Here is the first in a series of oneshots that follow Nikola and Helen's adventures in parenting. I hope you enjoy.
Nikola walked into Helen's office and unceremoniously dropped their screaming two year old daughter in her lap.
"I cannot be expected to work under these conditions!"
Helen chose to ignore her husband's outburst for the moment and focus on soothing their screaming daughter. She adjusted Ruby on her lap to allow the child to rest her head against her left breast while a chubby little hand rested on her right. She had stopped feeding Ruby six months ago but the child, not unlike her father, still found Helens ample cleavage comforting.
Now safely in the loving embrace of her mother, who was gently rubbing circles on her daughters back, Ruby's screams turned to hiccupping sobs.
Helen turned her attention to Nikola who had seated himself opposite her at the desk.
"How do you do that?" He asked impatiently, not liking the fact that he was not the best person at comforting their daughter. "I picked her up and cuddled her, I rubbed circles on her back and she just screamed louder."
Helen's initial reaction to the petulant look on her husband's face was to laugh but she could tell by the tone of his voice that he saw himself as a failure because he wasn't able to comfort his own daughter and Helen knew very well that Nikola never liked to fail – at anything.
"What exactly happened?"
"We were in my lab, Ruby was in her playpen and I made the most amazing discovery. If you submerge the rock you found in Bolivia in ….
"Nikola! Focus!"
"Oh right sorry, but remind me to tell you about it later." He grinned and Helen made a mental note to keep their daughter in her office for the next few days, if Nikola had made some kind of discovery – who knows what might happen down there – at the very least he would end up so focussed he would forget to feed her. "Anyway, she wanted ice cream and I said no."
Helen smiled, proud of Nikola for not giving in to their daughters every whim. Unfortunately he had had to learn that lesson the hard way.
::::::
Helen had walked into the kitchen to find Ruby happily sitting in her high chair, smothered in chocolate ice cream at 8.30 in the morning.
"What, in the name of all things holy, is going on?" She demanded.
Nikola looked up and smiled at his beautiful wife. "I knew you were busy today so I thought I would give Ruby her breakfast."
"And just when did ice cream become an appropriate breakfast dish?" Helen didn't know whether to be furious or burst out laughing.
"Uhh Uhhh Uhh I told you." The big guy muttered from the other side of the kitchen, knowing this was not going to be pretty. Magnus was a stickler for a healthy diet.
"I asked her what she wanted for breakfast and she said ice cream."
"Nikola she's two! Of course she wants ice cream but that doesn't mean she gets it!"
"In my defence I did suggest cereal but she started to cry and you know I can't stand it when she cries." Nikola said as he cleaned up his daughter.
Helen felt her frustration levels growing. Ruby was going to grow up to be the most spoilt child imaginable if Nikola kept this up. Helen for the life of her couldn't think of a way to get Nikola to understand that constantly giving in to their daughter was not always the best way to deal with her tantrums – it only made things worse in the long term. It turned out though that it was Ruby, herself, who held the answer.
Once Nikola had finished cleaning her, he lifted his daughter out of the high chair and held her aloft.
"What does mummy know hmmmmm, my little Ruby loved her ice cream breakfast." Without any warning Ruby made the most horrendous gagging sound and promptly vomited all over the front of her father.
Nikola stood there, literally dripping in chocolate ice cream vomit, still holding a crying Ruby in the air, completely unsure of what to do next but knowing this was easily the most disgusting situation he had ever found himself in.
Helen took in the scene before her and promptly burst into laughter. Lesson learned. In response to her laughter Ruby started laughing too, now that she no longer had a belly overstuffed with ice cream. Safe in the knowledge that her daughter felt fine, Helen left the kitchen and headed to her office still chuckling, thinking of how much her fanatical husband was going to hate having to clean up that mess.
::::::
Helen smiled. "Well of course she wouldn't let you comfort her – you were the one saying no. Remember the other day when we were at the park and I told her she wasn't allowed to go near the water but she wanted to get closer to the ducks?"
Nikola nodded.
"Who was it she went running to when mean old mummy wouldn't let her do what she wanted?"
Nikola got a ghost of a smile and thought of all the other times Helen had disciplined their headstrong child and she had come running to him for comfort.
"Shouldn't someone have written a book or something about all this parenting stuff?"
"Only about 10 000 of them." Helen laughed. "No book can give us all the answers. I think we just have to face the fact that we have a very bright, very headstrong daughter, and for the life of me I cannot figure where she would have gotten those personality traits." Helen smirked. "The key is going to be presenting a united front. This is just the start, give her a few more years and she we be playing us off against each other like a professional."
Nikola walked over and retrieved his now sleeping daughter off her mother's lap and cuddled her close. "Oh Helen what have we let ourselves in for?"
Helen smiled and stood dropping a kiss on her beautiful daughters head and wrapping her arms around Nikolas waist.
"A whole world of trouble – exciting isn't it?" She grinned.
