Another Life

42

"Come on, Alfie, it's like four steps, you can do it." I sigh, leaning myself forward and stretching my arms out to try and encourage him to walk toward me.

However he didn't move, just continued to bounce himself up and down and wave his arms. Jay had a grip on his hands, holding them above his head and Alfie kept laughing every time he saw the desperation on my face.

I pat my legs as if calling for a puppy. "Come on, baby! Come on!" The highness of my voice just brings out his smile more, but didn't get him to move.

Jay seems to find it funny after a minute. "Maybe he's just not ready yet." He tries to reason with me but I shake my head and move up so I was kneeling, rather than sat cross-legged in the floor.

"He is ready, he's cruising along the furniture and he's trying so hard to walk away from it but he just can't do it yet." I insist, extending my hands out again and I practically reach for him.

Jay lightly shrugs his shoulders. "So? He'll get there, but we've been doing this half-hour and he's still not having it."

Alfie looks at my hands and for a moment I get my hopes up, that he'd prove Jay wrong right there and then and take the two steps it would take to get to my hands but rather than do that, he lets go and squats down, picking a piece of lint off his socks before he just crawls off.

I let out a large sigh of frustration when he disappears behind the coffee table and throw my head back.

"What's gotten into you today? You're never suddenly desperate for the kids to start hitting a milestone, you never were."

I look back down and meet his gaze, where he's knitted his eyebrows together and it's there and then I know I'm not gonna be able to play this off with a flick of my wrist and a lie. "It's just he's the only one in his daycare that isn't walking. Even that eight-month-old kid is doing it and Alfie's one in three weeks and he won't even sniff it."

Jay folds his arms over his chest. "Why does that matter? You know all kids are different and develop differently."

"I know, but I don't want him to be behind because we lived through that with Macie until she was two, I don't want to have another one of those stupid moms rubbing it in my face that their kid starting walking that weekend, or is now talking in full clear sentences, because it makes me feel like I've failed because my kid isn't doing that."

Jay's face quickly scrunches up and he scoots a tad bit closer, putting one of his hands on my shoulder. "Hailey, you have not failed just because Alfie isn't walking," he tells me and I nod, moving my eyes away from his gaze to make sure Alfie isn't getting into something he shouldn't. He shifts forward again and puts his finger on my chin, guiding my head to look back at him. "I need you to get that into your head and not push it away. Yes he isn't walking yet but he will, and it does not mean you have failed. You are such an amazing mother, to both of them and they both are so lucky to have you and they both know how amazing you are. You will never fail them, nor have you ever, you hear me?"

I smirk and pull my head away from his finger, staring down at my feet to hide the blush creeping up on my cheeks from him. He leans forward and presses a kiss to my forehead and when I look back up at him he steals a kiss on my lips before Alfie giggling from the side broke us apart and we both threw our heads in his direction to catch him gnawing at the TV remote.

Jay chuckles as slowly standing up to walk over and take the remote off of him before picking Alfie into his arms. "No problem with his teeth though, what's this one?" He asks, using his finger to inspect.

As I stand up I give him a general warning. "Be careful, he-" I try to give him the warning at least but I get cut off before I could finish by the sound of Jay suddenly yelling and pulling his hand away from Alfie's mouth. "Bites." I slowly finish my sentence as Jay looks down at his hand.