Kairi toddled around her front room, bouncing and shushing the baby that was wrapped up against her. The three month old infant was curled upon her chest, secured by a lavish piece of material, artfully tied to support him against the flat plane of her chest and stomach. She kept switching from humming to shushing anytime the little baby stirred against her, brazenly nuzzling his tiny face within the valley of her chest, no doubt rooting for food. She sighed as he did this, since she felt as if it were only moments ago that she fed him. She glanced at her nearby clock and realized that it had actually been a couple of hours since his last feeding and she better get on it if she didn't desire a screaming infant in her arms.
Too young to feed in the confines of the woven wrap, she gracefully untied it and sat herself down on the couch preparing to feed the eager and quickly growing baby with dark hair and deep blue eyes. He had yet to acquire either his mother or his father's signature orbs. She smiled sweetly at him as he wriggled in her lap, yawning and cooing and looking very much like his father with his wry grin. She chuckled at that, the charm seemed to be genetic. She woke him up a bit, tapping on his hands and getting him to reach out and grip her fingertips with a giggle. She cooed at him, trying to get him to respond or echo. For only three months old, he seemed to be very smart, developing quickly and curious about the world around him. Kairi couldn't be more proud.
"May I feed him?"
Kairi looked up into the eyes of Danni, now a brilliant six going on seven year old standing on the other side of the arm of the sofa. "Why don't you play with him a bit while I get his bottle ready?"
Danni's eyes brightened as Kairi stood and laid him down on his play mat. Danni sat next to him with Toby just a foot away, popping his head up and thumping his dangerous tail against the ground with a whump. He crawled just minutely closer, stretching out his nose to take in the glorious scent of a fresh little baby. Kairi chuckled as she walked into her kitchen and reached into her freezer to pull out a bag of pumped breast milk. She placed it in the warmer and got it started as she watched Toby and the children with a keen eye.
"Danni, you mustn't move around so much, he's still learning to focus." The refined voice of a now eight going on nine year old Julie called out, quite regally, from the nearby chair as she read one of Kairi's old books.
"He's a baby, he needs to learn to adapt." Danni shot back with snark, "Plus, he likes it!" She smiled down and wiggled her fingers in the infants face as his eyes widened with wonder.
Kairi chuckled again and looked to Julie who just rolled her eyes at her little sister. Kairi hastened to prepare the bottle, dropping the little plastic bag into the recommended bottle. This fancy thing was most analogous to a breast, as to not ruin little William's proper latch. The timer dinged just as the bottle was put together and Kairi switched the milk from the freezer bag into the bottle, swirling it gently to get it at the right temperature for the infant's sensitive mouth. She tested it on her wrist, not feeling a thing as the cream colored drops patterned her pale skin and she smiled happily, finally feeling as if she were getting the hang of this infant business.
She walked back over to the passel of children and sat the bottle on her coffee table. She bent over to the dark and wild haired baby and picked him up, bouncing him all the way back to their spot on the couch with Toby, hulking and awkward, following closely to ensure that the little one would not be harmed. In such a short time, Toby sure had formed an attachment to the little one. Everyone had.
She sat down and adjusted him in her lap, grabbing the bottle and putting it to his eager lips as he tried to grab at her shirt to get it out of his way, "Now that isn't going to work right now is it?" Kairi smiled and rubbed the nipple against his other cheek to distract him, "Here you go, bub." She grinned as he eagerly took it in and began to drink happily.
