Page 19 of Family Bonds: Alana & Brennan
“I bet you are. What do you want?”
“Pancakes. Did you read me a story last night?”
“No,” he said. “After I walked Alana out, I returned to your room and you were already sleeping.”
Becca’s jaw dropped, her eyes got wide, a pout on her lips. “I was?”
He tapped her on the nose. “You were. And your hair stayed in those braids. I guess you didn’t move around much either.”
Normally Becca’s blonde hair looked as if a cyclone blew through it in the morning. Maybe his daughter was so exhausted she barely moved in her sleep.
He’d popped his head into her room an hour ago to check on her. Then went up five minutes ago to wake and carry her down the stairs after her bathroom break.
She could walk, but he had to admit he loved holding his daughter in his arms when she was first up and wanted to cuddle.
But it wasn’t just about holding her. He feared she’d take a tumble down the stairs in her morning enthusiasm, and if he could prevent an injury, this was what he’d do.
But the minute he set her down, her feet revved up as if there were mini propellers inside her soles.
Becca’s hands went to her head and grasped both of the ends of her braids on each side. “Yay! Now Grandma doesn’t have to do it.”
His mother was a lifesaver in more than one way.
He opened the freezer and pulled out the box of mini pancakes his daughter loved, popped several on a paper plate and stuck them in the microwave while he got the maple syrup.
As they cooked, he filled her milk cup and brought her to the table to set her up.
The microwave dinged. He put the syrup in the plate's corner—his daughter preferring to pick up each pancake and dip it, then take a bite.
He refilled his coffee and joined his daughter like he did every morning. He’d already eaten. Something he could do in peace while she was sleeping.
“Did you buy toys for Saturday?” Becca asked.
“I didn’t,” he said, not surprised she remembered. “You fell asleep and we said we’d pick them out together.” He had his laptop on the table and opened it. “These are the ones I picked out that can be here on Friday, if we order them now. You can pick three out of it.”
He had six on the screen and watched his daughter purse her lips, her finger to her chin as if deep in thought. Her antics always brought a smile to his face.
“Can we get them all?”
He expected her to ask that. “No. Just three.”
They were all the same value. It had nothing to do with the money but that his daughter had to learn to decide in life. He tried to impart small lessons when he could.
“I like them all though.”
“I know. And you’ve got some of those toys. But it’s not what you like, but what you think other kids would like. Alana said that they get a lot of toys for younger kids, but very few things for older kids. So you get to pick out three on that page and then I’m going to give them a gift card to order what they see fit for the older kids. For three things. So see, we are still giving six.”
“Oh,” Becca said, her mouth open. “Three from you and three from me.”
He smiled. “There you go.” His daughter’s comprehension of things was greater than her years.
Becca continued to eat her breakfast while she studied the six toys. It could be a thirty-minute decision on his daughter’s part if he didn’t put a time limit on it.
“I like the paint set.”
“I knew you would,” he said. One down.
Two more pancakes were gone in that time. “And the books.”
