The gradual changing of Virgil's eyes from blue to brown seemed to fascinate Scott.

He'd been too young to pay that level of attention to John's eyes, but now the first thing he did every morning was carefully examining his baby brother's eyes to see how far the brown had progressed.

Lucy was both amused and exasperated by Scott's insistence on checking before anything else was done, and on a couple of occasions it seemed that Virgil wasn't too happy too, but mostly the silent staring contest seemed to be accepted and reciprocated.

Scott's shout early one morning told her that the brown had progressed, and a tiny part of her wondered how much her not-quite-four-year-old actually remembered from look the day before.

They had learnt early on to leave access to John. Even at 18 months Scott had wasted no time in trying to climb into the basket to be with his brother. Thankfully his brother had not been in the basket that first time because Scott had tipped it off it's stand. His screams had caused Jeff to come running, believing his eldest had hurt himself, only to discover Scott was crying because he didn't know where John was.

They had gone out that day and bought a toddler bed that had rails so that John could be safe and Scott could have access. They'd lost count of the number of times they had found him curled up around his baby brother, and since Virgil had come Scott had shown he hadn't grown out of that habit.

The shout startled a now four-month-old Virgil, and he let out a wail, but he soon quietened down as Scott hugged him. Lucy appeared above the bed, slightly frowning at the drying tears.

'Scotty?'

'Sorry Mamma. I didn't mean to frighten Virgie.'

'What was wrong, honey?'

'Virgie's right eye is almost completely brown!'

'Oh, well spotted! What about his left eye?'

Scott huffed, just like he'd seen his father do when he wasn't pleased with something.

'Not as much, Momma.'

'Well, you just have to be patient, Scotty.'

There was another dramatic huff, and Lucy chuckled as she picked Virgil up for breakfast. Scott lived up to his nickname and scooted down the bed, jumping down to the floor to pad after her. She waited until Scott had finished investigating the lounge in case it had changed overnight as was his wont, before suggesting he might like to go get John for breakfast. Scott rushed off, happy to do anything for his brothers while Lucy put the toast on.

As Scott and John ate their toast Lucy gave Virgil his morning feed. By the time she'd cleaned all three of them up Jeff was down and making coffee with one hand while John was in the other arm, head resting on his shoulder and Scott on the floor, sitting on his foot and arms wrapped firmly around his father's leg.

It was Jeff's favourite time of day. His whole family was awake and he drank in everything. By the time he got home both the youngest two would be in bed asleep, and Scott wouldn't be too far behind. Sometimes he got home early enough to give Scotty a bath, but not often now that the business was taking off.

He was trying to listen to what Scott was telling him, but the boy was babbling and he could only make out occasional words. Jeff looked to Lucy, who smirked and mouthed 'I'll tell you later,' which meant he had to navigate his eldest's temper if he gave an answer Scott didn't like. It was too early for that, so he stuck to safe words and nodding his head.

It must have worked because by the time he'd sat down for breakfast, Scott was beaming happily and had stopped chewing his ear off, crawled onto Jeff's other knee and stolen a square of his toast. He counted that as a win.

'Virgie nearly all brown now.'

The sudden statement had Jeff coughing on his coffee and Lucy killing herself laughing as she thumped his back. As a startled pair of boys looked at him she whispered in his ear about Virgil's eyes and Jeff chuckled to himself. Of course that was what Scott was talking about, he'd never known Scott to have been obsessed over something for so long.

'That's good to know, Scooter. Isn't it, John?'

Jeff jiggled his second-born son on his knee and John giggled, leaning back on his chest as he watched Scott steal another square of toast. He tutted and Scott grinned up at him, completely unrepentant. His eldest's grin got wider and cheekier as Scott kept eye contact with his dad while he stole the last piece of toast and handed it over to John.

Lucy and Jeff looked at each other and burst out laughing. Life with their three would never be boring, that was for sure, and they would treasure these moments while they lasted.