The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook: A Leap Day Paradox

Chapter 25: Zachary the Terrible

After giving Zachary a quick dinner, she changed him and let him nap for a short time. After leaving Zachary's room, he started to cry.

"My baa baa!" he cried.

Stacy sighed. "It looks like someone picked up a bad habit during this trip...."

She ran downstairs and filled a bottle with water. After that, she hurried upstairs and gave it to Zachary. The crying stopped.

Stacy left Zachary's room and plopped herself on the bed in her room. "I'm so glad to be home," she said with a contented sigh.

During Zachary's nap, she made herself dinner, unpacked everything from her trip and made a little more progress on her next book. For all of Zachary's things, she left them outside his door. She would put them away when he was awake.

Since the meltdown, Stacy talked to Gina on the flight home, and she agreed to pick up Audrey and Timothy from school. They would then stay at the Robinson house until Stacy picked them up later.

The time was now 6:30, and Zachary still wasn't awake. Stacy went upstairs and woke Zachary from his nap. After a quick change, she took him into the minivan to pick up Audrey and Timothy from the Robinsons.

When Audrey and Timothy saw Stacy, they were surprised.

"Mom!" Audrey shouted. "You're back!"

"Surprise!" Stacy shouted. "I had to come back, because Zachary missed his room."

"Mommy!" Timothy shouted. "I missed you!"

Audrey gave her mother a curious stare. "Why are you back so early?"

Stacy glanced at Zachary, who was sitting all content in his seat. "Zachary threw a temper tantrum. Because of that, I cancelled the book tour and came home."

"Zachary always throws tantrums, 'cause he's a baby!" Timothy shouted.

"No he's not!" Audrey argued. "Zachary's a big boy, aren't you, Zachary?"

"Big boy!" Zachary shouted, flailing his hands up and down.

"Then why are we older than him?" Timothy asked Audrey.

"We're not." Audrey told him. "Zachary is older than us. It just doesn't look like that since Zachary doesn't grow as fast as we do. Remember. It takes Zachary four years to have one birthday."

Timothy nodded. "But we still look older...."

After the discussion, they both looked at Stacy and began bombarding her with questions. There were so many that she was still answering them as they were entering the house.

A little later, Stacy shared her stories about the book tour with Audrey and Timothy. She did this while Zachary played with his toys nearby. Every now and then, Audrey or Timothy played with Zachary, while listening to their mother.

Over the next few days, the bad habit became much more apparent to Stacy. Zachary didn't want to use the sippy cup anymore. Since coming back from the book tour, all he wanted to drink from was his bottle.

Knowing that this was just a phase, Stacy just ignored Zachary. The sippy cup was his only option. If he didn't like it, then he wouldn't be drinking anything. This time, however, Zachary wouldn't drink from the sippy cup.

"I'm thirsty, mommy!" Zachary cried.

"Drink from that cup, honey." Stacy said, encouraging him.

"No!"

"I guess you won't be drinking anything then."

Hours passed. Zachary started crying and throwing a fit. Stacy ignored him.