When you think you're all alone, I'll wrap you up and I'll take you home. No matter what you're going through, I will look after you. When you get knocked down and you've had enough, oh I'll be there to dust you off. When you don't know what you're gonna do, I will look after you
15th January 2021
Like Morgana had with her 26th, Merlin was having to spend his birthday in lockdown too albeit his 27th instead. At the time back then—April 2020 they had all presumed everything would be back to normal and that they could continue with their lives as usual. Though here they were in January 2021 in lockdown 3.0 celebrating Merlin's 27th. That wasn't to say that it wouldn't be special though, Morgana had bought enough ingredients to make a cake, decorations and fondant online (given that they were still able to order non-essential items, they'd be continuing to do so while they could). There was much more hope too, with this lockdown hopefully being the last as all clinically extremely vulnerable and clinically vulnerable people would hopefully be vaccinated by the time the lockdown would lift in the middle of February. Merlin and Morgana probably wouldn't get their vaccines for a while, both being fit and healthy in their 20's with their only risk factor being the fact that they're teachers therefore seeing students often, otherwise remaining low risk. For the time being while many teachers were campaigning to get themselves higher up the vaccine list it just didn't seem to be the case.
A couple of weeks before Merlin's birthday Morgana phoned up Hunith to check what Merlin's favourite football team was, she herself had never had much of an interest in it though she knew Merlin liked it and had planned to attempt to make a football shirt cake. Hunith revealed that Merlin's favourite team was West Ham so she ordered lots of maroon coloured fondant with baby blue, white and gold too for decoration purposes alongside a pre-made logo badge (there was no way she'd even consider attempting to make one). The year before Morgana had been suffering from terrible morning (all day) sickness and it was a miracle for her to even set foot in the kitchen let alone attempt to make a cake so she was determined to make up for it this year.
As Merlin was working from home she imagined it would be difficult to wrap up his presents and plan his birthday secretly though it was actually rather easy. As he was working she made sure to wrap up the presents upstairs while he was on call, then hid them out in her car's boot when she would take Amhar and Alfie for a walk. They'd go up to the Chippenham playing fields so that Amhar could play in the park, then head home for lunch and play a bit. Usually in the afternoon they would go for a shorter walk as Amhar would be rather worn out from the morning walk, followed by more playing at home until Merlin had finished work followed by dinner. The walks had become increasingly boring, even Amhar had begun to get bored of always going on a walk though he found it good to burn off energy and enjoyed going in the baby swings at the park.
Merlin sighed as he poured the water over Amhar's head. He never thought he'd have to have a lockdown birthday though here he was. Online classes were depressing, it was too dark to go for a walk by the time he finished so he had to go during his lunch break if he wanted to walk during the day and that depended on whether Morgana and the kids were ready for another walk. Granted, if Amhar was tired he could just put him in the buggy and push him along though Morgana was way too tired for that and was reluctant to leave Alfie so he ended up going just him and Amhar. Without having to entertain the toddler it gave morgana a chance to take a nap so it was good for her too, though Merlin missed his wife. It seemed as though he was constantly working or marking these days. The first lockdown was rather interesting as nothing like they had ever happened before, second one wasn't much of an impact as Merlin still went to work and likewise with Amhar at nursery though this one was just terrible. Merlin hadn't had a drink in almost eighteen months though he knew if things were to carry on he would find himself reaching for the bottle.
He smiled as Amhar giggled, farting one more. "Eughhhh! Amhar! That stinks!". Merlin made a huge drama of it, pinching his nose and making funny faces.
"Sowwy daddy" Amhar grinned. "It only a fart".
"Stinky!" Merlin continued to be dramatic, pinching his nose and wafting the air. He looked away for a moment, seeing in the baby monitor that Morgana was in the rocking chair with Alfie feeding him to sleep. Seeing the amount of love in her eyes as the looked at their son was overwhelming. He wasn't crawling yet though could roll over from his stomach to his back (though not vice versa) and lift his head up while having tummy time. He had a few strands of light brown hair (Merlin was sure it'd change colour, all of his baby pictures had brown hair while as a baby Morgana was slightly blonde) and his eyes were a lovely pale green much like his mother's.
"Uh oh!" Amhar giggled. Merlin turned around and looked at Amhar. Where the toddler was sat was a long brown circular thing floating in the tub, the horrid smell filling the room.
"Amhar!" Merlin shouted in surprise. He couldn't tell if Amhar wanted to cry or laugh. "It's okay, remember we do a poo on the toilet, you're a big boy". Now that Amhar was fully potty trained they had encouraged him to use the toilet more than the potty, declaring that potties were for little boys and that big boys went on the toilet (though he did have a potty in his room for the night time, just in case he couldn't make it to the toilet) Merlin and Morgana decided that having him roam around the hallways was much better than having to deal with the potty.
"I sowwy" Amhar shrugged. Merlin lifted him out of the tub and put him on the toilet, putting a towel around his shoulders and drying his legs off.
"It's okay amhar" Merlin insisted. "Morgana".
"What's the matter" Morgana walked in with a smirk, Alfie laying across her body still latched on.
"He did a poo in the tub" Merlin deadpanned.
"I'll go get a nappy sack" Morgana sighed, soon returning with one of the disposable sacks.
"So now what do we do?" Merlin tried his hardest not to shriek.
"Here's the gloves" Morgana's said as passed Merlin some disposable gloves. "Face masks on. Okay, we're ready".
"What do we do?" Merlin wondered.
"First things first, fish the turd out the tub" Morgana deadpanned.
"Eugh! It's all slimy" Merlin kept the turd at a safe distance from himself.
"Oh for Gods's sake" Morgana muttered as Merlin dropped it back in the tub. "Look, I'll sort it. You wash your hands and burp Alfie".
"Well that's disgusting" Merlin muttered as he looked at the bath.
"It's fine" Morgana rolled her eyes. She made Merlin dispose of his PPE and scrub his hands thoroughly before she passed him the baby, giving him instructions to take him through to the nursery, burp him and change him into a sleep-suit while she fished the poo out the bath.
"Is daddy mad?" Amhar asked, his voice quiet and pitiful.
"No sweetie, it's okay" Morgana insisted as she drained the tub. She squirted a lot of soap on where the offending faecal matter had been and then helped Amhar out, making a note to sterilise the tub. She put the overhead shower on and finished off Amhar's shower before wrapping him in a towel and taking him through to the nursery. Merlin was sat in the rocking chair with Alfie in his arms as he rocked the baby.
"Did you sort it?" Merlin asked.
Morgana nodded. "I'll have to sterilise it soon though let's just focus on getting this little mite to bed". Merlin did Amhar's story and changed him while Morgana went downstairs and secretly started on decorating the cake, then using Milton sterilising fluid on the bathtub and eventually sitting down with Merlin on the sofa with Alfie. Amhar was rather upset by what had happened so Merlin had taken a while to calm him down, though luckily for Morgana this meant that she could focus on decorating the cakes that she'd made earlier on in the day while Merlin was at work.
"Thank God it's the weekend" Merlin muttered as he put the tv on.
"I know" Morgana agreed as she cradled Alfie in her arms.
"Tomorrow's pretty special isn't it?" Merlin smirked.
"Hm?" Morgana mused as she turned to him. "Is it?".
"I believe so" Merlin smirked once more.
"Oh? Maybe it is. I guess we'll have to wait and see".
Merlin looked at the TV and began to cry.
"What's the matter Merlin?" Morgana asked. "It's okay".
"It's just so fucking stressful" Merlin cried. "Working from home, lockdown, having the whole gcse saga all over again. The lockdown".
"It's okay Merlin" Morgana reassured him as she hugged her husband.
"Then when Amhar shitted in the tub I just ... I just lost it".
"It's okay" Morgana insisted. "It's hard. So, so hard. This lockdown sucks".
"I knew that there were rumours" Merlin sighed and wiped his nose and eyes. "Though I didn't expect it to be this hard".
"Well let's put it exactly like it is. Scooping shit out of the tub is exactly that, shit".
"It's not just that, it's everything" Merlin sobbed.
Morgana put a hand on Merlin's shoulder. "You looked after me, now I'll look after you. I know it's hard, but we can get through this together".
"I hope so" Merlin agreed.
"Do you want to feed Alfie?" Morgana asked. Merlin nodded and she handed him the baby as she went to the kitchen, getting some milk she expressed earlier out of the fridge and pouring it into a tommee tippee bottle. They'd introduced Alfie to bottles at the beginning of lockdown 3, it had been rather trial and error at first as Alfie was not accepting any of the bottles that they'd tried (Lansinoh that came with her breast pump, Avent that they used with Amhar and Nuk were not a hit) though luckily they'd finally found one that he accepted.
"Here we go" Morgana smiled as she gave the bottle of expressed milk to Merlin and he fed the baby.
16th January 2021
Morgana woke up early on Merlin's birthday, luckily seeing her husband asleep beside her. She smiled and waited for Alfie to finish his morning feed before heading downstairs with the baby. Usually she tended to hold him lying down across her body though now he was more happy when he was carried upright, a gummy grin adjourning his tiny face.
"You look so happy!" Morgana beamed at her son who giggled in response. She made her way to the kitchen and put him in his new highchair—a tutti bambini one that had a rocker on top that she had admittedly impulse bought in the middle of the night, it was rather similar to the 4moms one though at a fraction of the price (though was similarly pranced with the newborn bouncer included). Amhar had been resisting meal times so had to go back in the antilop (luckily he still fitted!) given that he couldn't escape that and that Morgana was fed up of having the travel cot in the kitchen now. Admittedly Morgana was rather protective of Alfie, not wanting him to go in the antilop given that it had no padding and was upright only (she found the cushion options that were online to be ugly) whereas the new one had a recline feature. The lockdown buys hadn't stopped there , buying a white noise machine too so that Amhar could have the sheep (plus it was much less annoying than the sheep). She was online shopping at Aldi and ended up getting a new baby bag from there, a wrap as well as a Lansinoh electric breast pump (at a bargain for £90). It came with a storage bag and she had some tommee tippee bottles too (the only bottles Alfie was found to accept!) so that Merlin could do some of the feedings too.
"Let's see if Daddy's cake is ready!" Morgana beamed at Alfie. He gurgled and she went over to the fridge, the iced cake remaining in perfect condition. "That's almost done! Now we need to add daddy's West Ham badge". Morgana attached the badge and put the cake back in the fridge. She took Merlin's gifts out and put them on the sofa wrapped up with the cards—the new Apple Watch series six edition (she had the first edition from when they first came out, while Merlin had never had one he did show an interest in them) though also had bought some mini presents from the kids— a book named "10 things I love about my Daddy" and an illustrated photo of Merlin with both of the children. Morgana put Alfie on her hip and then made her way up the nursery, kneeling by Amhar's bed and gently ruffling his hair.
"Good morning sunshine" Morgana greeted with a smile. She put Alfie on Amhar as he opened his eyes, beaming at the baby and giving him lots of cuddles.
"What today?" Amhar asked.
"Today is daddy's birthday Morgana smiled. "But daddy's still asleep so we have to be quiet".
"Shh" Amhar agreed as he put a finger to his lips.
"Should we go make daddy breakfast in bed?" Morgana suggested. Amhar eagerly nodded and Morgana made him go to the toilet before they headed downstairs, making merlin a cup of tea and some French toast for breakfast with cereal (along with some for Morgana and Amhar too). Morgana took Amhar and Alfie upstairs and put them in their room, went back down to get the breakfast and then took the kids down to their bedroom.
"Happy birfway" Amhar beamed as he climbed onto the bed.
"Happy birthday" Morgana added as she put the tray on the bedside table.
"Aww, what's over here" Merlin smiled as he sat up.
"Happy birway daddy" Amhar said again. "Look, presents".
"Argh, that's bright" Morgana frowned against the light as she opened the blinds and curtains.
"This is a nice surprise" Merlin grinned as he sipped at his tea.
"Daddy, I got you dis" Amhar said.
"Careful with that" Morgana warned as she grabbed the long rectangular box.
"Dis is from me!" Amhar beamed as he handed the largest box.
"I can't wait to see it" Merlin smiled as he opened it up. An illustrated photo of Merlin sat cross-legged cradling Alfie with Amhar standing over Alfie gently poking his nose. "I love that photo".
"Me too" Morgana agreed with a grin.
"That's me, that you, and that baby Alfie when he was small and now he bigger but still a baby" Amhar babbled.
"Gaga" Alfie gurgled away at hearing his name.
"Yeah, that's you" Morgana cooed.
"This from Alfie" Amhar said as he gave him the next present, the book.
"Aww that's so cute" Merlin pouted. "Thank you boys, you're my favourite".
"And this is from mummy" Morgana smirked as she passed him the long box.
"Oh Ho Ho" Merlin smirked as he opened it. "Oh my god! An Apple Watch".
"Happy birthday love" Morgana grinned.
"Daddy I got you a card" Amhar said as he passed him it, the card reading "Daddy, I love you more than Hey Duggee. (From your favourite squirrel)".
"I should've known it'd be hey duggee" Merlin chuckled.
"It's my favourite" Amhar said triumphantly.
"This cards from mummy" Morgana said as she passed him her card.
Merlin opened it up and read the cover. "Urgent, deliver without delay. Award of excellence, it is without doubt I hereby declare that you are the abso-blooming-lutely the best husband in the world *ever*. Gives me the best kisses, warms my feet, hugs me tightly, has a lovely bum and makes life excellent".
"Daddy's bum is good" Amhar agreed as he slapped it.
"Amhar" Merlin chuckled. "Thank you my love. This is truly the best, thank you".
"Still got Alfie's card" Morgana smiled as she handed him it. "I think this ones the best".
"Daddy, sorry I'm a sleep thief" Merlin read. "That is such a good card from a baby!"
"I know" Morgana agreed with a smile. "What would you like to do today?".
"I think we should go for a nice long walk into Camelot. To see Arthur and Gwen".
"Okay, we can do that" Morgana agreed. After breakfast they packed snacks, prepared the double buggy and took the half an hour walk into Camelot and towards the graveyard. The weather was cold though not raining, slightly windy though sunny as they walked around the graves and then headed back.
"Now it's time for cake" Morgana said after dinner as she took the cake out the fridge. "Let's sing happy birthday Amhar".
"Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to you" Amhar sang as Merlin blew out the candle.
"Made a wish daddy?" Amhar asked.
"Yes, and no" Merlin replied. "I wished for us to get out of lockdown. Though at the same time, I have everything I want here with all of you".
"That's so sweet" Morgana pouted as she kissed her husband. "I think I know another good wish".
"And that is?" Merlin raised his eyebrow.
"That bloody drivers license song to stop being played everywhere" Morgana answered.