Blink Of An Eye

Chapter 12

Ryan's POV

The cries emitting from the baby monitor awoke me from a restful, dreamless sleep. Olivia, still in my arms stirred slightly. "I got it." I whispered to her. I don't think she was even fully awake. Good. She needed her rest.

I made my way quickly to the nursery to get to Makenna before she woke her mother.

As soon as I made it into her line of sight, she stopped crying and smiled at me, babbling and kicking her legs excitedly from her crib.

The way she smiled at me and looked at me, I was hit with an overpowering feeling of love for this little person.

"Good morning princess." I spoke to her, and she cooed and gurgled.

Okay. Now what? She probably needed a diaper change. Please just let her be wet. I picked her up and placed her on the changing table. Everything was well in reach: diapers, wipes, powders, tubes of lotion. Okay. We would just do the basics here. I could do this. I hope.

Luckily, she was just wet. I got her used diaper off and a fresh one on easily enough.

She was probably hungry. I knew there were bottles in the fridge, but did she just take bottles, or did she eat baby food too?

"Daddy has no clue what he's doing princess." I said to her and she laughed again.

"You called her princess." I looked up at Olivia standing in the doorway, the expression on her face was much like the one I had seen on Makenna's

"Did I? Is that significant?" I couldn't help but wonder.

"You always called her princess." She said, picking Makenna off of the changing table and snuggling her in her arms.

Although Olivia didn't seem to make a big fuss, the thought began to run through my mind. Was I remembering something?

"How did you sleep?" I asked, noticing she looked much more well rested today.

"Wonderful. Thank you." She blushed slightly, and I knew if we were to move forward, we needed to get rid of this awkward politeness between us. But how?

"I was hoping to let you sleep a little longer, but I'm kinda glad that you're up because I have no idea what I'm doing here." I said.

She chuckled. "We're doing breakfast, so c'mon."

I followed her into the kitchen and she placed Makenna in her high chair. I laughed watching her shove her fist in her mouth, then pulled it out and began blowing bubbles. The other fist then went promptly into her mouth. She must be teething. I don't know how I knew that.

She gets cereal for breakfast." Olivia explained, and I watched her mix up some of the rice cereal from a box with some formula from a bottle. That didn't look like any cereal I'd ever seen.

"That doesn't look good at all." I joked, looking at the pasty mixture in the tiny bowl.

"Lucky for you, you don't have to eat it." She teased back.

I watched her feed Makenna a couple of spoonfuls, and maybe it wasn't too bad because she seemed to enjoy it, even making "mmmm" sounds.

"Can I try?" I asked, even though I was certain I had done this before.

"Sure." She said with a smile, handing me the tiny baby spoon. "You feed her, and I'll get us something to eat. What would you like?"

I thought for a minute. "French toast?"

"Coming right up." She said, her tone much more upbeat from the last few days.

Feeding Makenna actually turned out to be fun, although I think I got more on her than in her. She was a very happy baby who laughed a lot. She made me laugh too.