SUMMARY: Toddler Aly is learning how to talk. More fluff from the Aly-verse.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hello Dear Readers! If this is your first time reading one of my fanfics, please check out my profile for more stories with Alyson Winchester. The main story is called The Adventures of Alyson Winchester, and there are several one-shots about Aly at different ages. I hope you enjoy them, and if you do, please leave me a review!
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"De."
Dean heard little footsteps padding over to his bed.
"De!" A little hand patted his face.
"De, uppy!" Aly said, and he opened his eyes and saw his baby sister standing by his bed. "Uppy" was her word for 'get up out of bed'.
He reached out to her, and then lifted her up and over his body, putting her in bed next to him.
"Nope," he said. "I'm going back to sleep." He put his arm around her waist, put his head down, closed his eyes, and began to fake snore loudly. She giggled, and then he felt her little fingers digging into his armpit.
"Oh no you don't!" he opened his eyes and rolled over, grabbing her and tickling her stomach, and she gave a loud shriek of laughter and threw herself on top of him.
He let her go and sighed. So much for sleeping in on Saturday morning. He wondered where their Dad was. He sat up, swinging his legs over the bed, and then picked her up. He could feel that her diaper was full and squishy when he set her on his hip, and he stopped by her room and grabbed a clean diaper. Once he was in the living room, he got his answer.
Dad was propped up in the recliner, with the t.v. going, but he had fallen asleep. Dean sat down on the sofa and laid Aly down, making quick work of undoing her pajamas and changing her diaper. He carried her into the kitchen, set her down, washed his hands, and poured some milk into a bottle. Into the microwave it went, and then he turned his attention to her.
"What do you want for breakfast?" he asked her. "Oatmeal, or eggs?"
"Bah," she held her hands up toward the microwave, opening and closing them.
"Your milk is coming," he told her. Dad had been so glad when she outgrew formula, he had told them how much more expensive it was, and now that Aly was old enough to drink regular milk they saved a lot of money on their grocery bills.
The microwave beeped, and he took the bottle out, put the nipple on, shook it, and handed it to her. Then he got out a pan and a carton of eggs and began to scramble some to cook for breakfast. She loved scrambled eggs and they were easy for her to eat too. She could pick them up with her hands, and that was the way she preferred to feed herself.
Sam ambled into the kitchen, scratching his rumpled hair and yawning.
"Eggs, Sammy?" Dean asked, cracking a couple more into the bowl.
"Sure," Sam sat down at the table, and Aly ran over to him and threw herself at his legs.
"Bah!" she said around the nipple in her mouth. "Bah, up!"
She held her arms up to him.
Sam leaned over and picked her up, settling her on his lap. "Hey Alybug," he said, and she grinned at him.
She couldn't say 'Sam' yet, she called him 'Bah' for some reason. The closest thing they could figure was that maybe she was trying to say brother. But then 'Bah' was also her word for bottle of milk, so who knew?
Dean got out plates and forks and set them on the table. Sam put each plate at a place, and then a fork. When the eggs were cooked, Dean turned, holding the pan, and scooped some onto each plate with a plastic spatula. He walked into the living room to see if his Dad was awake, and ask if he wanted any, but he was still fast asleep, snoring lightly in the chair.
Dean set the pan on the stove and sat down next to Sam, who still had Aly on his lap.
Sam had cut the fluffy eggs into pieces and separated them on his plate.
Aly reached for some, and he grabbed her hand.
"Ah-ah, not yet. Let them cool down," he told her. He speared a piece of egg on his fork and held it up in front of his face, blowing on the steam rising from it.
Aly leaned forward and blew on it too, drops of saliva spraying from her lips.
"Um, ew!" Sam said. "You're definitely eating that piece!"
Dean laughed at Sam, and Aly looked at Dean and laughed too.
"Okay, it should be cool enough," Sam said after a moment, and he held the forkful of egg up to Aly's mouth. She opened her mouth and Sam fed her. After she had chewed and swallowed, she held her hand up, opening and closing it like she had for the bottle. That was her gesture for "I want more".
"Eh," she said, pointing to the plate. "Muh eh."
Dean and Sam looked at each other.
"Did she just say eggs?" Sam asked.
"Yeah," Dean said breathlessly. He forked another piece of egg up and held it up.
"Aly, what's this?" he asked.
"Eh," she said.
"Want some?" Sam watched her.
"Muh eh," she said again, opening and closing her hand.
"She just said her first sentence!" Dean said happily, grinning at her.
"Good girl, Alybug!" Sam ruffled her hair. She grinned at him, and leaned her head on his chest for a moment, not understanding why he was praising her, but she knew the words meant something good, and she basked in his praise.
"You're so smart!" Dean said to her, and she sat up and grinned at him too.
She picked up her bottle and took a long drink from it, then set it on the table and burped loudly.
"And kinda gross too," Sam said, and the boys laughed. Aly laughed because they laughed.
Dean got up and ran to the living room. "Dad! Dad!" he shook his Dad's arm.
Dad sat up, opening his eyes and blinking rapidly, instantly at attention. "What? What, Dean?"
"Aly just said her first sentence!" Dean told him, smiling proudly.
"Whaat?" Dad stood up and followed Dean to the kitchen. He walked over and stood at the table, looking at Aly on Sam's lap.
"Aly, want some?" Sam gestured to the plate of eggs.
Aly picked up a hunk of scrambled egg. Then she looked at their Dad and held it out to him. "Muh eh, Da?"
"She just asked you if you wanted more eggs!" Dean told him excitedly.
"Wow," Dad said. He leaned down and opened his mouth, and let Aly feed him the eggs. He smiled at her and ruffled her hair. "Good job, baby girl!"
She beamed up at him, and then beamed at her brothers too.
After that it seemed like she picked up more and more words and strung them together into sentences. It was "toddler- speak", but they knew what she was saying.
"No ny-ny" meant, "No, I don't want to go to bed."
"De, sih' bah," meant, "Dean, I want to sit with you while I drink my milk."
"Up" meant "Pick me up", but "Uppy" meant, "I'm awake, get me out of my crib.", or "Wake up and get out of bed."
Dean usually heard her calling, "Deeee, uppyyyy" over the baby monitor in the morning.
And of course, there was "No". Besides "No ny ny", there was, "No ee", which meant, "I'm not hungry and I don't want to eat", usually said when she was playing with something and didn't want to stop, and there was "No go" which meant, "I don't want you to leave". John would walk Sam to the bus in the morning, with Aly, and she cried when Sam got on the bus, calling, "No go! No go, Bah!"
John soon learned to pick her up and hold her as the bus pulled to a stop, because one morning he had been chatting with another mom, and not noticed what was happening. Before he knew it, Aly had toddled up the steps onto the bus behind Sam. The school kids had laughed and hollered about it, "Oh my gosh, there's a baby on the bus!" He had had to walk onto the bus and carry her off, kicking and screaming. She cried for a long time after that, and he had to prevent her from following Sam again, which caused more fussing. Finally he started picking her up and holding her as soon as they noticed the yellow bus come around the corner.
They stood together watching as the bus slowly came to a halt in front of them.
Aly's lower lip poked out in anticipation of Sam leaving.
He walked over and kissed her cheek. "Bye, Aly," he said.
"No go, Bah," she said, and her chin wobbled.
"None of that," John said to her. "Sammy has to go to school."
Aly watched Sam walk over to the bus and climb the steps.
"No fuh," she said, looking at John.
"That's right, no fussing," John said, and he kissed the side of her head. "That's my big girl."
"Bye!" she waved as the bus pulled away. "Bye-bye, Bah!" she called.
And then there was the first time she said "I love you".
John let her sleep on the sofa with him in the afternoon. He knew he shouldn't indulge her like that, and he should insist that she go down for her nap in her crib, but she already hated going to sleep, and fought him on it. It was easier and less stressful to lay down on the sofa with her nestled into his side, and let her fall asleep against him. And to be honest, he cherished the times that they did that, because it made him feel connected to her. The months after Mary died had been a blur for him and he barely remembered caring for Aly, and all of a sudden she had grown into a toddler in the blink of an eye. Now that he had woken up out of his stupor of grief, he didn't want to miss out on any more of her life.
He laid down on the sofa with her half on his chest, snuggled into him, and listened to the sounds of her drinking her milk. He played with her hair and hummed something under his breath, hoping it was making her sleepy. He was ready to doze himself.
She held the empty bottle up and said, "Ah dah," which meant, "All done."
He took the bottle from her and set it on the floor next to the sofa.
"Close your eyes, baby girl," he told her. "It's rest time."
Things went better when he didn't say the dreaded "n-a-p" word- she already knew what it meant, and she fussed when she heard it.
She put her head down on his chest, and he watched her play with the buttons on his flannel for a moment. He was overcome with emotion.
"I love you, pumpkin," he told her quietly, stroking her hair. She turned her head and looked at him, resting her chin on his chest.
He could smell her milky breath, and she said, "Wuh yu, Da." and grinned at him.
He leaned his head forward and kissed her face, realizing what she had just said to him.
"You're so precious," he said to her softly, and she laid her head on his chest and put her thumb in her mouth, closing her eyes.