Author's Note: Okay so yeah… really slow lately. Sorry guys. I am still working a lot and I have had a lot of other things on my mind and blah blah blah. Anyway, this is a Mami/baby chapter because I have been doing a lot of Papi/Daughter stuff which I KNOW you guys love but I wanted to change it up. Also since Dom got her walking to him, this is baby's first word. Can you guess what it will be?
A First Word
Sunday mornings used to be for sleeping in; lingering in bed until the desire for food or some sort of plans drove them from beneath the covers to start the day. Of course, that had all changed once they'd become parents. After all, an infant had no reason to linger in bed. Rather she woke up when she was hungry, which tended to be closer to 6 am than 10. This meant that by 8 am Letty had been up for a couple of hours, eaten breakfast and had two cups of coffee. In the morning Dom had made a breakfast of pancakes and bacon while she showered, they'd eaten together, then he had taken off for the gym. She bathed her daughter and got her dressed for the day, yawning while the baby babbled at her happily, wide awake.
At nine months old the girl was chatty in the way many babies were, babbling nonsense and sounds. She didn't seem to prefer one of her parents over the other and was a social baby at gatherings, content to have the attention of anyone and everyone. Though she preferred being mobile to being carried around and explored her world by crawling. Crawling absolutely everywhere she could get to.
It was a nice day, so Letty took her out to the yard, setting her down in the grass. Her car was in need of a wash, but she wanted to replace the windshield wipers and check the air level on her tires first. Letty supposed that she spent a lot of her time living, breathing and dreaming cars, but she loved it. Even the little mundane bits of maintenance. Her daughter had crawled off the moment she was set down, scooting across the grass in the direction of the garage. Letty intercepted her, scooping her up with one arm.
"Are you going to let Mami work or are you going to be a little troublemaker?" she asked.
The little girl giggled, patting at her face as she opened her mouth. "Muh," she replied, before trailing into an endless string of nonsense and sounds.
Resting the baby against her hip she carried her into the garage to get the new wiper blades she had had purchased a couple days before. Her daughter reached for the box and Letty allowed her to hold them as she grabbed the air pump from one of the workbenches.
The little girl shook the box, babbling wordlessly to herself, clutching it with tiny fingers.
"You going to help Mami work on her car?" Letty asked, carrying her back out to the driveway.
The baby grinned up at her, pointing towards the car with the replacement wipers. She bounced in Letty's arms, wiggling her feet. Letty set her down beside the car, reaching up to remove the old wiper blades.
The baby was entertained for a moment more by the box she held in her hands, waving it around and chewing on the corner. Then she set it down on the floor and grabbed a hold of the front of the car, hauling herself to her feet unsteadily. She leaned against the car, wobbling slightly. With one hand she reached out to grab onto Letty's pant leg, curling her fingers into the fabric.
Letty glanced down at her and smiled. "What do you want, Monster?"
The baby wrapped her arms around her leg, pressing her face against her jeans, her babbles muffled. Letty reached down to pick her up and the girl pointed at the car with one hand, curling her other around Letty's shoulder.
"That's Mami's car. You want to help?"
The little girl scrunched up her face and babbled in response, which made Letty chuckle. She reached down to pick up the package, leaning back against the hood of the car as she shifted her daughter in her arms to open it.
"You're going to make this difficult you know?" she commented. "Replacing a windshield wiper is easy but you need two hands."
The baby patted her face and Letty sighed softly, smiling a little. "Silly girl," she mumbled, pressing a kiss against her soft hair.
The little girl snuggled against her, head pillowed against her chest. Letty rubbed her back, sighing as she set down the package with the wiper blades.
"You're never clingy. What do you want mija? Hmmm?"
The baby lifted her head. "Muh-buh-eee-sooooo," she replied seriously, pointing at the car again.
"Mami can't wait till you can speak with real words," Letty answered, standing up. "Though I see you pointing at the car." She grinned then. "Can you say that? Car?"
The girl only grinned at her in return.
Shaking her head, Letty went inside with her, heading up to the nursery. There she found her favored toy, a red stuffed car from the Disney film, complete with a grinning face. Dom had bought it for her. With a squeal, the little girl clutched for it, hugging it against herself. Letty took her back outside, sitting her down in the grass with the toy. Perhaps it would distract her long enough to replace the windshield wipers, at the very least.
She walked back over to her car and began to replace the wipers. It was a quick job, but she was careful so as not to damage the windshield.
"Muh-cuh!"
Letty glanced up at the sound, to find her daughter sitting near the car's front wheel, still holding her stuffed vehicle. However his smiling face was now a little grass stained.
"What?" she asked, shoving the old wipers into the now-empty box. "Are you trying to say something? Mami. Ma-mi."
She knew Dom had been trying to coach the little girl to say Papi first, so it would serve him right if she said Mami first and while he was gone.
Her daughter stared up at her with big dark eyes. "Muh…." She trailed off. "Caw!" she announced instead, pointing at Letty's vehicle.
She stared back at her in surprise, then started to laugh. "Did you just say car? Of course you did."
"Caw," the girl repeated, holding up her stuffed friend.
"Yes, that's a car," Letty agreed. "And this is Mami's car."
She scooped up her daughter, hugging her close. "Wait till we tell Papi what your first word was!" She carried the girl inside with her toy. "He's going to be very disappointed he missed it."
As if on cue, the roar of the Charger's engine announced his arrival. The baby squealed at the sound.
"Caw!" she chirped.
The back door swung open shortly and Dom walked in, wearing jeans and a t-shirt and carrying a duffle bag with his gym clothes. He chose to shower at the gym just because he didn't want to be covered in sweat in his car on the drive home. He grinned at them.
"There are my favorite girls."
"We sure are. Wait till you hear what you missed." Letty grinned.
"What did I miss?" he asked, cupping the back of her head to lean down and kiss her.
Letty kissed him back, then laughed when their daughter hit him in the face with her stuffed car.
"Do you want a kiss too?" Dom asked her, leaning down to rain kisses over her face till she giggled and squirmed away.
"Tell Papi your word, mija," Letty said.
Dom's eyes widened. "Did you say Papi?"
The little girl blinked up at him and smiled, hugging her toy. She babbled nonsense in response.
"What did she say?" Dom asked Letty.
"She said car," Letty smirked. "Not Papi, not Mami. But car."
"Somehow I'm not surprised." He laughed.
"Maybe she'll say it again for you… eventually."
They both looked at their daughter, who hugged her car and blinked up at them. She grinned and reached for her father, who easily lifted her up.
She held up her toy for him. "Caw!" she told him.
Dom looked at her in delight, then grinned at Letty, who chuckled.
"Caw, caw, caw," the baby chanted, waving around the car in her arms.
"Now we'll never hear anything else," Letty told him, but Dom only laughed, hugged his daughter close, and carried her into the other room with her chants echoing in his ears.