The sugar rush caused by the ice cream had left the little boy's body soon, leaving him barely awake on the couch watching his favorite cartoons. Emma was cooking their dinner, keeping an eye on her son. She smiled as she saw him hugging the pillow closer to him and somehow the blanket was covering his legs right now. He was imitating her, how she sat on the couch, after a tough long day of work.

Dinner was a challenge. Barely able to keep his eyes open, Henry didn't want to eat his peas, something he would love to eat any other day. At some point Emma gave up, opting instead for giving him a quick bath before getting him ready for bed. The bad seemed to give him a little bit more energy, and his bad mood soon disappeared along with the water sloshing over the side of the bad. She dried his brown curls while playing peek-a-boo and enjoyed the shrieks of joy and the laughter coming from the little boy.

A little while later they lied side by side on the couch, Henry nursing the bottle he still drank before bedtime. The only part left of him being a baby, aside from his diapers at night. Emma enjoyed the cuddles she'd get while he was drinking it, so she was reluctant to give it up. Instead she indulged him, and indulged herself of the five minutes of peace in their hectic life. It were the few minutes everyday when no one needed to hurry up, when no one needed to get things done, when they could just be.

After those rare minutes of peace, the struggle to get teeth brushed would start. Somedays Henry would allow her to brush them easily, other days he would refuse to open his mouth or bite down hard on the toothbrush, not letting go. Tonight seemed to be one of the first type of evenings, he was too tired to struggle anymore. Emma read him a short bedtime story and turned of the light, the little boy already dead to the world.

As usual, Emma had left most of her housekeeping for when Henry was asleep. Being a single partner, she opted to give her boy all of the attention he deserved when he was with her, not having someone else to provide him with that while she was busy tidying and cleaning. It also meant her time alone at night would consist of at least an hour of doing exactly that, before she could have some time to herself. It was tough, but she wouldn't want it any other way. Henry's dad had been very clear that he didn't want anything to do with him, leaving even before his son was born.

Having her household back in check and all of Henry's chaos controlled, Emma dropped down on the couch with a big sigh. She still had some emails to check before she could go to work, and she needed to check in on the progress of her latest project. A beer in hand she started her computer, determined to finish it quickly, so she would still be able to watch another episode on Netflix of her new favorite show before going to bed.

First she opened her project. It was advancing, the program still running its course, so there was not much she could do about that right now. She continued by opening her inbox and deleting the spam she always got. It left her with five new mails, three from potential clients asking an estimate of price, one from Henry's school and another one from one of her clients asking her to build another program for them. She started with answering the last one, asking for more details so she could make them an estimate of the hours it would take. Next she put the three potential clients in a separate folder to work on tomorrow. The email from Henry's school she kept for last. It warned the parents that they had found lice in some of Henry's classmates' hair and asked to check her kid's hair regularly. She sighed, making a mental note to get special shampoo at the pharmacist tomorrow.

After a final check of her project, Emma closed down her laptop and turned on the tv. She still had a little bit of time before she should really go to bed, so she turned on her Netflix.

***SQ***

Emma's neck felt very sore, when she woke up. She must have fallen asleep on the couch, because Netflix was paused, asking if she was still watching the show. Her alarm was blaring next to her and she hurried to turn it off. It would become one of those mornings, she thought, while stretching out all of her limbs. A quick hot shower would solve the soreness, before she woke up her little boy.

"Slept well, mommy", he smiled, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes with his little hands.

"Did you sleep well, kid?" Emma echoed. "You're going back to school today."

A big smile took over his sleepy face. It was contagious, as it was mirrored on his mother's.

"Henry go school", he smiled. "Henry big boy."

"You're a very big boy, champ", Emma agreed. "Let's get you ready."

She picked him up and opened the curtains with him on her arm. The sun was already shining, and the little boy smiled again.

"Sun awake", he said. "Sun awake."

"The sun is awake", Emma echoed, before turning around and heading downstairs.

Another sacred moment was when she was having a cup of coffee, Henry next to her with his cup of apple juice, watching cartoons. Another few minutes of peace before their hectic day. As soon as his cup was empty, Henry came for a hug before starting to play with his toys, the cartoons long forgotten. It was for Emma the signal to start preparing him for school and herself for the rest of her day. Making his lunch, packing his snacks, she couldn't imagine one of her foster parents ever going through the effort. But she wanted everything for her boy, so she shook her head and continued with putting on his clothes and getting them both presentable. The choice of shoes gave way to a little crisis, Henry insisting on the red ones instead of the blue ones, even though they were way too warm for a sunny day. Emma opted to pick her battles wisely and so her little boy got his way. I'm spoiling him, she thought, but dismissed the thought quickly. Letting him choose his shoes to get him to school in time wouldn't make him a spoiled little brat. She had raised the most amazing, kind boy so far, and this incident wouldn't change that.

"Let's go", she said, picking up Henry after securing his red shoes on his feet and putting on his jacket. "Time to go to school!"

Henry's enthusiastic reaction made her entire day, and it hadn't even started yet.