It was a little nice early in the morning letting Vera sleep in because she really needed it. Plus Hamish got time all alone with Theo, a very very rare moment since as soon as Vera was awake she was Theo's number one person in the whole world. Right now he was in the basement watching morning cartoons with the little girl as she laid on the ground looking up to see what was happening on this episode of Paw Patrol. Christ for anyone who was a parent they knew those stupid cartoon dogs were apparently the greatest thing in all the world. Laying down next to her Hamish tried moving her toys out of her grasp and watched her get up to her hands and knees reaching out for them but still refusing to move forward to get thm. "Oh come on, you are so close Theo." He pushed her forward on the blanket a little making her lose her balance and almost faceplant into the ground.
Luckily he caught her quickly knowing if she started crying and Vera heard she would be pissed. "You are so close Theo." She rolled away from him and got back to her hands and knees so she could push herself up into a sitting position. "Come get your kitty." He pulled the toy away from her again and watched her get down and start rolling across the ground stopping to sit up so she could see where he put her toy and get back down into a roll. "Child, you are so broken." She was really never going to figure out this crawl thing, she hated being on her stomach like everyone said she should be. She was always sitting up and alert like a little meerkat and then if she had to move she'd just opt to roll because she'd mastered it and that was good enough for her.
"Well, at least I don't need to worry about you going too far." She'd bump into the couch and then stop there and try to just go the other way until she dumped into the entertainment system. Getting up Hamish watched her steamroll her way over toys and head for the couch as usual where she would likely try to pull out something she saw down there, like a dust bunny. He walked quickly to the bar grabbing a coffee cup and trying to get his morning cup before he got too distracted by trying to teach Theo. He could hear her behind the couch throwing something and then babbling about it. "Yeah, well when you throw your toys and refuse to crawl after them then they stay far far away from you." Back to googling videos on teaching your kid to crawl. Mixing up his creamer into his coffee he headed back around the couch looking down at the floor and being a little startled when he didn't see her laying or sitting there.
"Holy shit." Hamish put the cup down and startled Theo who was holding onto the sofa and standing up on her own with support from the furniture. He had startled her though making her let go and fall down on her butt. "Oh my god." Theo looked like she was about to cry but Hamish got down on his knees and started clapping his hands. "Yay Theo, look at you, you were standing on your own." Theo copied him, clapping her own hands and suddenly not being worried about crying. "You little stinker, are you just going to jump right to walking?" He grabbed Theo's hands and started raising her back up into a standing position, something she normally loved to do. Once she was up on her feet though she pulled them off the ground hanging from his hands and swinging a little. Her grip was pretty impressive, borderline hurt his hands when she dug those little nails into him.
"For someone this sturdy and strong I'm shocked you aren't ripping down the walls yet." Maybe she wasn't able to turn but she had a lot of other werewolf traits already, super strength aside. Theo also knew where they were by sniffing and despite being locked down in her swing would look in the direction she knew Vera was. She also caught the ringing too, normally she would startle the same time he heard it or wake up from a nap and start crying. Despite being unable to change yet it seemed like Ember still wanted out in those moments but not bad enough to hurt Theo again. It made him wonder just how old Theo had to be before she could go full Ember. Right now it was nice taking the baby steps, sometimes literally and just enjoying her being a small person rather than a small wolf. "Your mommy is going to be so excited that you can stand up without help." Theo put her feet back on the ground and stepped side to side holding his hands still before letting him go and falling back to her butt.
Theo got to her hands and knees again looking like she wanted to crawl but still didn't know how to move forward. "Wait, I have an idea." Hamish smirked standing back up and walking up the steps. "Theo, don't do anything." Theo looked back at him, like she was going to listen to anything he said, she was going to do all the things. He tried to be quick about going to grab the rumba upstairs knowing Vera would freak out if she knew he'd left Theo unsupervised for too long. Pulling it off the docking bay Hamish ran back down the steps and nearly had to jump over Theo at the bottom who had decided to roll after him but couldn't make it much further.
Setting the rumba down he put Theo's front half on it and turned it on so it could take off. Theo was more so just being drug behind it but she didn't hate it. "There we go." Well it wasn't crawling and she had no real control over where she was going but at least she could explore properly now. What had actually surprised Hamish however was Theo's desire to not be drug around by a robot vacuum. Pulling herself forward on it she ended up putting her hands on the ground and moving her legs up on the rumba as it drug her backwards. She kicked her back legs trying to get off it and grabbed at the ground hearing her hands slide over the hardwood floors. Theo kicked her legs a little harder and slipped free of her robotic tormenter before it came back around and bumped into her making her slap at it angrily.
"What's going on?" Hamish startled a little seeing Vera standing on the last step. She was quiet when she wasn't in heels, it was sort of a grace she bestowed upon others putting those heels on and walking around so you had warning that she was coming because at home she just snuck up on you.
"I hope we didn't wake you up." Theo was watching the rumba move away from her now before spinning around and seeing Vera. "She figured out how to stand up holding onto the couch." Theo got back on her hands and knees looking at Vera and really wanting her mom, she kicked her back legs trying to shuffle forward like she had against her robotic enemy. "Wait, wait, Vera, stay up there."
"What, why?" She furrowed her brow looking at Hamish.
"Because Theo normally wants you more than any toys she has." He held up a hand as Theo looked at Vera whining. She really wanted her mom, so typical, as soon as Vera was up Hamish was second best parent. "Come on Theo, go get mommy." She rocked a little before deciding to lay back down on the ground. Hamish huffed thinking this was actually going to be it, Theo was almost more stubborn than Vera. However now Theo had figured something else out, she had unnatural upper body strength for a baby and could army crawl better than most trained military men. She drug herself forward like her battle against the robot and towards Vera kicking her back legs a little to help her scoot across the hardwood floor. Once she got to the steps she sat up and rested her hands on the steps looking up at Vera with a whine.
Hamish was about to rush forward for a little celebration when the rumba came up behind her and bumped into her before rolling back away. Theo looked up at Vera and slowly fell backwards, more so making herself fall backwards rather than the robot actually knocking her over. Laying on the ground a moment she looked up at the ceiling like she was going to roll back over but instead she started to cry, what a drama queen. "Oh no." Vera got off the last step and picked Theo up only to have the baby stop crying almost immediately. "Were you the victim of a hit and run?"
"Did she just fake cry to get you to pick her up?" Hamish was impressed, Theo was manipulative for her age but when it came to Vera he wasn't surprised. That child would do everything and anything to be with her mom, she was such a mama's girl it was almost pathetic.
"She did." Theo rested her head on Vera's shoulder and cooed at her. "I think today is a good day to go out and get baby gates and baby locks on everything I don't want you getting into, especially if you are trying to stand up." It was one thing having to keep everything out of her grasp at ground level but if she was standing then all the drawers in the kitchen and end tables were at risk of Theo opening them. Theo grabbed a handful of Vera's hair tugging on it and giggling a little. Why was she so obsessed with Vera's hair? Well, actually Hamish figured it had a lot to do with the fact Vera had soft hair, it felt a little like silk and it was hard to not just be creepy and pet her all the time. "Ouch, Theo." Vera had to grab the babies hand so she didn't accidentally pull some hair out.
Hamish rushed over to help free Vera from the baby since that werewolf strength was a real bitch, even from a seven month old. "Oh, no Theo don't pull mommy's hair, that's my thing." He flinched feeling Vera slap him in the chest. "Ah, Vera, I'm trying to help you." he tried to get his finger in Theo's fist and open it up enough to slip as much of Vera's hair out of her hand as possible but as usual not all of it could be saved. A few strands were sacrificed to Theo pulling her hand away from Hamish and whining. While Theo was distracted Hamish threw Vera's hair over her shoulder and took the moment to mess with her a little, leaning in and kissing her on the lips.
"Hello there Cassanova, can I help you?"
"Can you ever." He stepped closer to her again and kissed Theo on the top of the head. "But I should probably get going to the temple before those freshmen burn it down and you should think about that meeting you have later today with the Gnostic Council on this little thing and the whole Alchemist situation and Wendigo." Why the Gnostic Council suddenly felt so threatened by a seven month old was beyond him but so be it, Vera would handle it quickly he was certain. After all Theo might be another wolf but at this age she wasn't a very impressive wolf. "And you." He paused looking at Theo and pinching her on the cheek making her squirm away and hide her smile by more or less biting Vera in the shoulder. Poor Vera, why was she Theo's favorite person to abuse? "You be nice for your mother, she puts up with so much and." He stopped pushing Theo back from trying to maul Vera. "What are you doing?"
Theo started to blabber on in her typical baby language sounding more and more like she was making actual words though none of them made any real sense. "Theo you can't do that, that's cannibalism. I don't care how good she tastes." It was funny how that child didn't understand most of what he was saying but she was still so deeply offended by it. She leaned forward looking like she was going to bite Vera again and making Hamish push her back as she frowned at him and whined. "No, that's not okay." Hamish walked over to her blanket where her teething ring was still on the ground. Picking it up he walked back to Vera and gave it to Theo. "Here, you can chew on this for your teeth."
Theo stuck it in her mouth for a moment before throwing it away. "Well, clearly she is just testing out how to eat hearts out of the only practitioner she knows." Vera raised a brow at Theo as she tried talking with her fingers in her mouth. "I hate to tell you Theo but as far as werewolves go you aren't very intimidating." She looked at Vera making a 'mmmuu?' sound and looking a little sad.
"Don't eat Vera's heart either, she needs that." Hamish poked at Theo's chest making her raise a brow and frown again. "She made you Theo, you don't want to hurt her, she's the best practitioner ever." Theo cooed and leaned forward resting her head on Vera's shoulder and hugging her, or at least it was an attempted hug as far as she could replicate. Just like her sloppy tongue kisses which was really open mouth slobbering all over your face and assuming that was a kiss.
"Oh that's…." Vera paused trying to brush the baby drool off her cheek. "That's so sweet Theo, thank you for that."
Hamish smirked at Vera, again she was always the victim of the most baby drool in this house and somehow even she could wear that and still look hot as hell. He was still not convinced Vera's general ability to be freakishly attractive wasn't a spell she'd put on herself at some point. Who the hell else could pull off the messy 'my daughter was just throwing her hands through my hair' look and the 'I'm probably wearing more food than she eats' look as well as Vera did? Not a single damn soul could pull those looks off with the same level of dignity and grace Vera did, that was certain.