Daddy's Birthday, part 1
Eyes watched her every motion as she moved back and forth across the kitchen, but they were fixated on one particular thing. "What color?" she called
to him, and he only thought about it for a moment.
"Blue!" he sang out, and she smiled.
"Blue it is," she agreed, squeezing some drops from a small bottle and then mixing things up. He watched her, his eyes not leaving the bowl she had before her, and he watched as the white swirled into blue, eventually becoming entirely blue. Mommy held something in her hand, and she stirred very hard with it.
In moments, she came forward and held it out to him. Mommy had called it a spatula, and the end part of it was covered with frosting. He reached for it, greedily, and Mommy chuckled. "Slow down," she said. "It's for you, Sweetie. It's all yours." And he took it, knowing what that meant. His small tongue came out and began to lick the frosting, and he made a small 'mmmm' of delight.
Mommy was chuckling again. It was a happy sound that filled whatever room they were in, and JJ looked upward at her. "You are so much like your Daddy," she said, smiling, and he continued to feast upon the sweet treat, unsure what she meant by that. Those were words he had heard his mommy use before, and even though he was still a little guy, he understood one thing. When Mommy said he was like Daddy, that was a good thing.
"Daddy's at work," he said, through the frosting in his mouth. Mommy had said so, and he wanted her to know that he had listened and remembered the things she told him. "Abby's at school," he said, next. It was a game they sometimes played, where they would talk to one another and say where everyone was.
"That's right," Mommy praised him from across the way. Her hands were busy, and JJ understood what it was she was doing. "Abby will be here at any moment," Mommy said, glancing upward at the clock on the wall. "And we have to finish this cake before your Daddy comes home." JJ nodded to show her that he was listening, but his attention was really on that yummy frosting.
"What day is it?" Mommy called out from across the room, and he heard her question and knew the proper response. She had been asking him that question all day, and he knew the answer by now.
"Daddy's birthday," he said, happy for an occasion that called for a cake. Mommy's frosting was SO good! Now he began to take his small finger and swipe it over the spatula, capturing some of the sweetness on his little finger and putting that in his mouth, too.
"Very, very good," Mommy said. He liked it when she said that. He liked making her happy and pleased. "Daddy is at work, but he will be home before much longer, and Abby will be here soon, and you can help your big sister decorate." It was almost like Mommy was talking to herself, he thought. But that would be silly. She looked up from what she was doing, and he could see that she held another spatula in her hands. Little by little, Daddy's cake was being covered with blue frosting, and he smiled to see it. "JJ, will you help me?" Mommy asked, and he looked to her. He liked to help Mommy. She told him he was her 'Little Man' and he liked doing the things she needed. "JJ," she addressed him again. "Will you put your spatula in the sink for me and wipe your hands on the dish towel? And then I'll tell you what to do."
He was easygoing, and he complied. The frosting was gone, and he hopped down from his place and trotted across the room, reaching high and releasing the spatula into the sink. Then he reached for the towel that hung from the cabinet door, and he wiped off his fingers. Mommy watched him and commented. "Good boy," she said, praising him, and he smiled at her. When it served his interest to do what she wished, he liked to make her happy. "Now," she said, going on. "Go over to the cabinet by the window, and open the door."
He was curious. That word he did know. Mommy said he was curious, and Daddy would say 'George' and JJ knew the stories they read to him about the silly monkey. He was like that monkey. He liked to know things and understand things, too. He moved across the room to the very place she had told him of, and he opened the cabinet door, looking back at her for what came next.
"Good boy," Mommy said, again. "Do you see the brown bag?" He saw it and nodded. This was fun! "Pull out that bag," Mommy told him, "and bring it here to me." The bag was not heavy, and he pulled it by the handles on top, allowing it to carefully slide out and to the floor. "Close the door again," she sang out, and he did. And then he picked up the bag and carried it to her side. "Good job," she told him, and he smiled at her further praise. "Now, you take out all the things in that bag, and put them up here on top of the table, okay?"
"Okay," he echoed. This was certainly easy enough. He didn't know what the things in the bag were, but they were colorful and nice to look at. He began to do as she had asked, taking each one and reaching it up to the tabletop way high. But his work was cut short by a sound, and he whirled around, hearing the sound of the lock and the door.
"I'm home!" came a voice from the next room, and his small heart began to beat with excitement. Forgetting his work and his promise to his Mommy, JJ whirled about and raced from the kitchen, finding the source of that voice and hurling himself into her waiting arms. "JJ!" she laughed, grabbing him up into a hug and holding him tightly.
"Abby!" He had missed his big sister so much when she had been back 'home' without them, and no one in the family had been happier to have her with them again than him. She put a few kisses on top of his head, and she carried him back with her into the kitchen.
"Hi Baby," Mommy greeted her, and JJ wrinkled his nose. Mommy called her 'Baby' and he didn't understand that. Abby was a big girl. She was almost one of the Big People, even. Why did Mommy call her 'Baby?' It was one of many things he could not understand, but he listened to them talk. "How were your classes today?"
He understood. They were going to talk about Big People stuff, and JJ was impatient. Abby was chatting about her classes, and Mommy was asking questions, and they had forgotten him. He squirmed to get Abby's attention, but she just absent-mindedly set him down from her arms, and he frowned. He grabbed something from the brown bag, and he thrust it into her hands, and that seemed to take her attention back again. What was it Mommy had said they were going to do? He hunted for the word. He knew so many words, but sometimes he got them wrong. "We need to dedicate," he said, firmly. If he was the Little Man, he could be in charge, he knew.
Abby looked at what was in her hands, and then she laughed. "Decorate?" she asked. "Is that what we are going to do?"
Wasn't that what he had said? JJ was confused. He didn't like when he made a mistake, but his big sister smiled and made it better. "That was a very big word," she told him. "You are a smart boy." That made him smile again.
"Come on," he insisted, before she could start talking to Mommy again, and he reached for her hand. They quickly got busy, and the next minutes went by in a rush. He helped Abby hang some things up, and he helped them set the table, too. And before too long, the cozy little kitchen was looking fancy for the day.
"Mom," Abby was laughing again. "How did you get this stuff?"
"I had your Aunt Maggie send it over to me," she said, smiling. "I wasn't sure I'd be able to find anything like it here. And if that had backfired, I would have hunted it online. I just didn't want your father to find any record of it. You know how persistent he is. I wanted it to be a surprise."
JJ's small ears honed in on that word. "Surprise?" he asked, wanting to know what they meant, and Abby took him aside.
"Remember what we talked about?" she asked him, seriously. "Remember when we said it was Daddy's birthday, but we didn't want to say anything until he comes home?" He nodded. It hadn't much made sense to him, but he had understood what was expected of him. And he had tried to keep quiet, wanting to please his mommy and sister.
Abby went on. "When Daddy comes home in a little bit, he won't know that we have been doing all this. And when we shout out that it's a surprise, he will know that we remembered his birthday and are going to celebrate it." He nodded again, still unsure, but willing to do what they asked of him.
"I think we're all set," Mommy said, and her voice sounded funny. "The cake is ready, and you both have done a wonderful job of decorating. Now, all we need is your Daddy." She looked at him and he smiled at her. Big People were sure silly a lot of the time, he thought.
His thoughts were interrupted by another sound. It was coming from beyond the next room, and JJ knew the sound instantly. It was Daddy, whistling like he did every day when he came home, letting them know he was arriving.
"Quick!" Mommy hissed quietly, and Abby grabbed him and pulled him back before he could run to meet Daddy like he did each day. Abby told him to keep quiet and still, and they waited in the kitchen, quiet and still.
The keys jingled in the lock, and they could hear the door push open from the next room. The whistling grew louder, and JJ twitched, wanting instinctively to run to him, but his sister's arms held him back.
"Well this is a fine 'how do you do' today of all days," he heard the familiar voice from the next room. "Where IS everyone??"
...to be continued...
Next time: Daddy enjoys his birthday surprise!
