Chapter 123
"I think I drank too much" Alex groaned as she rolled over, Ryan was tiptoeing through the room, not wanting to wake her. He had just needed his phone. While they were outside the previous night some wine and beer went around when it was just the adults left outside who took advantage of the jumping castle, letting their inner child free, until things got crazy that resulted in more laughter.
"Hmmmm, blame it on too much wine now" He laughed crossing the room, he crawled across the bed and kissed her.
"I hope Liam's eye won't be bruised too badly." Alex said thinking back to the incident that happened. About Liam getting a black eye. The jumping castle had gotten slippery after someone spilled a glass of wine, the liquid pooling right near the opening. Returning from the bathroom Liam was oblivious to the hazard, slipping in it only to catch Simon's elbow with his eye. He was definitely going to have some impressive bruising
"He'll certainly have a nice shiner." He sighed smiling as they reminisced about some things that happened yesterday.
"And then there was the part where we talked about you, when you and Shelby went inside to get more snacks." Ryan teased, shifting the focus back to her as he sat up, trying not to get her damp since his t shirt was wet.
"Who said what?" She demanded anxiously.
"It was honestly all good stuff" He laughed.
"Sure" Alex said skeptically
"We talked about how good you are at your job." He stopped to kiss her "and that you're an incredible mother" another kiss "and a great party planner" He finished with another, long, slow kiss
"Well in that case I'd better get up, I don't want to disappoint everyone by staying in bed all day" She said, throwing back the blankets as she sat up, turning to look at him properly. "Wait, why are you wet?" She questioned looking at the splash marks on his shirt
"I had to hose out the jumping castle, bubble mix and wine" He explained
"Where's Phoebe?" She asked
"Sleeping, she was pretty exhausted so she went back to bed after breakfast" He said feeling instantly as if he'd said too much.
"Breakfast?" She questioned, she recognized the tone and wanted answers. "Please tell me you didn't have cake for breakfast" She said when he hesitated
"I could tell you that, but it would be a lie" He admitted trying to cover his smile with an apologetic look
"She needs proper food" Alex scolded, cake was hardly nutritious.
"She'll have a healthy lunch, you're making it, after your shower" He informed.
"What time is it?" She questioned have lost all sense of time, it had to be pretty late if he was talking about lunch
"Eleven thirty" He answered after checking his phone
"What time did we go to bed?" She asked, shocked she had slept through the morning
"Just after one. Caleb and Shelby wanted to help clean up, but you said it's fine we'll do it in the morning" He replied.
"And I feel like crap, that's just pathetic" She complained as she stood up
"You had three or four glasses of wine" He reminded, surely she knew there were consequences for exhausting herself with planning and organizing
"That's pretty embarrassing" She laughed as she headed for the shower. After her shower she checked on Phoebe and constructed lunch using green foods only. Resulting in a not so happy one year old.
Phoebe kept turning her head away whenever her mother tried to feed her anything off the plate until she tried to throw her plate, Alex gripped it tightly and returned it to the highchair tray
"Eat up" Alex encouraged, taking a celery stick and smiling massively as she bit into it to demonstrate
A full on tantrum arised as Phoebe demanded everything else except veggies throwing herself backwards in her high chair
"Phoebe no. This is lunch" Alex explained
But her daughter started crying with a tried face red with anger as the tears rolled out of her eyes
"No cake little miss. Either this or your bottle will have to do." Alex said, shaking her head.
Phoebe turning as far around as was possible to avoid the food her mother was offering
"Ryan!" Alex called, the perfect solution in mind
"What's up?" He asked as he stepped out of the kitchen, placing the last piece of a slice of cake in his mouth.
Phoebe's crying stopped when she saw her father appear. Squealing victoriously, if Dada was having some surely she could too.
"Well somebody gave her cake for breakfast and now she's refusing to eat anything else. Good luck" Alex smiled as she handed him the plate.
"I'm sorry" He apologized as he took her seat, placing the plate in front of Phoebe.
"Good" Alex nodded turning to leave before Phoebe realized she wasn't getting cake. Her crying echoed through the house as Alex got to work cleaning instead. "How much of that did she eat?" She questioned when Ryan brought the half empty plate into the kitchen an hour later
"Most of it" He shrugged
"How much really?" She demanded
"None" He groaned, some of the food had flown across the room and he'd eaten some to keep himself going. He emptied the plate then took the cake out of the fridge
"What are you doing?" She asked as he selected a knife and started cutting a portion of cake.
"She has to eat" He said as he slid the cake onto Phoebe's plate, taking the place of broccoli, celery and apple slices .
"No. We are not going to give in to her. She has to learn"
"She's one" He tried to remind her.
"I know, that's why we have to make the right decisions for her. Put that back, I'll try again in an hour she'll get hungry enough eventually" Alex concluded, supervising as he put the cake back into the fridge. Ryan didn't agree at all but was too tired to fight over it, after all he had stayed up later and woken earlier than she had. His daughter was still raging at the lack of cake but he managed to calm her when he took her outside and she started playing in the dirt. Alex got back on with housework, keen to get everything done so she could spend some time with the two of them. Finally done folding, sorting and putting the washing away she headed outside to see what they were up to. Ryan was casually feeding Shay chicken flavored chips. "Ryan!" Alex said exasperatedly as she took the chip from Phoebe's hand, ignoring the beginning of another tantrum.
"She was hungry" He defended
"Then get her some proper food" Alex instructed taking the packet from him. She wondered if he was intentionally messing with her by choosing the flavor with green packaging
"Those are proper food, potatoes are vegetables" He explained knowing full well just how angry his wife was getting
"You're going to make her fat!" Alex announced taking Phoebe from the couch to hold her protectively, still in a bad mood Phoebe screamed, writhed and kicked
"No I'm not, why are you so worried? It's not like we have cake every day, it was a once off thing. He explained in an attempt to justify his actions. He refused to see feeding his hungry child as a bad thing.
"It's not the same, those are full of sugar and coloring things that are bad for her" She argued
"There are plenty of worse things" He protested
"That's so not the point!" Alex almost yelled, trying desperately to keep a grip on her daughter as she threw herself around, using all her bodyweight to convey her discontent
"Put her down before you drop her" Ryan said softly
"Don't" She started but she didn't bother to finish, storming out of the room and up the stairs. Putting Phoebe in the middle of their bed, where she could continue her tantrum without getting hurt, Alex sat down. With her head in her hands she stopped to think things through. Phoebe settled herself eventually, crawling across the bed into Erin's lap. "I'm sorry" The young mother apologized looking down at her big baby, she had grown so quickly. They had cruised through the first year of her life, doing what they could when they could. Now she just wanted to make sure she was doing everything possible to make sure her daughter continued to thrive. Laying back on the bed with Phoebe next to her she took the chance to tell her just how much she loved her, adding kisses where necessary
" Mama" Phoebe replied placing a hand on her mother's cheek. They lay there staring at each other for a long time.
"Hey" Ryan whispered as he joined them, Phoebe rolled and greeted him by grabbing his ear
"Hey" She said just as quietly
"I'm really sorry" He said next
"Me too, she's just getting so big so quickly and we only have so many chances to get things right" She explained, feeling it was necessary to justify her explosion
"We are getting things right, look at her, she's perfect" He instructed, they took a moment to look at her properly, soft brown curls right down to her ten tiny toes
"She really is isn't she?" Alex beamed feeling pride swell in her chest
"We make good babies" He winked leaning across Phoebe to kiss Alex.
"Baby" Alex corrected firmly
"We'll see" He challenged placing a hand on her stomach. She shook her head but allowed him to kiss her again anyway. They went downstairs and made their daughter eat her celery and broccoli before allowing her to have some chicken chips, a successful compromise.
