feel like his job was first and Gabe was somewhere around five or six on his list of importance. He pushed the thoughts away and instead turned his attention to making coffee and starting breakfast. At least it was a Saturday. Cordy would be up soon, and then the four of them could have a nice family day.

He’d just finished pouring coffee into a cup for Juliet when Johnny appeared, dressed like he was going into the office. “Can you put mine into my travel mug?” He asked, pressing a kiss to the side of Gabe’s head. “I have to go in for a little bit. I think I had a breakthrough on the case.” 

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Johnny grab an apple off the counter before stopping to talk to Juliet. Gabe closed his eyes as he tried to reign his emotions in. Of fucking course he needed to go into the office on a Saturday. It wasn’t like he barely saw his husband as it was. Fuck, there were days when he only knew the other man had even been home because his toothbrush was wet. They couldn’t keep living like this - ships passing in the night. 

And here was Juliet making an effort, but off went Johnny back to fucking work like always. With shaking hands, he started the kettle for himself before pulling down a travel mug for his husband. “When are you coming home?” And he hated how much like his mother he sounded right now. 

“I’ll be back before dinner.” His husband promised as he took the mug from Gabe, and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. It was barely nine o’clock, which made Gabe feel like he wouldn’t be back for dinner if going into work for “a little bit” was going in for eight hours. “The four of us will go out.”

And with that his husband was gone and Gabe was staring after him, trying to figure out when this had become his life. 

“Dad, can you grab the creamer?”

The question shook him from the trance he’d been in. “Yeah, sorry.” It wasn’t until he put the creamer on the table that he realized who had asked him the question. “Did you just...” He stared at Juliet, a smile working its way onto his face. “You did. You just called me dad.”

Juliet looked absolutely mortified. “No, I didn’t. I said: ‘Gabe, can you grab the creamer.” She corrected.

“Sure...” Gabe said with a roll of his eyes. “You definitely did not call me ‘dad.’”

The kettle chose that moment to whistle, successfully ending their conversation.

Five

“No! You take that back.” 

Bella was sitting in her little bouncer, giggling up at her grandfather. She waved her pudgy little fingers in his direction. “Dada!” She said again with another giggle.

He looked at her in absolute horror. “No. Not Dada. Grandpa.” He corrected, pointing to himself. “Grandpa.”

Bella giggled and grabbed at Gabe. “No. Dada.” She corrected him. “Dada.”

Gabe groaned. “Stop that. Grandpa.” He pointed at himself again. “Grandpa.” He pointed at her. “Bella.”

The little girl’s face scrunched up. “No. Dada.” She looked behind Gabe, and pointed again. “Mama.”

He spun around to find Cordelia in the living room with them. “Make her stop.” He whined out. “It’s creepy.”

Cordy picked up Bella, who immediately started patting her mom’s face. “Dad, I think she thinks it’s your name.” She rolled her eyes at him. 

He blinked as he processed his daughter’s words. She probably wasn’t wrong. Since the separation, he and Cordy were attached at the hip. They rarely saw anyone they weren’t related to. So why would Bella think his name was anything other than Dad?

“Want Dada.” She squirmed in Cordy’s arms until he took her.

Gabe sighed. “Fine, but only until you learn how to say Grandpa, okay?”

Bella looked like she was thinking about it. “Okay.” She nodded. “Okay, Dada.”

+ One

Mixers weren’t exactly Gabe’s thing. One would think that because he went to so many of them, he would be used to them by now, but all he ever wanted to do was leave once he got to one. This time was no exception. A half hour in and he was already ready to go home.

Sighing, he took a sip of his whiskey sour and scanned the room. He could hold his own among the art crowd, but there was something about being around politicians that made his skin crawl. He’d already had to talk himself out of multiple conversations. At least when he was next to Johnny these things were a little more bearable. Finally spying him, he finished his drink before wandering over.

“There you are, daddy. I’ve been looking for you all over.” Gabe all but gushed out as he pressed himself against Johnny’s back, arms looped lightly around his middle, chin on his shoulder.

The senator Johnny had been talking to went absolutely still and immediately excused himself. As soon as he was out of earshot, Johnny turned in his arms, ears pink, but a fond, albeit annoyed, expression on his features. “How many times do I have to tell you, Briel? Not in public.”

Gabe laughed. “But it’s fun when they’re homophobic.” He tried to justify before kissing his husband. “Besides, you secretly like it when I call you Daddy in public.”

Before Johnny could argue otherwise, his phone rang. “Saved from admitting the truth by our fourth child.” He teased as he saw the caller ID. “I should take this. I’ll catch up with you in a bit.” 

As soon as he answered the phone, he was greeted by Marlie’s slightly panicked voice. “Dad, please tell me you know how to remove permanent marker from skin.”

Gabe laughed. “Baby skin or regular skin?” 

[ellus986]

Is summer different in the jungle? Chapter 3

Eugene Sledge x nurse!reader

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Summary: You met Eugene on the field, when the nurses arrived at the Beach of Peleliu. You met thousands of injured soldiers, but none of them give you butterflies in your stomach, until you met him in the camp. You knew immediately that he will mean so much to you. It started with a little flirt, but ended in a two months realtionship while they were in the camp.

Warning: swearing, mention of loss, war and nightmares, unprotected sex (kiddos still wrap it if you don’t want poopy diapers 9 months later)

6 months later

My sweetest Eugene!

I wish I could write down how much I miss you but I can’t. Maybe if I tell you that my heart breaks into tiny pieces anytime I hear Sid’s laughter, that just rings like yours, or that looking at Sarah makes me want to cry. The photo I send you with this letter is not from your childhood, it was taken yesterday about your daugther, who is your perfect replica at this moment, she has nothing from me, maybe her already stubborn attitude. She grows so fast, and so much, I wish I could watch this happening with you on my side. I love to live here with your family, but it is not real without you, I only can feel home myself where I can feel you. Sometimes when I feed Sarah in the night, I just imagine you across the room reading something, looking up at me time to time, other times I almost see you smiling at me in the garden, or lazily sitting pushing your back to your favorite tree - because your mom told me witch one is that-, and othertimes I just turn so fast when Sid laughs hoping it is you, they may think I am in love with him. I hate this war because it still keeps you away from us, but I’m forever greatfull for it to guid me to you, and suprise us with our angel.

Forever your love,

Y/N

Eugene tried not to cry, but tears are droping fell from his cheek. He fells hopless at this moment covered in dust, and blood only seeing his daughter on pictures. He didn’t see the end of the war anymore, but you and his daugther were the only things that kept him from not carring anymore. He looked over Snafu who was asleep mumbling in his dream. He new he did the same, he relived what made him miserable when he was awake, but he wanted to sleep, because once in a while he kept dreaming about his girls, and that made him wake up with smile on his face, even if that only lasted for seconds.

He already stoped counting how many japs did he killed, but he still did not enjoyed any minute of it.

5 months later

Your point of view:

Dear Y/N!

I would’ve lost track of time, if you do not keep me sane with your sweet letters. We lost so many of our friends, and I can’t even remember when did I sleep on a clean bed.

But enough of how we are here I can’t believe our little angel is already toke her first steps, time just flies away, and I just hope I will be home with you soon, to run after Sarah, and hold you close to my chest when I fall asleep.

Forever your love,

Gene

Snobbing left your throat, as you watch your child’s small steps in the enormous garden, without her father. Tears make your sight blurry as you hold the letter in your shaking hand.

“Y/N!” Walks Sid up to you, from the kitchen door.

“Sid!” You get up from the tree side, and hug him.

“Is something wrong?”

“No, I mean... Gene is just deeper then ever, his letters are darker everytime, and I just want him to come home!” You mumble catching Sarah as she runs to you. You wipe your eyes, as you hold here on your side.

“Good afternoon milady!” He bends for his niece. “Do you want to hear the adventures of Daddy and uncle Sid?” He holds his hand out for her to get on his side.

“Yeah!” She giggles, happily. Her favorite time of the day, story time. Everyday either you or Sid kept telling stories about Eugene to her, showing her photos about him, and even she can’t remember the time she met her dad, she was obsessed with him.

4 months later

Eugene’s point of view:

My dear Eugene!

Summer in Mobile is so different from what it was in the jungle. Sarah falls asleep everynight under the stars in my lap, why I tell her a story about her daddy, who is under the same stars like us. It makes me feel you closer, thinking you look up at the same stars everynight and think about us, just like we do.

We miss you so much, and wait for the day you finally will be watching the stars with us.

Forever your loves,

Sarah and Y/N

Your letter wasn’t the only thing on the paper there was a drawimg too. Two giant flowers and a tiny sun. His daughter’s drawing. How many thing did he already missed out on? Why can’t the war just end already? Why can’t he just go home, and watch his child grow up?

He knew he would never met you if there is no war, but God how much he was over it. He became a marine thinking he need to be a hero saving his country, but after years, he felt the least as a hero.

He looks up on the sky and only one thing rings in his mind. You look up at the same sky. “How is my godchild?” Sits Shelton next to him.

“Great, she falls asleep in the garden just like us, just in that case she wakes up in her own bed!” He laughs bitter sweet.

“We will see them soon!” Snafu pats his bestfriends shoulder.

“I hope so... i hope so...”

7 months later

Your point of view:

You are in the kitchen with your toddler who is eager to help now days. The smile on her face was worth the mess she left behind herself. You put the first round of cookies on a plat and you tell her that she only can have one, before dinner, and you hand her the tiniest.

After she is done with it you can see in the corner of your eye that she is about to stole one more. You knew this is going to happen, and you loved the chase after every baking together. You almost cleaned up the whole kitchen when she finally reached the cookie she wanted. You turn your head quickly to her, and she giggles, running away from you.

“Sarah Meryl Sledge! What did you do?” You run after her, as she is ahead of you. You turn in the door almost catching her when you see two so familiar boots infornt of you. You freeze and look up. “Gene...” you mumble with your jaw droping to the floor.

“Daddy!” Sarah runs to him, and he holds her close to his chest as he gets on his knees for her.

“Gene!” You scream now and run to him. He almost falls on the floor from your fast action, but you feel how he grabs you, and holds both of you so close to himself. “Gene, you came home to us!” You cry into his shoulder.

“Daddy...” Sarah mumbles into his chest and he looks up at you with eyebrows in the air.

“We were waiting for you everyday...” you mumble tears falling from your cheek. “For her favorite hero!”

“Daddy! Daddy!” She smooths his face, and you can see how tears are about to fall from his cheek too.

“Eugene...” his mother wishpers in the door droping the frok she had in her hand.

He gets up, kisses you before walking to her. You have Sarah in your arms when he hugs his mom.

“Sarah, love don’t you want to give that cookie to Daddy?” You ask as you put her on her feets.

“Mommy and I made it!” She walks up to him, and holds the cookie out.

“Thank you, love!” The first words he told since getting in the house.

Eugene’s point of view:

He does not fell like a hero, but everyone acts like he is, and that made him uncomfortable. Sitting silently at the dinner table, he can’t take his eyes off of you, and Sarah. His child, who really looks like him at this age, only the little longer hair was something that made her different from his toodler self, but her personality, Oh God that was the perfect replica of yours. She was the beautiful combination of you two.

After dinner you get Sarah out of her highchair, and head to the bathroom. He thanks the food, and walks after you. He steps in the doorway hearing you two giggling. You already put your daughter in the tiny water to bath her, and he just stands there watching you, do what you did in the last 22 months.

He loved to just watch, see how you function as a parent, what he wanted to become. Yet he did not fell like one, but was eager to be the best father to his miracle war baby. “Daddy!” Giggles Sarah, holding her arms out.

“Do you want to help?” You ask, turning back to him.

“Can I?” He sutters, steping in.

“Ofcourse you can!” You smile at your fiancé. “Just roll up your shirt, so you will be less wet... ofcourse if Sarah pleases to be a good girl today!” You look at your daughter and she smiles at you with innocent face, even she knows what you are talking about. As Sarah is already covered in soap you give the instructions as he looks at you with question in his hazel eyes. “You just need to wash down the soap...” his hands are shaking but he is doing a great job, while Sarah... she just spalshes the water on everything and everyone. “I told you, you only won’t be wet if the princess decides not to play around!” You nictate at her, and she giggles knowing she is the blamed. “Come on baby! It is already bad time!” You get her out and cover her in the towel, but as you would walk out she holds her hands.

“I wanna go with daddy!” She mumbles almost crying, and you turn to him with the question in your eyes. He fell in love with you again in a second, as you are totally aware of how weird it is to be home again, to see his family for the first time in almost two years and you did not wanted to overwhelm him.

“Come here, my angel!” He grabs your daugther, and follows you to his room. Nothing changed since he left, only that that there was a child bed, and some of your stuff, but other than that everything was the same as he left it. You give him a romper as he sits her on the bed side. She already holds her legs out, so it is an easy task for him to put it on.

Your point of view:

You could see on Eugene’s face that he is so proud of himself with putting Sarah’s Pjs on. He starts to rock her on his side, even you did not said anything, and Sarah is already falling asleep on his shoulder. When she is completly asleep, he puts her in the crib and watch her sleeping. You step behind him and put your hand on his waist, he winces from your touch, but leans into it. “I hope I didn’t do anything wrong!” He wishpers turning to you.

“No love, you did everything perfect!” You smooth some hair out of his face, to found a little scare on his temple.

“Bombin’...” he mumbles before you could ask. “It was not that bad, the marine who was covering me died two days later...”

“You don’t need to tell me everything tonight!” You speak up as you can see how much it is effecting him. “We have our life for it!”

“You still want to marry me?” He wishpers before you kiss him, and lead him to the bed.

“Gene, why wouldn’t I?” You sit down and tap the place next to you.

“Maybe I’m not the man you remember to fall in love?” His shaky hand is in his messy hair, while he is not looking in your eyes, as he sits next to you.

“Love, I love you, you are the man who I fell in love, maybe you changed, but so did I...”

“I did things...”

“Hey, I don’t care! You are here, and already kept your promise!” You smile at him cupping his face.

“What promise?” He looks at you confused.

“That as soon as you get home you are going to be the best father Sarah can have!” You say it, and he shakes his head. “You are!”

“No I’m not!”

“Gene! You came home after almost two years not seeing your child, and you rocked her to sleep faster than I could!” You kiss him softly, but he still can’t look in your eyes and that breaks your heart. “Or... you don’t want to marry me?” You feel how your bottom lip shakes from the tears you trying to keep back.

“Y/N I love you!” He lifts his gaze over you. “I want nothing more than be your husband, and watch Sarah grow with you... I... I just want to be sure you still can love me... I don’t want to hurt you if you can’t...”

“Eugene!” You cut in. “I was there too, and still can’t imagine what you have been through!” You slick his cheek. “But I only wanted one thing all along, to be your wife, to watch Sarah and her siblings play in the garden while we are sitting at your favorite tree.”

“Sarah and... her siblings?” You can see how he becomes breathless.

“Don’t you want more kids?” You smile at him.

“Ofcourse I want!” He kisses you hard, deep, wanting, like this is the last time he can kiss you. You lay back and pull him over you, still not letting your lips parting. You get his shirt down button by button, before you could get to his pants. “Shouldn’t we... shouldn’t we not do this here?”

“She never wakes up when I have a nightmare, I want you, now...” you know you shouldn’t do this, you should wait until getting married, you should be in an another room, but your needing for him just hit you in the second he kissed you.

“I want you too,Y/N!” He wishpers, before he rolles your dress up, and gets your underwear down. You are shaking, you are wet from his heavy breath on your ear, you want to feel him inside you so much. “I missed you so much...” he mumbles getting his pants down to his knees, before he would kiss you again. Both of you winces as his cock touches your cunt. You look in his eyes and move your waist. He slides in with the top of his prick and he closes his eyes. “Y/N!” He moans into your ear before trusting into you. You bit his shoulder so you would not wake your daughter up with your scream, you were already on the edge. Both of you moved so fast, grabing, bitting anything you could reach on the other, getting closer to the orgasm together.

“Eugene!” You groan into his ear as you cum, making him follow you in a second. He collaps on you, and you can feel his fast beating heart.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done thi...”

“Eugene! Eugene! Look at me!” You cup his face as he already rolled down your dress and got his pants back. “You did nothing I didn’t wanted too!”

“I should’ve wait before I marry you, or atleast don’t be like an animal!” You can see he already regreted his actions.

“Are you amberessed on, that we needed eachother?” You ask.

“No!”

“Than why is it matters how did it happend?” You ask with a soft smile on your face.

“I want to do thing right!” He closes his eyes, as you cup his face.

“You do everything right Gene!” You get your dress down, and he looks at you with eyebrows in the air. “It was a long day, we can shower in the morning, I just want to sleep with my love!” You are naked, and he can’t keep his eyes off you. “Would you undress too?”

“Wait what? You want to sleep naked?” His mouth drops open.

“Haven’t we already seen eachother naked before?” You have a nasty grin on your face.

“Yes, we did...” he mumbles still gazing on your body. “I can’t believe I’m finally home with you...” he whispers getting his clothes down.

You get in the bed and he follows you, holding you close to his chest in the minute he is behind you. “I can’t believe you are finally here, with me love...” you wishper leaning into his touch.

To be continued...

My sweet perms:

@simply-sams-things @spacedust1124719

Story tags:

@radio-hoo-ha

[avengerscompound]

Breakfast in Bed

Breakfast in Bed: A Captain America Fanfic

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing:  Steve Rogers x F!Reader

Word Count:  1114

Warnings:  Fluff, kids and interrupted smut.

Synopsis:   Children do really change things. They also have terrible timing.

A/N:  For my #Happy Steve Bingo Fill: Children

Breakfast in Bed

Steve Rogers had taken to sleeping in.  It wasn’t something he’d ever predicted.  Even back before he’d joined the army he was up early.  Usually for school or because he was just in so much pain that he couldn’t sleep and his mother had run him a hot bath.

Since the army, early mornings were all he had known.  Up at dawn for training. Every day, rain or shine.  It had traveled through to his life after the army. When he first got out of the ice he’d wake and pace the streets, trying to find somewhere he didn’t feel so out of place.  Or he’d just hit the gym and put all his anger into the heavy bags.

As he began to find where he belonged he ran.  First by himself. Then later with Sam. He had kept up the morning runs for so long.  He was a morning person. He enjoyed getting going. Watching the sunrise as he appreciated how easily the air was pulled into his lungs.  How he could run and run and run and not feel pain.

He was a morning person.  Was.

Then the kids happened.

He had been so fucking cocky when you first got pregnant.  He bought a jogging stroller. He was going to wake up early, take the baby for a run around Central Park with Sam come home and bring you breakfast every day.

That didn’t happen.  Not ever.

Between four hour feeds and sleepless nights, Steve just got good at sleeping when he could.  For a while, that meant he was still up early in the morning. Though he always had that half-dead, zombie feeling to being awake.  Like it was a mere technicality. He never wanted to run then that’s for sure. It was changing diapers and bouncing first Sarah, then Jamie and then Margaret on his hip while he tried to drink his own body weight in coffee in the hopes that one day his metabolism wouldn’t just burn through the caffeine, rendering it useless.  It was trying to get a baby to stop crying while he struggled to get a toddler to stay in their highchair and eat his breakfast.

The thing was, even at his most sleep deprived and stressed, he still loved it.  He had loved every moment since he’d met you. Every date. Every kiss. Every cuddle.  Every time you'd made love. From proposing to getting married to the day you'd decided to have children.

Each day of the long road it has taken to get here he'd fallen deeper in love and remembered more about who the person he was.  He had developed new aspects to himself too. Ones he really liked. So even sleep deprived and running on super serum he would have a smile on his usually serious face.

Then gradually things shifted again.  The kids got older. They slept through.  They started getting their own cereal on weekends and sitting with it watching Disney Channel together.

That's when Steve had started sleeping in.

It wasn’t every day.  There was still work and preschool and childcare and having to wrangle three children into the car so they wouldn’t be late.  Saturday’s were swimming lessons and pee wee soccer.

Sundays though… Sundays were a little bit magical.  There was no place you had to be. The kids took care of themselves.  Best of all, you slept in too. So he slept. There was a comfort of your body pressed against him.  He loved the sound of your deep breathing. The way it was the light and the far-off sound of cartoons playing in the living room that woke him up.  It was much better than the harsh buzz of his alarm going off or the pained cries of one of his children.

Today what dragged him out of his sleep was your stirring.  His arms tightened and he pulled you closer to him burying his face in the back of your neck.

“Morning,”  You mumbled and turned in his arms.

“It is a good morning,”  He rumbled. His voice still soft and gravelly with sleep.  He leaned in and kissed you. It started with a hard press of his lips on yours.  Not really intended to be anything other than a good morning kiss. You made it linger and the soft hum that escaped you made him want more.  He deepened it. His lips caressing over yours and his tongue barely teasing them open for him. He grabbed your thigh and pulled you closer, rolling his hips against you.

“Mmm…”  You hummed pulling back and sucking on his plump lower lip.  “You're playing a dangerous game, Rogers.”

“Danger is my middle name,”  He tried and rolled you over grinding down against you.  “Just be as quiet as you can.”

You giggled as he kissed you again.  Deeper and more passionate than before.  His hand roamed up under your sleep shirt and he ghosted his fingers along the underside of your breast.

He could hear moving around and giggling in the kitchen, but he wasn't concerned.  It was likely there would be a mess to clean up. Possibly they were seeing how many different spreads they could get on one piece of toast.

His mouth moved to your neck.  You made a sound that was a half moan - half laugh, and you bucked up against him.  His hands slid down to the waistband of your pajama pants and just as he slipped his fingers under the elastic he heard the muted footfalls of children running down the hall.

He rolled off you and sat up.  You only had time to look at him confused when Maggie and Jamie slammed the door open and came charging at you both, throwing their little bodies into bed and slamming against you both.

“Mommy, daddy, we maded you breakfast into bed!”  Jamie said proudly.

“Oh did you now?”  You asked.

“Yeth,”  Maggie lisped.  “Thara ith bwinging it.”

Like she had been summoned Sarah came walking into the room, each step taken at a slow careful shuffle, as she stared intently at the large tray she held in her hands like she was willing it not to spill.

“Here, Sarah.  Let me help you.”  Steve said moving to get out of the bed and rescue his oldest daughter.

“No, daddy.  I've got it.”  Sarah said. The little stubborn streak of hers fully on display.

Jamie pushed him back against the bed head and Steve shook his head, suppressing a laugh.  They were his kids alright. No one could ever argue that.

Slowly and carefully she put the tray on the bed.  Steve moved it to the middle assessing the selection.  There were two bowls of trix that had spilled over a little.  The milk pooling at the bottom of the bowls. A banana and an apple were just haphazardly thrown onto the tray.  As were a sleeve of what he could only assume was cinnamon apple Poptarts. On a small plate, each was two overcooked and now cold slices of toast with a generous schmear of grape jelly.

“Oh my, look what you guys did for us.  This looks wonderful. Thank you, my sweet ones.”  You said enthusiastically, as your eyes traveled across the tray.  They settled on the toast and you picked up a slice and took a bite.  It made a loud crunch under your teeth and partially shattered due to how hard the bread was.

“Did we do good?”  Jamie asked.

“You sure did, bud,”  Steve said picking up his spoon and dipping it in the cereal.

“You always make us breakfast we wanted to make it for you,”  Sarah said.

“I wanted to made pancaketh,”  Maggie added.

“I don't know how to,”  Sarah argued. “Besides we aren't allowed to use the stove.”

“It's perfect.”  You said.

Steve pulled Sarah up next to him and peppered her cheek with kisses.  “Thank you so much. We are very, very lucky.”

As his daughter giggled and squirmed beside him on the now very full bed, making more milk slop over the side of the bowl, Steve knew, he had never said anything truer.

[chuffyfan87]

An Offer I Can't Refuse. Part 9a

Cowritten with @fairheads.

-x-

Duffy grunted and harumphed as she attempted to roll over in bed so she could get out. She could hear Peter throwing a tantrum downstairs whilst Charlie was trying to make him breakfast.

Charlie rolled his eyes hearing her footsteps on the stairs. “It’s okay, I can handle this, go back to bed!” He shouted from the kitchen.

"I'm up now, let me help." Duffy replied as she waddled into the kitchen.

“Duffy, you should be resting!! You heard what the doctor said...” Charlie was agitated.

"I am resting!" She retorted.

“Hardly!? I wish you’d trust me.”

"I do trust you but I also know what a little monkey Peter can be!" She replied, moving to pick Peter up from his highchair as he was still screaming.

“Duffy!?” Charlie turned exasperated.

"What?" She asked as Peter immediately settled in her arms.

Charlie lifted his arms into the air. “You’re being impossible.”

"I am calming down my son, how is that being impossible?" She asked as she shifted Peter onto her hip so she could reach for the kettle.

“The doctor said bed rest and no lifting in order to keep you and the baby safe but you seem to be just completely ignoring that.”

"He said no lifting anything heavy." Duffy retorted.

“I’d say Peter is fairly heavy these days.” He snapped back.

"Don't listen to him Peter!" She pulled a face at Charlie whilst covering the toddler's ears.

Charlie huffed, turning around, he tried to ignore her and continued to prepare some breakfast.

Peter started to wriggle in his mum's arms, reaching out for his highchair.

"Oh so you want to eat now do you?" She teased him.

Charlie couldn’t even raise a smile, he was so worried about her and the baby.

Placing Peter back in the highchair Duffy stooped to feed the toddler who had been behaving in a very regressive mood since his mum had been forced to start her maternity leave.

Upon watching her bend and attempt to get something off the floor, Charlie had had it. He banged the plate on the side and left the room.

"Don't worry, he'll stop sulking eventually." Duffy told Peter.

Charlie found a spot on the back step, he was struggling.

A little while later Peter came running past him, covered in breakfast and giggling as his mum attempted to chase him down with a wipe to clean his face.

"Peter!" She grumbled.

At first, Charlie didn’t attempt to move to help.

Peter was too busy looking back at the grown ups and laughing that he didn't see the stone on the grass til he fell over, letting out a scream as he hit the ground.

Duffy tried to get to him, but Charlie made it there first, scooping him into his arms.

The toddler continued to scream for a few more seconds before snuggling his face into Charlie's chest.

"Is he ok? Is he bleeding?" Duffy asked, panicked, as she struggled to get down onto the ground beside them.

Charlie was still trying to ascertain where the little boy was hurt, but it was hard for him to see with Peter snuggling into him. “There’s blood coming from somewhere, I just can’t see where, he’ll be okay...” Charlie tried to reassure her, as she tried to manoeuvre herself next to him with difficulty.

Eventually Charlie managed to prise Peter's face out of his shirt and see that the little boy had a slightly bleeding nose.

Charlie reached into his pocket and squeezed Peter’s nose with a tissue.

Peter wriggled against the tissue, waving his hands and shouting.

“Hey little man, I just need to help stop it bleeding.” Charlie tried.

Duffy attempted to help hold Peter still.

Peter was kicking and punching his arms and legs, Charlie was worried that he’d catch Duffy.

"The more you fight the longer this'll take." She warned the toddler.

Peter was getting more and more distressed. “Want me to stop?” Charlie asked Duffy.

"Has the bleeding slowed?"

Charlie shook his head.

"Give it another minute."

Peter was still fighting Charlie, he’d been kicked in the chest a few times which hurt near his scar, but it was Duffy he was mostly worried about.

Eventually after another minute or two the bleeding slowed.

Peter had finally grown tired and floppy in Charlie’s arms. He stood up, with the toddler resting over his shoulder.

"We can settle him on the sofa so we can keep an eye on him." Duffy suggested as she struggled to stand back up.

Charlie could see she was finding it difficult to get back up so he crouched back down to help.

After they both nearly toppled over twice they eventually got to their feet again.

Charlie carried Peter in and settled him on the sofa with his teddy bear and a blanket. He seemed fine now, just tired from all of the fighting. Charlie sat down on the other sofa.

Duffy let out a groan as she sat down next to Peter.

Charlie looked at her with concern.

"I'm fine!" She retorted, rolling her eyes.

Charlie didn’t respond, he just rubbed his head.

"Urgh!" Duffy grumbled, her tone laced with annoyance, a few minutes later.

“Talk to me,” He suggested.

"I peed half an hour ago, I can't need to go again already!" She harumphed as she attempted to push herself up from the sofa.

Charlie watched her mission to get up and signed to himself. He felt for her, being this pregnant certainly had its drawbacks but he wished she’d listen to the doctors about getting some more rest.

She finally made it up and glared at him before making her way out of the room, her hand pressed against her lower back.

After she’d gone, he looked to the ceiling and exhaled fiercely. He then moved to sit next to Peter, who seemed to be napping contentedly.

After half an hour had passed without her returning Charlie began to get concerned.

He decided to go and see where she’d got to.

Arriving upstairs he found her fast asleep on the bed.

Finally, he thought to himself. He went and sat next to her on the bed.

Both Duffy and Peter ended up dozing for around an hour.

In the meantime, Charlie had tidied and done some laundry.

By the time Duffy returned downstairs Charlie and Peter were cuddled up on the sofa watching cartoons.

Charlie looked up as she entered the room, he smiled at her, moved himself and Peter up and patted the space next to him.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep." She grimaced as she sat down.

Charlie put his arm around her, “I’m sorry for earlier.”

"Its ok. I'm sorry too." She rested her head on his shoulder.

He kissed the top of her head. “How are you feeling?”

"Tired of being achy and fat." She frowned.

“You’re not fat, you’re beautiful and you’re carrying our baby. Where does it ache?”

"Everywhere!" She complained. "Back, hips, ankles, shoulders..." She sighed.

“I’m sorry,” He sighed, he felt awful that he was partly the reason she felt so sore.

"These next four weeks are going to drag so slowly!"

“I know. I’m sorry for being so vile this morning, I just worry so much that something’s going to happen to you and the baby and I figured if I could just do everything and you just rest then maybe nothing bad would happen...” He stumbled over his words.

"Oh Charlie..! Nothing bad is going to happen."

“But how do you know? The doctor seemed fairly worried...”

"Call it a hunch." She shrugged, a slightly mischievous glint in her eye.

“A hunch?” He raised his eyebrows and gently kissed her.

"Mother's intuition?" She giggled.

“I really hope you’re right!” He smiled. Duffy shifted, unable to get comfortable. “Want me to sit behind you, then you can stretch out?”

"I'm not sure there's room to do that." She sighed.

“Sure there is, this little man wants to get down anyway,” Charlie lifted Peter onto the carpet with his toys. He helped her move along and then sat behind her, legs parted so she could lie back on his chest, her legs stretched out along the sofa. “There we go,” he said, placing his hands on her bump.

She tilted her head to rest her cheek against Charlie's chest, watching Peter play, her hands resting on top of Charlie's.

“This way, you have to rest,” Charlie teased.

"Oh so that's your game is it?" She giggled.

“Nope, in reality, I just wanted to have a cuddle with you,” He smiled.

"You soppy git!" She laughed.

“It’s not just going to be us and Peter soon is it? All change...” He pondered.

"I'm sure we'll adapt quickly."

“I hope so...” He whispered.

"Look how quickly Peter has adapted to you living here..." Duffy smiled.

“I just hope we, I, have enough love to give them and us, that’s all.”

"You will. I know you will."

He squeezed her hands, just as the baby kicked. “She’s kicking a lot today!” He commented.

"Don't I know it!" She chuckled.

“Hey missy," He poked her bump gently, "You be nice to your mummy!” He jokingly reprimanded.

"You're going to be such a soft touch!" Duffy teased, giggling.

“For sure, a little lady, with your looks and stubbornness, I’m sure!” He laughed.

"My stubbornness?" She pouted.

“Yes, you are the most feisty, determined, stubborn woman I know, but that’s why I love you,” He grinned.

"Is that so?" She grinned. "You never know, she could end up taking after her daddy and be a blue eyed blonde."

Charlie laughed, “‘Maybe but in my head, she’s exactly like you.”

"You can barely cope with me nevermind two of us!" She teased.

He laughed and tickled her, “That’s very true!!”

"You'll just have to hope that Peter sides with you when it all kicks off!" She chuckled.

“Oh yeah, Peter’s totally on my side...” Charlie laughed again.

"Only coz you let him have sweets!" She teased.

“True but we all know, that when push comes to shove, mummy wins!”

"Its only taken you how many years to realise that?"

“Oh I’ve always known it really...”

"So you just like to wind me up..?"

“Not wind you up, but I must admit you get me a bit hot under the collar when you’re mad with me, don’t know why it is!?” He laughed.

"So it's a sex thing?" She giggled as she rolled her eyes.

“Not intentionally...” He smirked.

"But it's a perk nonetheless?"

“Most definitely!” He kissed her cheek.

"I'd noticed!" She giggled, wriggling her bottom back against him.

“Had you?” He whispered, putting his fingers on her hips and helping her back.

"You get a certain look in your eyes..."

“Am I that obvious?” He giggled.

"Only to someone who knows you as well as I do..." She turned slightly to snuggle against his chest.

[pocket-luv101]

Summary: Hyde and his daughter fight for Licht’s attention (LawLicht, Fem Licht)

“Here you go, Lucy.” Licht placed a few tiny pieces of lasagna in front of her toddler daughter. She let her daughter play with the food so she would be comfortable and familiar with it. Surprisingly, things like sleeping and eating solids wasn’t instinctual like most would believe. Lucy squished the noodle in her hand before she ate it.

“Isn’t it tasty, Lucy? Dad made it especially for you! Everything is fresh and delicious.” Hyde boasted and twirled a spatula between his fingers. Her daughter laughed and clapped her hand. She was entertained by her father’s eccentric behaviour but Licht rolled her eyes. Yet, she started to smile after he continued to make funny faces. He was a wonderful and loving father.

“Ah, more!” Lucy repeated and patted the table. She smudged her pudgy fingers against the tomato sauce and then tried to lick it off her finger. Licht quickly stopped her but that only lead to her bouncing in her chair. She was shifting so much that she could easily see the highchair falling over in her excitement. Her angel was blessed with unlimited energy and she hoped she never lose that.

Licht placed her hands on the table and set the plate of lasagna in front of her. She had already cut it up into small pieces and scooped a few into her baby spoon. She made sure to blow on the lasagna before she fed her. “You’re such a good angel, Lucy. Take another bite for Mom.”

Hyde saw how Licht doted on their daughter and he thought it was a sweet sight. Most saw her as harsh but he understood that she was merely firm with her ideals. Once she grew to care for someone, she was loyal to them. Their daughter captured Licht’s heart the moment she first held her. It was clear to her that Lucy would become a strong angel and it was her duty to nurture her smile like her own parents had.

“Let me feed you too, Angel Cakes.” Hyde used him fork to pick up a chunk of lasagna from his plate and held it out to her. They would only eat after Lucy was full but he liked to give Licht a few bites as well. Her stomach rumbled slightly and Hyde burst into laughter. She blushed in embarrassment but she leaned closer to him and took a bite. After he pulled away the fork, he stole a quick kiss. “Delicious.”

“I told you not to do that while I’m taking care of Lucy.” Licht lightly pushed his face away when he tried to kiss her again. He was taken aback when Lucy suddenly let out a loud cry. They both jumped to comfort her and Licht stroked her blonde hair. “What’s wrong, Lucy? Are you still hungry? Mom will give you another bite so open up.”

She fed her another spoonful and Lucy smiled. Their daughter began to babble happily so most of the food ended up on her bib. Licht couldn’t understand what her daughter was trying to tell her but she nodded in agreement. “Mom! My!”

“Yep, Dad made this special for you.” Hyde ruffled her hair. “I’m the best dad ever!”

“I can’t believe you would say that when you’re an adult who can’t even wipe his face properly. Hold still,” Licht ordered and took out a napkin when she saw that there was sauce from his cheek. It was only a tiny smudge but she carefully rubbed it off. Hyde enjoyed the attention she gave him and how her soft hands felt against his skin.

Before he could fully savour the moment, Lucy interrupted them. She took the lasagna from her bowl and ate it with her hands. Then, she rubbed her dirty hands on her face. Licht sighed and washed Lucy’s face. “You shouldn’t copy Dad and make such a mess of yourself. How did you get lasagna in your hair? I need to give you a bath now.”

“Our little angel is an adorable little troublemaker. Just like her Dad!” He laughed softly. Hyde wrapped his arm around Licht’s waist and he sat close to her. He leaned into her warmth and she elbowed him lightly. He could guess that she wanted to feed Lucy but it was difficult with him leaning on her arm. “Can’t you spoil me for a little longer, Lichtan?”

“You’re already spoiled enough, Shit Rat. I guess I can give you a reward since you cooked something special for Lucy. What would you like?” Licht asked and toyed with his hair. She gasped when Lucy threw a handful of lasagna at Hyde. He was so shocked that he could only gawk. “Sweetie, didn’t I say you shouldn’t play with your food.”

She became fussier and cried for attention. Licht lightly wiped Lucy’s hands but it was difficult when their daughter was trying to grab her hair. As he watched them, a realization dawned on him. Hyde started to laugh and then he peppered kisses onto Licht’s cheek. As he predicted, Lucy glowered at him and slapped him with her tiny hands. It didn’t hurt and only made him laugh more.

He unbuckled Lucy from the highchair and slipped her out of the seat. He handed her to Licht and said, “Lucy might look like an angel but she did inherit some of my bad habits. She gets jealous when a demon gets too close to her favourite person.”

“Do you think so?” Licht glanced down to Lucy who was snuggling against her chest. She picked out a stray piece of noodle from her blonde hair and kissed her forehead. “Lucy, you should know that I love you more than anything. Even more than Dad sometimes.”

“Hey!” Hyde pouted. She moved to sit on his lap and he wrapped his arms around the two.

Licht held Lucy between them and whispered to her. “You’re my angel but I still love Dad a lot. Each of you have a very special place in my heart so you don’t need to feel jealous. You have to share my hugs with Dad sometimes.”

“She just wants time with her mother.” Hyde nudged her slightly and she stood up. He pinched Lucy’s cheek and he thought of how much he cherished her. He gave them each a kiss before he let go of them. “How about you give Lucy a quick bath while I clean up this mess? Dad gets special time with Mom later tonight.”

“Okay,” Licht nodded but added: “Make sure to heat up our plates so we can eat dinner together after Lucy gets her bath.”

[tinybibmpreg]

day 23 // ft. Rhisiart, Valerie, Weylin, Weylin’s relatives, Yovak & Indigo & the twins & Violet

#58 / Threat

“I don’t know what’s wrong, okay? I’m just... really tired.” Although Rhisiart had apparently become something of a good liar while she was gone, Valerie could still tell when Rhisiart was lying about how he was feeling. It was like he broadcasted a ‘something is wrong, please help me’ signal whenever he was upset around her.

Valerie knew she couldn’t just say that, though. Whatever was bothering him had made him really nervous, and she didn’t want to risk making it worse. She rubbed his arm, and gently tugged him towards the stairs. “Then let’s get you to bed, alright?”

“Okay.” He followed her up, one hand hooked under his belly, the other holding onto her for support. Upon making it to the bedroom, Valerie noticed that his expression was openly worried. When he saw her staring at him, a slight frown on her face, he gave her a forced smile and said, “You know, I think it’d be nice if we could gather up all the kids- I could read them all a story. It’s been a while since I did that.”

He’d done that just three days ago, so that was just a cover for something. At least now she knew that whatever he was worried about involved the kids. 

She decided to test the waters. “I think Violet and the twins are busy learning from Rieka.” Weylin’s only female cousin often looked after their youngest child and only daughter, Violet. The toddler was very proficient in natural magic, and Rieka did her best to teach her how to control it alongside Weylin. “And Yovak is studying.”

“Valerie, please. Can you bring the kids here?”

“I will.”

-

“My cousin’s lover is frightened,” Rieka said as Valerie came over and scooped up Violet, ushering the twins up. “He wants to keep the children close in order to protect them. What is he frightened of?”

“I don’t know. Something must have spooked him while he was outside.”

“I do not sense any danger in the yard, nor feel anything on the property. Yet, he is scared. Shall I fetch my cousin?”

“Uh...” Valerie shrugged. “Maybe just tell him something’s bothering Rhis, that he’s worried about the kids.”

“Of course.” She dipped her head and took off. 

One of the twins whimpered, and Valerie looked down at him. Two pairs of worried purple eyes stared back up at her, little mouths twisted into frowns. “It’s okay, sweethearts. You’re going to be spending some extra time with Mommy and Daddyand your big brothers today, okay?” 

She dropped the three of them off with Rhisiart, who looked relieved to have them safe in his arms. He hugged the three of them, giving each of them a kiss on the head.

Yovak was sitting on the back porch, carefully reading from a book of runes. Indigo sat cross legged next to him, doodling on a few pieces of paper. “Boys, your dad wants you to come sit with him and your siblings upstairs.” They didn’t protest or ask any questions. Yovak closed his book and got up, while Indigo gathered up his things. They followed her back up.

Rhisiart gave them each a hug and kiss as well. Valerie sat down on the bed as well, close to Rhisiart so she could rub his back. The kids sat in a semicircle around him, Violet in his arms. “I’ll get a book and read to all of you, alright?”

-

After a story, the kids all laid down for a nap. Rhisiart laid down as well, sighing as the kids snuggled up to him. Valerie waited for her husband to fall asleep so she could leave and continue doing chores, but Rhisiart didn’t close his eyes, and held her hand.

“You should sleep, Rhis.”

“I don’t think I could if I tried.”

“I thought you were tired.”

“Yes, I am, but... I just don’t think I’ll be falling asleep for a while.” He stroked Yovak’s fluffy white hair, and that bothered look was back in his eyes.

“What’s got you all keyed up, Rhis? Rieka told me she couldn’t sense anything dangerous on the property. And Weylin’s been in the basement all day, so he couldn’t have upset you... Unless that’s what bothering you?”

“Not really. That’s part of it, I mean. It’s... Honestly, Val, it’s kind of stupid.”

“Whatever it is, I promise it’s not stupid. You’re scared, and I just want to help.”

“Then...” He bit his lip, and then winced as he almost pricked it with his sharp teeth. “Then can you stay with me until he comes back?”

“Of course, love.”

-

Weylin came into room, all smiles and bustling with excitement. “The evening meal is ready! Are you kids hungry?”

“Hungry?” Yovak echoed, brows furrowing with confusion. He was fully weaned off of eating physical foods now.

“Yes! Every few years, the Corbane family gathers up enough mirages to feed everyone, and we eat our year’s worth all at the same time. There’s also ritual prayers and such, but we completed that. There’ll just be one prayer before we eat, and one after.”

“Mirages...”

“So, ah... Valerie, my dear, if you and Indigo would rather sit this one out-”

“Yeah, I think we will.” She pulled Indigo closer to her.

“Delmar, I’ve prepared some food for you as well, and will give the baby their dose of proper fae food through...” He gestured to his mouth. Rhisiart made a face. “The entire family is taking their seats now. Come on, my dears, I know you’ll love it.” He helped Rhisiart up, and then picked up Violet.

Rhisiart grabbed his arm. “Weylin, wait, I need to talk to you about something.”

“Whatever it is can wait, Delmar. I have to get you all down to the basement and start the prayer.”

“But-”

“Ah, ah. Hush.” Weylin gave him a kiss, and then nipped his lip. Rhisiart winced, tongue darting out to the now bleeding spot. “Mercies, I got a bit carried away! Come on, children. Say goodbye to your brother and mother. We won’t be seeing them for a couple of hours.”

-

Rhisiart was hardly eating, and Weylin frowned when he saw him continue to pick at his food. The kids were all eating heartily, both fae and human food. Violet was even enjoying some mushed up mirage. He kept a close eye on him, trying to figure out what was wrong. He’d gotten more rattled as they came down to the basement, and was almost shaking with anxiety as he sat down at the table.

Maybe he should have listened to him when he said he needed to tell him something.

Well, it didn’t really matter. He’d prayed to the Gods to reveal to him what he needed to know as family head, and if they willed it, he would know eventually.

Yovak asked one of his father’s cousins to pass him a knife, and Rhisiart stared at the exchange, glass of water stopping halfway to his mouth. As Yovak took the knife, his cousin glanced at Rhisiart. The glass dropped out of his hand and shattered on the floor.

“S-sorry, sorry-”

“Oh, that’s bad luck,” his cousin said. “Don’t expect things to go your way the next few days.”

The terror that radiated off of Delmar was exquisite, but strange. He’d only been terrified of the family once before, shortly after he gave birth to Yovak, when he’d thought they were trying to trap him in Otherland. He shouldn’t have been scared of any of them now.

The Gods had revealed the cause of his husband’s anxiety.

“Cousin, so specific. Bad luck doesn’t have a time limit. It could occur any time between now and next meal. Yet you sound so certain.”

“Just a feeling.”

“Only Rieka and I have such feelings.”

“He’s probably right, Weylin.” Rhisiart twirled his fork in his food. “You know how unlucky I am.”

“Even with all the good luck charms the kids and I give you?” Ah, there. Rhisiart seemed to shrink in on himself, and his cousin’s face hardened. “Is there something wrong, Cousin? You look upset.”

“Nothing, Cousin.”

“Are you sure? Because if I’m not mistaken, I’d say you were angry with me! But whatever for? The prayer was adequate, the food plentiful, the ritual done without any error-” He gasped in mock surprise, bringing a hand to his chest. Rhisiart pulled Violet from her highchair and held her close, looking between them. The other children got the hint and scooted closer to their human father. Weylin pouted, tilting his head. “Is it our attendee list that upsets you so, Cousin?”

“I would never doubt your choice of guests.”

“Strange that you call any of your family members guests. The Gods demand our presence.”

“May I speak freely, Cousin?”

“Weylin...”

“Hush, husband.” He gave Rhisiart’s arm a squeeze. “Keep eating. You need enough food for the baby as well as yourself.” It didn’t escape his notice that no one else was eating.

“Please...” Rhisiart gave him a pleading look, blue eyes shining with worry.

Weylin gave him a soft smile. “Relax, darling. Stress isn’t good for the little one.” He turned back to his cousin. “Now, of course you can speak freely.”

“I don’t see how it is the Gods’ wishes to allow you to pollute this family with human blood. All your half-breeds, this human broodmare you’ve taken- it’s disgusting!”

“Cousin... I am the family head. You mustn’t question my decisions.”

“I fail to see how this mockery of our culture- these little parodies-! I don’t see how they’re in accordance with our traditions!”

“So, you do question my decisions. Cousin, I hope you realize what that means.”

“I told your human pet that if I were to defeat you, I would allow him and your offspring to live in the house, keep their wastes of mirages. As long as he kept the children in line, he’ll be perfectly safe.”

“And if not?”

“Children can be replaced.”

“Really! I don’t agree. Now, it’s a pity to ruin the holidays, but...”

-

Taking Rhisiart’s face in his hands, Weylin kissed him and then sighed happily. “There, no need to fear my cousin any longer. The Gods have him now.”

“Thank you...”

“Delmar, you know I would do anything to protect this family and her structure. You, Valerie, and the children are just as much a part of the family as any one of my full-blooded relatives.” He put a hand on the man’s swollen belly, and leaned in close so it would bump against his own thin frame. “So if any of them threaten you again, come straight to me and don’t shut up until I’ve heard what happened.”

“Okay, I will.”

“Good! And tell Valerie the same. Now, let’s return to her and Indigo. I’m sure she’s worried about you.”

[sexydeathparty]

Advice For Feeding Picky Toddlers That'll Make Your Life So Much Easier

My floor is a blueberry graveyard. Banana pieces are so deeply squished into the floorboards that I might lose resale value on my home. I find bite-size cheese pieces in my own hair, even though I have no memory of consuming such a thing.

I blame all this on my newly minted one-year-old. It is my experience with children (nay, one child) that the tunnel vision of each phase distracts you from thinking too far into the future. And then the day came when my daughter’s paediatrician began rattling off foods to introduce and which allergens to be aware of.

Now, as the fog of the first year has slowly (oh, my God, so slowly) lifted, I find myself hunched over a highchair, begging, pleading, basically going through the phases of grief, with this miniature Anthony Bourdain sitting in front of me. It was fun at first. Even if she liked the taste of something, her body would shiver in shock once a foreign flavour hit her taste buds. 

Now, she has opinions. Raspberries are the only thing she’ll eat one day, and the next day when I serve them, a look falls across her face as if I betrayed her beyond recognition. Feeding a very independent child is no joke. Who knew? (Everyone knew.)

When your toddler refuses to eat, that food didn’t go to waste. It was food you were already going to make for yourself and you have a meal waiting for your lunch next day. ... Cook for yourself, share with your toddler.Jenny Best, the founder of Solid Starts

Like most things I do in regard to parenthood, I asked (albeit, repetitively) my friends with children around the same age. As I’ve quickly learned, the “it takes a village” notion of parenthood is absolutely true. The community I’ve had, or fallen into, has kept me sane. I knew they, too, would share their experiences of the toddler food phase. 

One friend, who has three children, reminded me that mess was something I was about to embrace. In fact, getting messy is part of learning how to eat and *gasp* is encouraged. So, start cheering on your little one when they throw food. But if you don’t want to live in the same crime scene every night, there are some attractive-looking highchair mats to help attempt a tidy eating area. 

Another friend with a baby two weeks older than my own mentioned the importance of utensils. Your little one is desperately trying to figure it all out on their own, so they will inevitably want to do it themselves — which means soft, squishy and forgiving materials can be helpful when it comes to cups, bowls, forks and spoons. There are a lot of bright colors and loud shades available, but if you’re more subdued, a few brands have aesthetically pleasing kitchenware. 

Look familiar? Know that you're not alone.

Lastly, to save sanity and time, my best friend mentioned meal prep. I never joined the bandwagon as a single person, so I laughed at the idea of doing it now. But it rang true: Prepping fruit or vegetables by cutting them up the night before (or, say, when a little person isn’t demanding your full attention) has made life a lot easier. Tupperware with bite-size berries or sliced turkey means I can reach for meals without sweating. Of course, teaching patience is a high priority of mine but, hey, step by step here. 

While I adore my friends, I decided to ask a professional to really round out my research. I reached out to Jenny Best, the founder of Solid Starts. She is incredibly knowledgeable about this next phase and I swear by her company, which helped me figure out when and how (diced, sliced or otherwise) to introduce new foods to my daughter. Her website provides guides and informative how-tos that are backed by paediatricians, allergists and occupational therapists.

The Solid Starts Instagram includes tangible, straightforward ways to implement these skills, making it less overwhelming when you plop your child into their highchair morning, noon and night. When I asked Best how to prepare (if at all) for this next phase, she didn’t mince words: “Have a game plan for food refusal and get other caregivers on board with that plan. How will you respond when your toddler refuses to eat dinner? Will you offer a healthy snack before bed? Hold firm? There’s no one right way, but consistency with toddlers is key. Know your game plan and stick to it.”

I catch myself feeling overwhelmed when I open the fridge and a demanding little girl is ready to eat while buckled down in her highchair. So, Best shared sage advice:

In terms of preparing your home for feeding toddlers, you’ll want to make sure you have an age-appropriate highchair that has an adjustable footplate and that allows the toddler to climb in and out of it easily. Many toddlers will start to try escaping their chairs. Head this off at the pass by teaching them to climb in and out of their own highchair (which most toddlers are able to do around 18-24 months of age). Teaching your child climb to in and out of their chair will help foster a happy mealtime dynamic and prevent accidents. If you don’t have a highchair that your child can climb into and out of, consider transitioning to a booster seat and teaching them how to safely get in and out of that seat.

And when it comes to actual products, she recommends toddler knives as well as “a small apron and an age-appropriate step stool or standing tower.”

“When toddlers are exposed to cooking and food preparation, they are generally more open to tasting that food as well,” she said.

Have a game plan for food refusal and get other caregivers on board with that plan.Best

And if you thrive in an organised and prepared space, your kitchen drawers deserve an upgrade as well. “This is the time to set up a kitchen drawer at the toddler’s level filled with safe kitchen items such as nesting bowls, whisks and wooden spoons,” Best said. “Let your toddler get into this drawer whenever you are in the kitchen to keep them busy but close by as you cook so they can see you cook and smell all the foods and flavours.”

Probably the most stressful aspect of feeding new humans? Choking. “Get familiar with choking hazards, but also coach your toddler on how to work with challenging foods,” Best said. “It is our strong professional opinion that the risk of choking is highest in toddlerhood because toddlers are more mobile, more likely to be eating risky foods like string cheese, baby carrots, etc., and more likely to be chatting or laughing while eating. This risk is likely highest when the toddler has never practiced eating challenging foods in a supported and calm moment with a caregiver. You don’t want your toddler’s first grape to be while running around at a party.”

Lastly, Best has hopeful words for the tired parent and some helpful tips to avoid burnout. “Get to the family meal as soon as you can. The sooner you are cooking one meal for everyone, the better for you, and honestly, the better for your toddler,” she said. “When your toddler refuses to eat, that food didn’t go to waste. It was food you were already going to make for yourself and you have a meal waiting for your lunch next day, which is not only better for your wallet and the planet, but for your own mental health. (Parents tend to get more frustrated when a special meal they made for their child is then refused.) Cook for yourself, share with your toddler.”

Let it be known you are not alone in your parenthood journey, especially if you’re entering this exciting, yet sometimes frustrating, phase. Remember, you both are learning. 

Related...

The Best Cooking Tasks For Kids Of Every Age, From Toddlers To Teens

11 Ways To Entertain The Kids Over Easter That Don't Break The Bank

7 Genius Baby Products For Stressed Parents That Seem Weird But Totally Work

from HuffPost UK - Athena2 - All Entries (Public) https://ift.tt/BTkM4lb via IFTTT

[limityourdreams-blog]

Being a first time parent is amazing especially when you discover something new every day about you, being a parent, and your little angel. However, most first time parents have a hard time in making decisions on what are the necessary things to consider for your child. I know all of us wanted those trending, new, fashionable but comfortable sets of baby furniture, but one thing that must be hugely considered in buying one is that, it must ensure your baby's safety.

At the moment, most parents are confused on what to purchase because of the existence of a large number of product to choose from. I know you will agree when I say that it is never easy to choose when you are given multiple selections of up to more than a hundred of pieces. Sometimes parents are overpowered with this situation, in effect, they usually forget the things they really needed, or shall I say, the things that your baby needs. So, with the following tips or reminders, hopefully after you read this, you will make good decisions not just for your little angel but also for you, parents.

First and foremost, your first priority is to buy a crib or cot, a highchair, a change table or compactum, and a play yard. These pieces of furniture are safe and will ensure you and your baby's comfort and convenience. Usually, if you would probably observe, if we compare these items from different manufacturers or stores, their prices differ only in the type of material they use or in the popularity of the store. Thus, examine properly through their catalogs and remember first things first. Do not be overpowered by the other beautiful things you see in the catalogs which are not in your priority needs.

CRIBS (Cots)

Cribs are best for newborn babies. There are many different crib styles which enable you to either lower or raise the side with one hand, while at the same time you are cradling your baby on the other. Take note that cribs with a one drop-side or a static drop-side is more likely to be well built and strong compared to a two drop-side crib. Also, choose a crib with an adjustable height mattress base. For newborns, set the mattress to the highest level and adjust it as your baby grows to avoid the baby from climbing out or worse, falling out of the crib. A crib with castors, about two or four castors, allows you to move your crib around easily. Make sure that at least two of them are lockable and you must keep it locked especially when it is not in use.

In these practical days, you can go for a convertible type of crib. They can be converted into a toddler bed, a daybed, or a full-sized bed which can be used even when your baby is growing up. You need not to buy a separate bed for your baby anymore when he started to grow up. Also, if you're a traveller type of parent, you can go for a travel crib. This type can be folded and really perfect for travelling. Different styles are available that has a removable and washable covers which can be folded away into a travelling bag.

HIGHCHAIRS

These types of chairs are the best and great place for baby feeding. Since baby feeding is not easy in reality, a highchair can make this activity easier for parents and it is in fact more fun on your child's part. This chair allows your child to be secured with a harness in a position where you can concentrate on feeding. Subsequently, it can give you child an early sense of independence a they will start to feed themselves especially at meal times beside the rest of the family.

CHANGE TABLE (Compactum)

A changing table, also known as compactum, is designed specifically for diaper or clothing changing activities of your baby. Although you can do this in your bed or in a mat or table, it is much more convenient to have a specific are for storing diapers, baby clothes, and other toiletry needs of your baby while at the same time being able to change your baby on it.

This furniture can be really important especially if you have had a caesarean delivery or have trouble in sitting and bending. When purchasing a changing table, buy it before your baby is born. Of course, it is most useful during the early months but you must use it with tremendous care once your baby can roll to prevent falling.

PLAY YARD

A play yard gives your baby a place to play and enjoy. Several play yards have items to entertain your baby, including a detachable toy bar, or an entertainment centre that incorporates music or nature sounds, and dancing lights, which can be activated by a remote control. It can be a portable changing station as some of them have an inserted or attached changing table that flips into position along the side with storages or shelves for toiletries. Therefore, a play yard is not just a typical play area for baby but as well as for parents to do their jobs for their child.

Being a parent is not an easy task. You have to make sure that your baby is of good condition all the time. One thing that is important to give special attention to is there environment. Select the best furniture for them that makes them comfortable and safe. More details on baby furniture can be found at Dream Furniture.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jodel_Benigra/798512

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5204180