October 31, 2023
Cambridge, England
"Babe! I'm home!"
The moment the words leave my mouth, Bella is sliding into the entry.
"Ta-Da!" she cries, flinging one arm in the air while her other arm holds our daughter to her.
Bella is dressed in some sort of strange, poofy blue dress while Birdy is in a little duck costume.
"What am I looking at?"
Bella rolls her eyes and tosses me a shirt. I catch it, holding it up to read. Soap.
"I'm the loofah," she says, motioning to the puff around her. "Spawn is the rubber ducky."
It's fucking cute, I'll give her that.
"And I'm the soap?" I ask, glancing back at the shirt.
"Yeah," she says, shifting our daughter in her arms. "You can even squirt all over me later if you like."
I fucking choke as she cackles her way into the kitchen.
"Bella, you can't say shit like that in front of our daughter," I say, finally catching up to her.
"Oh, why not? She doesn't understand me."
"She will one day!" I point out. Bella rolls her eyes.
"Daddy has no idea what we talk about, does he?" She asks, looking down at Birdy. "Daddy is a prude. Can you say that, baby? Pah-rude."
"Bella."
She smirks at me.
"Go change, hot stuff. We have candy to hand out."
I want to protest and fight her more, but honestly, I'm really excited about this. I've been looking forward to Halloween for a long time now. Last year ended up being amazing, and our reverse trick-or-treating is something we're happy to keep alive.
I head to the bathroom, peeing quickly before washing up. I strip out of my t-shirt and pull on the new one. It's a little too snug, which I suspect Bella has done on purpose. She truly thrives on finding small ways to make me feel uncomfortable.
It's all fun and games though, and for the most part, I really don't mind.
I consider doing a few push ups to get my muscles bulging, but then I remember we have no sitter for Birdy tonight and my daughter happened to get my sleeping habits, which is to say, the kid barely sleeps at all.
It's been rough.
So instead, I head back out to the living room where Bella is bouncing Birdy on her lap, singing some morbid as hell Halloween song.
"I'm ready," I interrupt before Bella can get into the second verse of the Serial Killer of Halloween. Honestly, where the hell does she even come up with this stuff?
I grab our coats, taking our daughter so Bella can pull hers on. Once Birdy is in my arms, I feel any lingering stress I'm carrying completely melt away.
"Hi Duckling," I murmur, kissing her sweet little cheek. She garbles and giggles, grabbing at my face. She's becoming slightly more coordinated, though really at this point if she manages to grab anything it registers as surprise on her face.
I make sure we have the stroller properly loaded before I lean down, clipping her in. She fusses for a minute, but then Bella stoops down, sliding a little stuffed duck my sister bought her into her arms, and Birdy settles in.
"Right," Bella says, clapping her hands. "Let's do this!"
