*****
Xavy grinned his goofy, six toothed grin as he stood
and reached for the next
obstacle.. His proud fathers watched as they cuddled
on the sofa. The TV played
their fourth copy of _Star Wars_, the other three worn
out from repeated viewing
"He's gonna walk any day now, you know," commented Xander.
"Then he'll be
into everything."
"Mmm-hmm" murmured Angelus into his neck. He was
warm and slightly flushed
from a large meal. Now, sitting with his lover,
watching their son, he was the
picture of contentment.
Xavy put one foot out and then the next. He landed
on his bottom. Suddenly it
clicked and he was off like a lightening bolt before
either his fathers could move.
"He did it! " Xander yelled and ran for the video camera.
Xavy stopped walking
and mugged for his daddy. The big grin was even
bigger as he plopped onto his
bottom again.
"C'mon, Xavy, walk to Papa," encouraged Angelus from off-camera.
Instead he peek-a-booed for the vid cam, grabbing a pair
of Xander's boxers from
under the couch. The silly aliens in the Cat-in-the-hat
hats made him giggle even
more. "Dadadadada!" Xavy yelled.
"I wondered where those were. Come on, Xavy. Let's walk."
With one last peek-a-boo, Xavy dropped the boxers, and
crawled off in high gear.
He pulled up on the refrigerator and opened the door.
"Dadada! Bababa!" He
pulled out one of Angelus' blood packets and waved it.
"No no. Papa's." reprimanded Angelus as he set the
blood on a higher shelf
and handed Xavy a milk bottle. "Xander, where's
his sleeper?" he asked scooping
up the toddler.
Xander had the yellow blanket sleeper ready on the couch.
A diaper and wipes
sat beside it. Xavy suffered through the diaper
change, clutching his bottle.
Angelus got his feet into the sleeper and then his arms.
"Xander? Why does he have mittens and no footies?"
Xander laughed at the old joke. The first night
they'd had him home from the
hospital, Xavy had pooped all over himself, the bassinette,
and Angelus who'd
taken the feeding. They got everything cleaned up, and
Xavy changed, but Xander
had been so sleepy he'd put the sleeper on upside down.
Angelus had never let him
forget.
Xander wound the mobile and set the teddy bear in the
corner of the crib and the
stuffed dinosaur in the other corner. He blessed
Amy for taking the squeaker
out of the thing earlier that day. More than one
morning he had awakened to
"Squeeka-squeeka-Squeeka!"
Angelus held the baby over for a kiss, and then laid him
gently in the crib. Xander
pulled the light sheet over him.
"Good night, Xavy," Angelus whispered
"Good night Xavy," Xander added.
They walked back to the couch, arms around each other.
Xander kissed his love,
turning off the Light Saber Duel in mid-stoke.
"I think we can come up with a
better swordfight than that, don't you, Deadboy?"
"Mmm, maybe we need to go to bed too. You do have
an early philosophy class
tomorrow."
Just as Angelus turned out the light, from their bed,
came "Squeeka!" as Xander sat
down.
slayerettes squeaked the dinosaur.