Carrie Johnson woke up with a start. A baby's cry resounded from the next room over.
"What time is it..?" she glanced at the digital alarm clock sitting on her nightstand, feeling tired. The glaring red numbers read 4:35 AM. The young woman sighed and turned to go back to sleep, before her tired mind registered the baby's loud wails. "Ness!!" Carrie flew out of bed and ran down the hall, her golden blonde hair bouncing against her back. It was a bit unkempt.
Carrie turned on the warm overhead lights in the hallway and ran into the next room over. It was her firstborn son's room. He was about 7 months old, and his name was Ness. He had woken up, likely hungry or in need of a diaper change.
Carrie had come to recognize Ness' various cries. His crying varied in pitch depending on what he wanted, and this cry was definitely a hungry cry. She picked him up out of his clean wooden crib and exited the room.
Carrie walked through the upstairs hallway, soothing Ness. She cringed after stepping on the stairs. The top step had creaked loudly and further upset Ness. Whispering more soothing words to her child, she continued.
Before long Carrie made it to the kitchen. She quickly reached for the cabinet containing the formula powder, opened it, and grabbed a canister of formula powder. She placed the canister on the counter beneath the cabinet, the set Ness at a highchair at the kitchen table.
Ness had quieted down by now, and Carrie focused on getting Ness some food. She also decided that she might as well stay awake and prepare herself for the day ahead, and decided to make herself some breakfast too. She opened the canister of formula. Almost empty. She'd need to buy more today. She prepped a bottle for Ness and diced a banana.
She then grabbed a few eggs from the fridge and placed them on the counter next to the stove before returning to the fridge in search of butter.
Ness was bored and hungry. He had a full view of the counter from his highchair and saw the eggs his mother had placed on the counter. He saw them wobble after being placed down, and became interested in them. He reached an arm out for one, and it slowly jerked towards him. However, it soon fell off the counter and broke, the yolk and whites spilling out all over the floor.
Ness stared, confused. What happened? Why had the egg broken? He pondered it for a moment, unable to come to a conclusion.
Carrie turned to see an egg on the floor and sighed. She thought she'd placed the egg far from the edge of the counter, but apparently not. She cleaned the mess before grabbing another egg and placing it on the counter.
She then melted some butter in a pan over the stove and started making scrambled eggs while making a mental list of things she had to do today. She had to go grocery shopping, meet up with a friend for lunch, and didn't she have to pick up more diapers? Yes, she'd need to do that as well. She finished making the eggs and set aside a large serving for herself and a small serving for Ness.
She set the food and bottle in front of Ness. He'd learned to feed himself rather quickly, and started eating solid food quickly too. The boy happily shoved a piece of banana into his mouth and ate it, then began eating his breakfast while singing random phenomes at random pitches.
Carrie giggled a bit, despite the fact she was tired and had lost over 3 hours of sleep. After finishing her food, she sat back down and watched Ness carefully. After he finished his food, she picked him up, telling herself she'd clean up the mess later.
Carrie brought Ness back upstairs to his room and dressed him in a simple blue t-shirt and shorts.
She placed Ness in his green playpen sitting at the other side of the room with some toys and watched him to make sure he didn't injure himself in any way. After about 30 minutes, Ness got tired and fell asleep in the playpen.
Carrie laughs and carries him to his crib. She enters her room and crawls into bed. She is woken by her alarm clock 3 hours later.
Carrie slaps the off button on the clock and gets out of bed. Grabbing a pink long sleeved dress from her closet, she goes into the bathroom to shower, walking briskly. She had a lot to do that day, and being woken up at 4 AM had prepared her for waking up later on.
After her shower, she brushes through her golden locks and applies light makeup. She brushes her teeth and applies deodorant. She then gets dressed in the change of clothes she'd brought into the bathroom and goes to wake Ness.
Ness was out cold in his crib. Carrie gently wakes him up and carries him out of the room.
The boy is not very happy to be woken up. He whines and cries a bit. "Look, you can sleep in the car on the way into town, okay Ness? Please stop crying," Carrie says, her determination fading.
She brings him to the car and puts him in his baby seat, makes sure he's fastened in, then plops into the driver's seat and buckles up. She drives out of the Onett suburbs and into town, getting herself ready for the long day ahead.