Another Life

37

I look up when I hear a knocking at the doorframe and shoot Jay a smile as he leans against the open door to Alfie's nursery. He returns the smile and then furrows his eyebrows.

"What are you doing?" He asks, bending down to put Alfie on the floor when he started squirming in his arms.

I glance to the pile of infant clothes on the floor before putting my eyes back on him. "Sorting through Alfie's old newborn clothes and ones that he doesn't fit into anymore, thought we could pass them down to Ben because you can never have too many baby clothes." Over the past weekend Stella has given birth to her and Kelly's second son, Ben, and while we had yet to go over to meet the newborn Macie hadn't shut up about it since we had told her about the new arrival.

Jay nods and comes fully into the room, sitting on the glider in the corner. Once he's sat I shake my head subtly. "Where's Mae?"

His eyes widen. "Shit!" He whispers and I swear my heart jumps into a new, not normal rhythm.

"You better be kidding." I grit through my teeth and his face relaxes into a grin.

He points outside the room. "She's downstairs. I had to bribe her with a toy from the store to get her out of the isle so she's in her room playing with it." He replies, leaning back into the chair.

I stop folding one of the onesies and lay my hands in my lap. "You did get the other things I sent you to get, right? Not just buy toys for the kids because Alfie definitely didn't have that teething ring when you guys left." I say, making a subtle point to the ring currently stuffed in the seven-month-old's mouth as he drooled all over it.

Halloween was fast approaching and with two weeks left to go I had sent Jay to get some things that wouldn't expire before the day so we wouldn't have as much to get in the days leading up to the holiday. This year we were intent on celebrating properly, as last year Jay had taken Macie out on his own because the pregnancy backaches had reached its peak and had make it difficult for me to stay on my feet for a long period of time.

He nods. "Yes I did."

I bob my head and put my attention back on the clothes for a beat. Then I look back up to Alfie, who was looking over to Jay. I call his name and he turns, squealing loudly as he notices me and he waves his arms sharply and kicks his legs. The movement almost makes him tumble but Jay puts his hands out and catches him before he falls backwards. Alfie had got pretty confident with sitting up now, was able to do it without a seat or his high chair but he still had moments where he'd loose his balance.

Once he's upright again, he shoots Jay a grin and giggles, showing off the two bottom teeth he already has and the two that are both coming through at the top before he shoves the ring back in his mouth.

************

The fact that Alfie was teething both of his two front teeth at the same time made the whole process a little bit harder, for all of us. The remedies to numb the discomfort we had successfully used with his bottom two just wasn't enough as two teeth pierced through his gums simultaneously.

Because of the extra clinginess that the teething had brought, it made putting Alfie down for bed a chore. If he was awake when you put him in his crib he'd just keep crying and would get overtired and frustrated. Rocking him in the glider didn't work either. We found the only thing that did put him to sleep first was bringing him into our room and allowing him to fall asleep lying on one of us.

One thing that hadn't changed since he was a newborn was Alfie's ability to just zonk out when lying on someone's chest, even if now it only lasted a few minutes. The boy loved cuddles.