Just us- SBI adoption story (Just me and him book 2)

Chapter 51: stressing out

James' POV:

"Tommy, mate, please don't eat it like that." I got up and took the spoon from him. "I know you know how to eat with this." I looked at him and paused. He looked back at me, smiled and laughed. His little giggle that made you sort of melt. "Yea, see I got you. Now come on, I know you're hungry." I handed him back the spoon and went back to my seat to continue eating.

"Everything okay?" Phil asked, coming downstairs carrying a basket of dirty washing.

"Yep, he's just being silly."

"That's him!" He laughed, going into the utility room.

"Sure is." I said, smiling at the young blond. "Do you want pudding after this?" I asked.

He nodded and specifically put his spoon down to sign, "please."

"Good talking mate." I replied, putting my own cutlery down as I finished my last mouthful.

Dinner had been amazing. It was Tubbo's recipe that Phil and I had followed. And whilst Tubbo was originally going to be the one cooking it: he'd done breakfast that morning and was now simply too tired.

He was sat with Wilbur and Techno on the sofa, eating dinner, drinking fizzy drinks and playing minecraft together. We asked Tommy if he wanted to watch (he normally did) but tonight he simply didn't seem interested. So him and I sat at the dinner table with Phil.

A couple minutes later, Tommy was done eating. "Dessert coming up!" I exclaimed. "Oi, you lot," I called out to the boys on the sofa, "who wants dessert?"

"What is it?" Wilbur asked for the lot of them.

Phil came in, "Ice creams and ice lollies in the freezer."

"Cool!" Wilbur said, asking his brothers what they wanted before coming up to get it from the freezer. Techno and Tubbo were both quiet today. Wilbur was desperately trying to do his best to fill all the awkward silences but it wasn't going his way. 

"Tommy, what do you want?" I asked, encouraging him to come over and choose one for himself.

He picked a rocket lolly and stood (not so) patiently whilst I opened it for him. Before he could walk off, I handed him back the plastic wrapping. "Where does it go?" I prompted.

Instructed to hold his ice lolly carefully, I stood waiting for him as he found a way to open the bin and placed the wrapper inside. We high-fived, he got his ice lolly back and I followed him outside. He took steps towards the trampoline.

"You are still eating, we have to wait to go on the trampoline." I stated.

"Yes. Bounce." He signed, dripping bits of ice lolly all over the grass.

"I said no. Please listen. Can you come over here and finish your ice lolly? When you are done and your food has had time to digest, then we can bounce."

He shook his head. I shook mine back. He smiled and shook his back.

"I can see you're listening. It's not safe to bounce when your food hasn't had time to digest. Do you understand?" He scrunched his nose up, appearing to be concentrated and licked his ice lolly a few times. Then he nodded. "Good." I said, finally relaxing into one of the outdoor chairs.

Tommy came and sat next to me. Happily swinging his legs and humming away to himself. Or actually humming to me. It was a nice time, and I found myself bopping my head along to the rhythm.

Once he was finished, he held the empty lolly pop stick up to me proudly and gave me an over-exaggerated smile. "Alright, alright. But you can't go bouncing right now. Your food needs to settle first." He pouted. "I know but I did explain it to you earlier. We just need to wait a bit longer."