Dad Next Door: Volume 1 (Under Editing Soon)

Two

Getting woken up at six on a Sunday morning isn't the best thing to happen. Well, unless it's by these three beautiful babies then I'm quite alright by it. 

Natalie was the one to initiate it. I could hear them whispering outside my bedroom door and giggling until Natalie swung it open and dove straight on top of me, Robin's whole body crashed down on my chest and I swear he may have broken a rib there. 

So that's where this morning starts, with all three of us snuggled up in my bed, watching Spongebob on the telly on my wall. To say I actually like Spongebob is an understatement, I won't let anyone know that I watch it when the kids are in bed and I'm not feeling like being an adult watching crime shit. 

"Daddy," Natalie begins, looking up at me with bright green eyes, much like mine. "Can we go to the park today, please?" She sits cross legged near the end of the bed, her pink nightie pooling over her knees, her small kitty teddy clutched in her grasp. 

Darcy lightens up at that, sitting up more beside me in the spare space on the bed, nodding enthusiastically. "Yes, park, park!" 

Robin who lays across my chest, one arm slung over my waist, the other sucking his thumb, looks up and smiles at the mention. "'Ark, ark!" 

"P-p-park," I try, he needs to learn to use full words and I do try helping. 

"Park!" He gives and I kiss his forehead. 

"Good job, Munchkin! Alright, we can go to the park but first we need to tidy our room and get breakfast, don't we." I look over to Natalie who sighs, always finding chores challenging as she gets distracted easily with it. 

"Okay." She plops off the bed, holding her hand out for Darcy to take a hold of. "Are you going to help us, Daddy?" She asks, brushing her hair out from her face and tutting. 

I give her a slight nod, throwing the covers off of my legs, the cool air around us slapping at them, causing a few goosebumps to form. "Let Daddy get changed first." I lift Robin off of me and settle him onto the ground where he retrieves Natalie's right hand, thumb still in his mouth. 

I stalk over to my cramped wardrobe beside the left grey wall, opening it up, the hangers squeaking along the metal rails until I fall across an outfit I consider reasonable for the park. I shove my legs in the light denim jeans and settle for a yellow crop top, reaching just above my belly button, exposing my laurel tattoos slightly on my hips, the tips peaking out from my jeans. 

I wander down the hallway and into the door that has Natalie, Darcy and Robin engraved in purple, pink and blue wooden plaques. They thud against the door when it swings open and I watch for a moment to see Darcy neatly laying out her teddies on her sort of made bed. Natalie is piling books into their small white bookcase and Robin is just spinning round in circles with a Barbie doll outstretched in his hands. 

"Right, Robin, let's help your sisters tidy, yeah? We need to put all these doll shoes into the doll box, can you be a big boy and do that for me?" I ask, kneeling down to be on his level and he smiles at me, his dimples coming out to play. He pokes my cheek, grabbing onto my curls. 

I pry his hand away and point over to the tiny plastic shoes scattered along the floor beside the second-hand dolls' house. He flops over, bending down and his nappy bulges as he does so, needing of a change asap. 

"Munchkin, we need to change your nappy soon," I declare, helping him scoop up the shoes and plop them in the plastic box where all the dolls lay with tangled hair and chewed clothes.

He frowns over at me, running to the other end of the room beside the bunk bed where Darcy has finished her display of teddies. 

I raise an eyebrow, giving him that mum look that my mum would use on me whenever I didn't listen. It's a scary look and I hope it makes him squirm as much as it did me when I was his age.