𝓛𝓮𝓸𝓷 𝓚𝓮𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓭𝔂| ɪᴍᴀɢɪɴᴇꜱ ʙᴏᴏᴋ 4

Baby Bell| PT 1

I survey the floor of our living room, noticing how all of our son's toys are scattered across the carpet like a constellation of stuffed animals and cars, as well as the occasional learning toy. I sigh, the afternoon sun shines on the mess that never seems to ever be cleaned up, it's like every time I put the toys away they're back out within seconds. I look to the culprit of my extra work; mine and Leon's baby son crawls across the carpet, his blonde hair sticking up in all directions as he babbles to himself and makes it his mission to reach destination toybox.

My eyes roam across the room towards my husband, Leon's perched on the sofa with a mug of steaming coffee in hand, a faint smile tugs his lips as he just watches our little boy with wonder. There's been countless mornings and nights where Leon's just expressed his gratefulness to me for giving him the bundle of joy he's always wanted, and I never get bored of hearing his words of happiness. I let my tense shoulders deflate as I walk over to Leon and ease myself onto his lap as his arms automatically wrap around me, pulling me closer to his chest as he rests his chin on the top of my head.

"I swear he's getting faster with the crawling. Just last night I almost let him slip out of his room when I was changing his blankets." I murmur with a small laugh. Leon chuckles in response, pressing a soft kiss to my head as his hands rub my back soothingly.

"Yeah, the little guy's growing too damn fast, you're his mom, tell him to slow down." Leon replies playfully. I snort, shaking my head ruefully as I let my eyes close for a brief few seconds. Leon yawns, both of us tired from the early morning our son insisted we have this morning. We must have our eyes off of our son for barely thirty seconds, but when there's complete silence we both stiffen and sit up straighter, eyes already scanning the room for our little man of mischief.

"S/N?" I ask despite the fact my son can't reply yet. I slide off of Leon's lap as I search the floor. My husband sets his coffee on the table- out of reach from our son- as his dark brows knit together in anxiety. We're both still new to all this, and almost all the time our first emotion is panic.

"He was just there..." Leon mutters, standing up as he helps me search for our baby. It's become a routine at this point, especially since a few weeks ago when our son first learned how to crawl, he's been in and out of our vision in the blink of an eye, leaving us both playing a sudden game of hide and seek. The faint rustle and giggle of our baby has us both relaxing straight away, I stifle a sigh as Leon's smile reappears on his face. He rounds the sofa, looking behind it before putting his hands on his hips, absolutely nailing the dad pose. "Really mister?" Leon teases, reaching for our son.

The two boys laugh as Leon stands, cradling our son in his arms as he wags a finger down at him, both of them having a conversation- well, Leon talks and our son babbles nonsense. I grin at them both until our son wiggles to be let down again. Leon kisses his head, nose lingering as he inhales that wonderful, comforting baby smell, then sets him back off. Almost right away our son crawls as if he's on a Formuma One circuit, going full speed ahead towards the kitchen. Leon and I exchange a look then follow with slow steps, my husbands arm wraps around my waist as we follow our little adventurer, it'd be easier to stop him...but neither of us want to get in the way of these silly moments.

S/N already has his chubby hands reaching for the locked cupboards as he sits on the floor, Leon's classic frown almost replicated on our son's face. I watch as the baby struggles with the cupboard, his bright, blue eyes turning up to me as if to ask me to open it. I shake my head, smiling as I crouch down. "That's not for you, little mister." I softly say. S/N then turns his gaze to his daddy, Leon groans in defeat, coming over to unlock the cupboard as I shoot him a 'really?' look.

"Hey, it's not my fault, I just can't say no to that cute little face. It's not my fault he's got your little pout!" Leon defends as our son begins pulling out various small pots, pans and tupperware. He also grabs a wooden spoon and begins playing the drums with it all. I shake my head, watching our son giggle and wave around the spoon whilst Leon claps and nods his head to the nonexistent beat.

"We need a better way of keeping an eye on him, one of these days he's going to end up crawling into another country." I joke, put my point remains. I love my little explorer, but clearly mine and Leon's eyes aren't enough, especially after the sleepless nights and early mornings. Leon hums in agreement, then suddenly his eyes widen as if an ideas come to mind. He stands, heading to our drawer of random things before grabbing a piece of ribbon and a random jingling bell we must've kept from some broken Christmas decoration. I arch my brow as Leon grins and shakes it, the noise instantly attracts our son's attention.

I jut my hip out, resting a hand on it as I give Leon a pointed look. "Leon, our son's a baby, not a housecat." I say with a mix of amusement and exasperation. He nods, crouching and carefully tying the ribbon and bell around our baby's ankle, laughing triumphantly when he test shakes our baby's leg, earning a giggle and a jingle from S/N.

"I know," Leon replies, standing up and stretching his back, "but this'll be so much easier to keep the little man safe and sound, literally. It's efficient and no more ninja baby." He shrugs up a single shoulder, giving me a smug grin as if he's solved world hunger. I want to be...annoyed? Disappointed? Reluctant? Instead I just end up huffing a laugh, mumbling under my breath. Our son gets bored with the pots, and begins to crawl around further, but this time the bell jingles, echoing around the kitchen as he giggles at the noise and speeds up on his journey.

Leon looks to me, awaiting my reaction. I just burst out laughing, following our baby as he makes his way back into the living room, where he once more sits with his toys and babbles to himself. Leon saunters over to me, wrapping his arms around me from behind as he leans his chin on my shoulder, breath tickling my ear as he presses his cheek to mine. "You're ridiculous." I mutter fondly.

Leon fakes a scoff. "Ridiculous? Or incredibly practical?" Our son gives his ankle one last jingle before he lies down, yawning as his eyelids droop. I know we'll put him to bed in a few minutes, but right now I just want to admire the perfect little human we made together. My heart swells with love at our family. "Admit it, I'm a genius." Leon murmurs deeply.

I roll my eyes, but find myself nodding. "You occasionally have good ideas." I smile, turning my head to press a sweet, lingering kiss to Leon's lips. He hums, deepening the kiss as he sighs contently.

"I've got another good idea, if you wanna hear it?" He whispers, earning an amused huff from me.