Already Home {H.S}

10

LAYTON

"I wanna be on Laytie's team," Cade said, getting excited and running towards me.

"I get to be on Cadie babies team!" I grinned as I picked him up. "Aren't I lucky?" I kissed his cheek.

Ever since Cade could begin talking, he's been calling me Lay Lay or Laytie. If I'm lucky, he'll call me Laytie baby, but that's a rare occurrence. I think he started calling me Laytie because I've been calling him Cadie baby since he was born and he caught on and started doing the same to me.

Today, my family is at Anne and Robins again. Usually, we're not here this often each month, but somehow all of our schedules lined up to where we could be. And today, we're doing a family game night.

The family game nights are my favorite. All of us are competitive, which makes it so much fun. Everyone doesn't care how others feel at the moment because of how competitive we all are. We could be playing a game of go-fish and yelling at each other. I find it very funny.

"We better win, Laytie," he said, turning all serious.

Cade was very competitive for being just 3 years old. It was very cute. You just don't want to be on his team if you end up losing, it's not a pretty sight to see. He can be an aggressive 3-year-old when he wants to be.

"Of course, we're gonna win, you have me on your team," I kissed his cheek again before setting him back down.

"Well, it looks like Cade has already started picking his team," Anne laughed. "Who else are you picking, little man? You have to choose 3 more,"

When Cade gets excited about the game nights and he has already chosen his first team-mate, all of us let him choose the rest of the team. Although we all want to have fun and pick our teams, we want to make sure that Cade has the most fun, so whatever he has to do to that, we let him.

"What game are we playing?" he asked while side-eyeing me.

This kid sure was smart.

"Charades,"

"I want Hazzy," he said, running across the living room to where Harry was sitting.

"I get to be on your team, Cade bear?" Harry asked, a smile on his face. Their bond is so special. I love watching the relationship that they have.

"Duh," he responded like Harry should have known.

"I want mumma too," he said, running over to Ellie.

"Can I be on your team, Cade?" Gemma asked him.

"My team has to win, Gemma," he said very seriously. He did not come to mess around, that's for sure.

All of us laughed at his comment. He was very funny without even trying.

"I want," he stopped to think and looked around the room. "Mr. Birdie," he stated, running over to Robin.

"I'm honored, buddy,"

There was a night a few months ago where Cade had slept over here at Anne and Robin's house. He requested to have a bird book read to him by Robin. When they got to a page specifically about Robins, Cade looked over at Robin and smiled. Ever since then, he's been calling Robin Mr. Birdie. His little brain is so amazing to me.

Cade has finished choosing our teams. We have Harry, Robin, Ellie, Cade and I on 1 team. Or as Cade says, the winning team. And then there is Gemma, Anne, Silas, and then my dad and step-mom. The losing team, as he claims.

"Cade, do you want to go first?" Anne asked him, passing him the bowl of different things to act out.

"Duh," he said, smiling at her, reaching his small hand into the bowl of papers. He grabbed one, opened it, and handed it over to Anne so she could tell him what it had said.