Page 34 of Hiding From Laughter

He was adorable and had taken to the binkielike a duck to water. Not having to talk was probably his favorite part of allof it, but I was hoping he’d thoroughly enjoy a few other pieces as well oncehe’d relaxed into it.

His brain was still working a bit too fastand a bit too grown-up to really sink into the scene, but he was calm and likedhis clothes. I was going to count everything as a win so far and just see wherethe rest took us.

“Alright.” Another forehead kiss got moregrumbling, but he leaned closer and glared at me until he got cheek kisses too.“I’m going to release your arms as you walk down the stairs but we’ll give youhappy hands once we’re back downstairs again.”

Safety first even if he was adorable.

Yep.

Adorable.

He pulled his hands against his chest andhuffed. “How upset will I get if you fall down the stairs?”

One long sigh around the binkie had himoffering up his hands, looking a bit like an adorable T-Rex.

“Good boy.” More kisses, grumbling, and abit of safety got us to the bottom of the stairs safely, but I made sure tosecure him again as soon as we reached the first floor. “Perfect.”

If he thought about it carefully, he’d beable to do a lot of things, but he was never careful and rarely thoughtanything through. He’d find a fun way to brat and be pouty, but he wasn’t goingto put a lot of effort into doing things for himself.

“You’re going to sit at the table and playwhile I finish up dinner.” He’d actually come home at a reasonable time, so itwasn’t already cold or been hanging around in the slow cooker for entirely toolong. “I made you mac-n-cheese.”

The good kind that needed to be finished inthe oven…his favorite.

Oh yes.

His eyes lit up and he waved his fingers atme in a gimmie kind of gesture. But that binkie was still in place, so I didn’texpect any kind of verbal response aside from happy noises. “My boy isexcited.”

Kissing his cheeks again, I picked him upand held him tightly as he wrapped his legs around me. “Good boy. Playtime andthen we’ll have a bottle and dinner.”

Ashton went very quiet for a moment beforehe rested his head on my shoulder and sighed. The binkie stayed firmly inplace, so I patted his bottom as I took him to the kitchen. “I think you’regoing to like your new presents.”

An excited inhale escaped before he couldhide how curious he was.

“I know.” Kissing his head, I set him downin the kitchen and gave him a beaming smile. “You like presents.”

Knickknacks.

Flowers.

Goodies.

He loved all kinds of gifts…small, big, orcompletely random and ridiculous. It’d taken me a while to figure out what heliked, but seeing his eyes light up was fun.

This might turn out to be something Ineeded to work on to get right, but I was pretty sure I’d started strong.

Ashton wasn’t so sure about that, but heseemed willing to humor me and even leaned into me and tucked himself under myshoulder as I led him to the table. “I just have a few things to get dinnerready and then we’ll have special time together.”

His expression could best be described asskeptical, but I’d seen it a lot over the past few years, so I wasn’t worried.He even sighed as he sat down and pretended to be frustrated that he couldn’trest his elbows on the table.

“One second.” Kissing the top of his head,I ignored the adorable sound effects and went over to the pantry.

I’d hidden some of his goodies behind someveggie crisp things I’d bought at the store that I knew he’d never eat and therest in the junk cabinet that he kept saying he was going to clean out. Hisdrama came back as he saw me get all the fun new stuff and I couldn’t helpguessing what his thoughts were.

Dramatic yes…but blaming himself was alwaysa good guess and he’d probably have questionable logic about why he had to playalong in the scene.

But when I set the coloring books andcrayons down, he sucked in a breath and went still as his eyes got wider. “Ithink you forgot that I had a half day.”

Occasionally there were good reasons towork for the school district.

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