Bruno Madrigal Snippets

My Daughter

(Bruno's pov)

It was towards the end of Y/n's pregnancy when she had the idea of parent/child days with the twins every so often.

"In which we each spend the day with one of the twins, switching twins each of these days."

"What do you mean by that?" I had asked, curious about her idea.

"I mean like once every couple of weeks or so, we each spend a day with one of the twins. Some one-on-one time. Think of it as daddy/daughter day or daddy/son day."

"You mean I take Reyna or Pedro for daddy time and you spend some mommy time with the other twin?"

"Yes! I loved having daddy/daughter days and Mommy/daughter days. They even continued these one-on-one days when B/n was born. If I spent the day with dad, he would be with mom. Or vice versa."

"That sounds kind of nice actually." I had stated.

"It is. We will still do things together as a family too, but I think the extra one-on-one time will be good for them too."

Today was one such day.

When we woke up this morning Y/n said that she wanted a mommy/son day. I agreed to a bonding day with our one-year-old daughter.

I decided to spend some time near the Casita to start and grabbed some things that I wanted to do with her.

I packed the stuff into the diaper bag and picked my daughter up from her crib.

"Are you ready to spend the day with daddy?" I asked, kissing her forehead.

Reyna excitedly laughed and called for da-da.

After I had given her breakfast, I brought her out to the backyard of Casita. I held her as I pulled out a blanket for us to sit on.

We spent about 30 minutes rolling a ball back and forth, my daughter laughing every time the ball rolled to her. Her laughter made me smile. Reyna was such a happy little girl.

It was nearly lunchtime and Julieta had returned and was playing a record while she made more food for her line.

I picked up my daughter and started dancing with her. She laughed and smiled as I bounced and twirled her around.

I took her back into Casita after a while and fed her before laying her down for a nap.

After her nap, I decided to take her to the beach so she could splash around in the water. So I changed into a pair dark green swim shorts and kept my ruana on. I dressed Reyna into a frilly mint green swimsuit. I also made sure she had sunscreen on that was safe for babies.

I grabbed the diaper bag and a bag of beach toys.

I watched her as she played around in the sand, a texture she is very used to, but still enjoys playing in.

I helped Reyna build a sandcastle, which she giggled about the whole time. Then I took her into the water to let her splash around.

It was quiet at the beach, so we were able to enjoy it without it being to over-stimulating.

I took her back home as it got later and fed her. Then I gave her a bath before taking her to my main room, where I had set up a blanket. I read my daughter a story.

I smiled as she fell asleep on my lap.

A little while later my wife came into the bedroom with a sleeping Pedro.

She laid him down in his crib and walked over to me. After a couple of light kisses she asked me if I had enjoyed my day with Reyna.

I grinned and told her what we had done. She smiled and told me about her day with our son.

"I took him over to the park this morning. I had him swinging for a little while in the baby swing. Then I helped him slide down the little slide. Just inched him down little by little. Pedro really enjoyed that. He also enjoyed climbing on the playground equipment with me holding him, so he didn't slip."

"Those sound like good things I should do with Reyna during our next bonding day."

"She would love that. Pedro was just grinning the whole time we were there. After the park, I took him down the nature trail, and he learned about the toucans and capybaras. He also enjoyed learning about the different colors he saw with all the flowers out there. That's a good place to go as well. We had lunch at the smoothie shop where I got him an age appropriate smoothie that had veggies in it. It was the perfect way to get him to eat avocado, spinach and granola. It had banana and pineapple to mask the veggies."

"Clever. We might need to introduce the idea to Julieta. She's having trouble getting Isabela to eat her veggies."

"We visited my parents where Pedro took his nap. We played with some of mine and B/n's old baby toys Mama found. Finally, I took him to our tree. We sat at the base of the tree, and I read to him. We had a little picnic with some stuff Mama packed for us, then I brought him here for him bath and bedtime."

"Sounds like we both had good days with the twins. This was a good idea, and I'm glad you thought of it. I wish we had that kind of opportunity. My sisters and I did get a few one-on-one days with Mama, but it was harder to do with three kids and one parent. So it had to wait until we were already old enough to go out on our own a bit. Pepa was helping out the farmers, so they watched over her. Julieta was watched over by Dr. Ramirez. I was usually watched over by whomever I was doing visions for." I explained.

"So am I Bruno. I understand that you couldn't get a lot of time alone with your mother. Especially after you guys got your gifts. But I am glad our children get to experience these moments. I also talked to Pepa and Julieta too. They might take some time off for their own mommy/daughter bonding days. Felix, Agustin, and even Alma get more time with the girls than they do. Alma especially spends a lot of with Isabela. Taking her and showing her off to the town." Y/n said. I frowned at that.

"I hadn't noticed. She doesn't do that with the twins, does she?"

"No, and she doesn't do that with Dolores either."

"Favoritism?" I asked, and she shrugged.

"Sounds like it. Isabela is the first grandchild, but she isn't the only one. But when Alma spends time with Dolores or the twins she mostly stays here."

"What about the time you guys went shopping with Pedro?" I asked.

"I was with her, so it wasn't one-on-one time with him. Still, she didn't show him off the way she does was Isabela. She acts as though Isabela is the princess of the Encanto, and the other kids are less important. With Isabela she is all 'Yes this is my beautiful granddaughter Isabela.' And 'She is just the perfect baby, don't you agree?' Even when she is crying or shrieking. Pedro is super quiet and observant, but he barely gets a 'This is my grandson, Pedro.'" I felt a bit of old anxiety creeping up on me.

"Do you think it's because he's my son?" I asked her, and I fiddled with my ruana nervously. She shook her head.

"No, because it's not just Pedro, or even Reyna. She barely acknowledges Dolores either. Felix and Agustin have called her out on it several times, but she just ignores them. I think Julieta has finally found out about it, though. She's on a warpath."

"Stay away from Juli. Got it."

We talked for a little while longer as we got into bed. As I fell asleep beside my wife, I had one final thought for the day.

Today was a great day, and I am looking forward to many more with my wife and children.