The second installment.
"Well boys, what would you like to do? Anything other than watching…what are you boys watching?" Robin asked after cleaning up a bit in the kitchen and talking to David for a little bit.
"We're watching, um, we're watching Robots! Isn't it cool daddy?" Roland yelled over his shoulder from his position on the floor next to Henry. Robin stared at the television screen for a moment. Henry had a habit of helping Roland pick out age inappropriate movies and it drove him and Regina up the wall. It was a constant battle. Regina had even been thinking of redoing the entire movie night arrangement.
"Uh, while this movie does have robots in it, I'm afraid this is Transformers. Henry, you're not even supposed to be watching this movie without adult supervision. Turn it off."
"But Robin!"
"No buts, turn it off. Until you can learn to pick out movies that both you and Roland can watch you will have to run every choice by me and Regina, got it?"
"Yes sir," Henry sulked while reaching for the remote and shutting off the movie.
"Now Roland, since we can't watch movies, why don't you pick an activity for us to do?" Roland pondered for a moment while Henry let out a groan.
"I know! Let's play Robin Hood with my Legos! And Henry, you can be Robin Hood!" Roland turned to grin at Henry. He knew Henry would be upset about not getting watch his movie.
"How does that sound David? Would you and Neal like to play Legos with Roland, Henry and me?"
"Uh, yeah sure! Whadya say you little two year-old? Ready for Legos?" David laughed at the absurdity of a two-year old managing constructive play. If anything, Neal would probably just chew on the oversized blocks.
They all played with Roland's Legos for a little while before Neal started getting fussy. David tried to quiet him but he was soon approaching tantrum level.
"Why don't we take a break from Legos? Maybe go outside for a walk?" David suggested to the group.
"That sounds like an excellent idea. You know what sounds even better? Raking leaves!"
"Yay! Daddy can rake the leaves and me and Henry and Neal can jump in them!" Roland exclaimed jumping up and down. Robin had forgotten how raking leaves usually goes with the boys. This time, however, he was determined to actually get them raked up and into bags.
"Tell you what, you can play in piles of leaves for a little bit, but then we absolutely must get them into bags. We wouldn't want to upset mommy by leaving a messy yard, would we?" Robin tried to reason out with Roland.
"Mommy will be upset if we don't put them in bags? She's never been upset before when we don't put them in the bags." Roland reasoned out.
"Well that's because she knows it will make you sad. I happen to know that sometimes when we don't get the leaves in the bags and leave them all over the yard it makes her cry at night." Boy Robin was stretching things a bit. It would be worth it if it meant he actually got the yard straightened up.
"Well, while you guys are raking leaves, Neal and I will make lunch!" David called out. He didn't want to rake leaves and chase a toddler around the yard. He could barely get that done at his own house. Robin cocked an eye brow at David, but decided to concede.
"Alright, that's the plan then. David and Neal will make us lunch and we'll rake leaves."
"And what do we get to do later? Raking leaves isn't fun. Mom said this was a play date. This is shaping up to be a work date." Henry stated, still miffed about having it shut his movie off.
"Yeah daddy, this is work stuff!" Roland echoed. He was shaping up to be a mini-Henry and Robin wasn't sure he liked the direction this was heading in.
"Well, we can have arts and crafts!" Robin suggested.
"Yeah! Arts and crafts! Just like in school! That's my favorite day!" Roland said, bouncing on his toes.
"Mom doesn't like us to do arts and crafts cuz it's messy," countered Henry.
"Well we'll just have to clean up after ourselves then, won't we? Now let's get started. The sooner we rake the leaves, the sooner we can eat lunch and the sooner we can do arts and crafts!"
"Yay!" exclaimed Roland. He was easy to please. Henry on the other hand just sulked towards the back door.
"Well Neal, let's see what we have in here that we could make into lunch, eh?" David swung Neal onto his hip and pulled on the refrigerator door to scan the contents. He found some turkey lunchmeat, some bologna lunch meat and some vegetables that he could make into a salad. Healthy crap. It's Saturday, we should be able to eat bad, David thought to himself. He shut the refrigerator door and headed towards the phone to dial the local diner. He could order up bad crap and also not cook it. After he placed his order he put a light jacket on Neal and headed out to pick up his order.
"Hey guys, I'm gonna head over to Granny's to pick up lunch." David called out the back door to the group raking up leaves.
"Oooo! Can I come with you?" Roland exclaimed. Raking leaves was no fun if you couldn't jump in the piles of leaves.
"Uh, I guess so. Ask your father first," David replied to the little boy's request.
"Can I daddy, can I?" Roland then turned to Robin with the sweetest smile.
"Sure, grab your jacket okay? It's a bit nippy out. Henry and I will finish raking leaves and hopefully be done by the time you get back."
"Why does he get to go to the diner and I'm stuck here, raking leaves?" Henry complained.
"I'm stuck here raking leaves as well. We all have responsibilities to help out around the house and raking leaves is one of them."
"How is raking leaves my responsibility? Why aren't you making Roland stay and rake leaves? And anyways you're the one who thought about raking up the leaves."
"Henry, I'm not going to argue with you. When Roland gets older, he will be better able to help out with more responsibilities around the house. Your mother and I discuss age appropriate chores for each of you. You can handle raking leaves. And you and I are working on this together. You are not alone." Robin told Henry, hoping to reason with the young lad. Sometimes Henry could be difficult and Robin and Regina weren't sure if it was Henry being a teenager or Henry having other, more personal issues. He often thought maybe they should go to family therapy with just Henry. Roland seems to have adjusted to the new family dynamic rather well. Those decisions were for another day. Today was supposed to be a fun day and although raking leaves didn't seem to be much fun for Henry, it wasn't as much work as he was making it out to be. Robin actually found it relaxing.
After a few moments, Henry resumed raking leaves into the pile he and Robin were working before David interrupted them about lunch. In a way, he was a little relieved to have a little time without Roland. As much as loved the little boy, sometimes having Roland follow him around everywhere was a bit suffocating. He wasn't used to all the attention, well, he was used to all the attention from his mother, but she was doting on him and seeing to his every need. Now his mom had to split her time between Henry and Roland and sometimes that really bothered Henry. He's glad is mom redid movie night, but he still wished he and his mom could do stuff without Robin and Roland. He thought about telling her this a lot, but was afraid how she might react. He could tell he was already causing discourse between Robin and Regina sometimes. His mom was finally happy again with Robin and he didn't want to destroy that. At the same time though, he wasn't exactly feeling happy. Maybe he could go hang out with his mom's friend, Emma. He used to always hang out with her since she didn't have any kids. Lately though she hadn't had much time for hangouts with a teenager when she had her boyfriend that she was spending a lot of time with.
Henry was lost in his thoughts raking leaves when he felt something hit his head. It was a leaf. One of the reasons he didn't like raking leaves before they were all off the trees was because there would always be more leaves to rake up. Another leaf hit is head, and then a big bunch of leaves were dropped on his head. He whirled around to find Robin laughing his head off after dropping a bunch of leaves onto Henry's head. Henry paused for a moment, unsure of what to do. Then he dropped his rake and picked up an armful of leaves and tossed them towards Robin. Robin had started a leaf fight. They chased each other around the yard throwing leaves for about fifteen minutes when Robin finally held his hands up in surrender.
"Okay, okay, I give up! My sides hurt from laughing so much!"
"Yes! I winned!" Henry exclaimed in victory of besting Robin at a leaf fight.
"Welp, I guess raking leaves will have to wait yet another weekend. Whadya say we brush this stuff off and make some lemonade to go with our lunch, hm?" Robin asked as they both headed towards the backdoor that led into the kitchen.
"Okay, sounds great! Thanks Robin. That was fun."
"Anytime Henry, anytime."
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