The Mattress
"What did the doctor say, Pop?"
Lou grumbled as he sat down. "Ya sure ya didn't bribe that quack?"
"I'm sure," Stu said with a smirk, feeding Tommy some apple cookies. "Agreed about the mattress, huh?"
"Yeah," Lou admitted. "I hate ta change it… I've had it forever though!"
"People change, pop," Stu reminded him. "We can't just do the same things over and over. Can't remain the same. Change is good!"
"Yeah, suppose you are right. Heck, Tommy here is proof of that!" He reached out and tickled the baby's tummy. "He changed all our lives for the better!"
"That he did," Stu said.
Tommy finished laughing and went back to eating his apple slice… but now had stuff to ponder.
~MC~MC~MC~
"What's wrong, Tommy?" Lil asked.
"I've been thinking, guys," Tommy said, setting down the bottle he'd been drinking out of. "I used to think bein' a baby was the greatest thing ever! Everyone always told me how cute I was and they gave me lots of cuddles and I got my bottle and everything was great!"
"So?" Phil asked, stuffing more Reptar cookies in his mouth, Didi having forgotten to take the box away from them. "All that stuff is great!"
"Yeah… but back then I couldn't doos so much. I couldn't walk around like I can now, and I couldn't grab things as good… now I can do all sorts of things."
"Oh, like how we can now get the fast buggies!" Lil said with a giggle.
Tommy nodded. "Yeah…" He looked around the playpen. "But… we can do all sorts of things but our parents don't let us because we're just babies. So we don't get to paint or go on boats or have adventures!"
Chuckie frowned. "What are you saying, Tommy?"
Tommy swallowed. "Guys… I don't wanna be a baby anymore!"
His friends all gasped.
"You… you don't mean that, do ya Tommy?" Phil asked.
"I do, Phil," Tommy said firmly. "I wanna be a big kid and do big kid things!"
"But…" Lil exclaimed, "big kids don't gets bottles or diapees!"
Tommy shifted, considering that. "Well… uh… I guess I'm just gonna have ta learn how to get by without baby stuff!"
His friends stared at him in utter shock.
~MC~MC~MC~
Up in heaven Trixie nodded. "So this will make an interesting arc. Let me guess, Tommy tries to act too grown up too quick and then decides its better to just be a baby?"
"Nope," the creator said.
"Well… then he struggles with grown up stuff but misses his friends because they want to still act like babies?"
"Nope."
"Then how does Tommy go back to being a baby."
"He doesn't."
Trixie leaned back in surprise.
"Tommy should have begun progressing at this point in the series, allowing Dil to be the baby with Tommy being a true bigger baby moving to toddler. That's happening now."
"You… you don't mean…"
"I do. Tommy… is going to grow up."