"She looks bored." Jake said, looking at the two month old baby, who was currently lying on a play mat on the ground, kicking her feet and staring curiously at her brothers with her tired looking brown eyes.
"Really?" Jesse asked, also looking at his sister.
"Yeah, like, really really bored!" Jake said, putting an emphasis on just how bored the infant looked.
"But, she's on her play mat!" Jake glanced at the mat his brother was referring to and smirked at his brother.
"There's no way she can have fun on this thing."
"Well, what should we do?" Jake took his brother's question into consideration for a few moments.
"I got it! C'mon!" He said, picking Ella up. He started walking with Ella, struggling a bit.
"What are we gonna do?" Jesse asked.
"We'll decorate her!" Jake proudly declared.
"Decorate her?"
"Yeah! Mommy says that decorating makes things look more fun!" Jesse smiled at his brother.
"Okay!" He said, following Jake into their room.
Felix whistled a tune as he finished drying a glass plate, putting it in it's proper spot in a cabinet. He was babysitting Jesse, Jake, and Ella while Ralph and Elsa went out to lunch with some friends. Originally, Ralph and Elsa had declined the lunch offer due to them being too busy with the kids and the house, but Felix had insisted that they go, that he would watch the kids. Ralph and Elsa happily accepted his offer. And while they were gone, Felix had decided to do some housework for them. Hey, they needed a break, it was the least he could do, right? And the kids had been so well behaved, despite Ralph and Elsa telling him that the boys were a bit rowdy at times. Once Felix had finished with the dishes, he decided to check on Ella. But Felix was startled to find that Ella wasn't on the play mat where he left her. Just before Felix could panic, He heard Ella crying loudly from down the hall. Felix ran down the hall and into the boys' room.
"Hold her still!" He heard Jake say.
"I'm trying!" Jesse exclaimed. All the while, Ella kept crying.
"Boys!" Felix exclaimed, running over to the boys, "Oh my land!" He exclaimed when he saw Ella. She was on the ground screaming. Not only that, but she had multiple colors of marker and paint smeared on her face, hair, and clothes. And to top it all off, she was covered in stickers of animals, cars, and trucks. Felix quickly scooped Ella up off the ground and soothed her until she was silent again. After he checked her to make sure she wasn't hurt and to ensure that she didn't have paint in her eyes or mouth, he looked at the boys and said loudly and sternly:
"What were you boys thinking?! Do you know how badly your sister could've been hurt?!"
"Sorry uncle Felix, Ella just looked bored so we thought we could have fun with her!" Jesse explained.
"What part of what you guys did to her seemed like fun?" Felix asked.
"Well, Mommy said that decorating things makes them look fun." Felix shook his head and shifted Ella in his arms.
"Boys, when your mother said that, she probably meant a house or a room, not a baby. All this paint could've hurt Ella." Jesse and Jake looked at each other and looked back at Felix with a sorry look on their faces.
"We're sorry, uncle Felix." They both said, almost in sync.
"Well that's quite alright, but you boys still need to be punished for this." So Felix put the boys in separate corners, despite their negotiating, crying, and struggling to avoid punishment. While the boys were in the corner, he carefully pulled all the stickers off of Ella, washed her in the sink, changed her clothes and diaper, and cleaned the stained onesie she had been wearing earlier. After he was done with Ella, Felix excused the boys from their punishment to go outside and play. Once he was finished with all of that, Felix was beat. But he still couldn't relax due to the fact that Ella had started crying again for a bottle. Just after Felix finished feeding and burping Ella, Ralph and Elsa stepped through the door.
"Hi Felix!" Elsa said. Felix gave her a tired smile.
"Hi Elsa, hi Ralph, did you guys have a good time?"
"We did. Thank you so much for watching the kids for us. They weren't too much trouble, were they?" Elsa asked.
"Oh it was my pleasure, watching them. And no, they were just fine."
"Oh that's great! Here, let me take her from you." Felix handed Ella to Elsa. Felix watched Elsa take the baby down to the hall to her room.
"Wow, you really did a good job keeping things together." Ralph complimented. Felix smiled at his best friend.
"Well thank you Ralph."
"Gee, who knows, maybe you and Tammy might have kids of your own one day." Felix chuckled softly.
"Yeah maybe," he said, a tired frown forming on his face, "then again, maybe not."