Moving Forward

Day With Daddy

Brad's POV:

"Daddy, wake up!" I feel Ava crawling around on me "I'm hungry and it's light out."

I pull the blankets over my face, hoping she lays down next to me and falls back asleep.

"Up!!" She yells, yanking the blankets off of me and putting her face right in front of mine "Daddy you slept long enough."

"Yeah, but daddy's still tired. I need more sleep." I pull her closer, laying her down next to me, which normally gets her to sleep, "Just lay here for a new minutes. I know it's light out but it's really early."

She eventually falls back asleep, clinging onto me as tightly as she can, digging her tiny nails into my arm to make sure I don't move an inch and get up before her.

I wake up an hour later to see that she is not anywhere near me. I jump out of the bed quickly, scared she's doing something bad, and run around the room looking for her.

"What are you doing?" I walk into the bathroom to see her knee deep in Jen's makeup "Mommy is NOT going to be happy with you!"

"But I look reallllllly pretty, daddy!" She takes a lipstick, smearing it on her face as she looks in the mirror "See? Just like mommy."

"Yes... mommy looks like that." I turn away quickly, trying my best not to laugh at her before fixing the mess "You need to clean this up before you break something."

"Okay but I wanna keep it on."

"Fine." I sigh, knowing that's easier than fighting with her "Just make sure everything else goes back where it belongs."

I get myself dressed, knowing there's no hope in anymore sleep, and go back to see that she is not in the bathroom anymore.  She isn't even in our room.

"Ava!  Seriosuly you have to stop this!" I walk around the hallway looking in all the other rooms until I hear laughing in her bedroom.  I walk in to find her standing in front of her closet completely naked.

"Daddy I need help." She says, turning towards me, revealing the huge drawings she has all over herself "I can't reach."

"When did you draw all that?" I walk over, grabbing a dress and handing it to her "You aren't supposed to draw on yourself anymore."

"Sorry daddy." She puts her arms up for me to get the dress on "Can we go play now?"

I quickly finish getting her ready, knowing I don't have much time before she tries to run off again, and we walk downstairs trying to think of what to do.

"We can go to the playground." I suggest.  She decides that isn't good enough.

"Playground, and ice cream?" She asks.  I agree, wanting to get out of the house. 

I drive over to the playground so she doesn't run off on me, and she unbuckles herself the second we get in the parking lot, begging me to open the door.

"Look there's some other kids." I point out some of the people already here "Go see if you can play with them."

She goes over right away, joining in whatever weird game they're playing. I watch as she runs around everything following them, and copying everything they do.

They all chase each other in circles, yelling out random things.

"Go down the slide." I tell her once the other kids leave "You love the slides here."

She goes down the slide a few times before deciding that it's boring and she wants to get her ice cream.

"What kind do you want?" I carry her up to the counter so she can order it "You have to tell them."

"I want vanilla with sprinkles." She says, before jumping out of my arms to find us a table.  I clarify for the worker what she means, and order mine.

"Daddy look there's puppies!" Ava yells as she eats her ice cream "I wanna pet them."

"Okay, but when you're done." I look over at them, noticing it's a stand from an adoption center and she's going to want one "You need to be careful with them though, they aren't used to you like our dogs are."

"Our dogs love me!" She says, climbing across the table to sit in my lap "They let me play with them allllll the time!"

"That's because they've known you since you were a baby.  They slept right next to you the whole first day we brought you home."

"Cause I was cute." She smiles, taking some of my ice cream "And I still am."

"You are, princess."

We finish our ice cream and walk over to the dogs, where she jumps right over the fence to play with them.

"Do you have animals at home?" The lady asks me "She seems to love them."

"Yeah, 2 dogs, a cat and a fish."  I answer her, watching Ava "She loves our pets.  She has to be the one to take care of everything."

I walk into the petting area to play with some of the dogs as well, and notice right away that Ava has attached herself to one.  She keeps carrying it around to the others, and puts it down right next to her so it can't run away.

"Daddy I love this puppy!" She holds it up for me to see "It loves me too. We need it."

"Ava we already have 2 dogs, mommy won't be happy with me if we go home with another."

"But she won't be mad at me." She smirks, knowing she won't get into any trouble "And he is so cute!  He has pink ears so we can call him Pinky!!"

"That's actually a great breed to have around other dogs and children, he would fit right in with the family." The lady says, not helping the situation "They're all free to adopt for today only."

"See daddy, it's perfect." Ava says, acting like she understands what the lady said "I need Pinky!!"

"Whatever, my wife isn't thrilled with me right now anyway, we'll just add this into the mix."

I get out, filling out all the paperwork and praying Jen doesn't kill me.

"Can we take him home now?" Ava walks over, carrying all the toys she convinced me to buy "He needs to see our house!"

I stuff everything in the car, laying the dog in the passenger seat and drive home hoping Jen hasn't beat us.  Of course, my shitty luck kicks in and she pulls in at the same time as us.

"Mommy!" Ava runs over to her before I get a chance to stop her "We bought a puppy!"

"You bought a what?!?"