Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 72944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 365(@200wpm)___ 292(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Little it was…and thankfully he didn’t make me carry him down the stairs.
He did, however, keep my hand tight in his and made it to the living room safe and sound with only one close call. Luckily for him, his Daddy was fast. “The box is on the coffee table. I opened it but didn’t get anything out because I knew you’d want to do that part.”
I also knew there’d be no way he would be patient enough for me to open the box, so I did the slightly dangerous bits without my impulsive cutie’s fingers getting in the way.
Nodding enthusiastically, Ashton plopped himself down on the floor and waved his hands at the box. That didn’t need any translation so I scooped it up and placed the goodies in front of him. “What kind of treasures did we get?”
He snickered, knowing exactly what was in the box and dived in to pull out the sippy cup. “Bears. Look at that.”
It was light blue with smiling little bears all over it and Ashton was grinning ear to ear as he set it carefully down on the table.
“I think that will make snack time easier. I’ll be able to help you have a drink while you’re watching cartoons too.” Even with the bottles, I wasn’t sure he was getting enough healthy liquids to make up for his terrible habits during the week. “We’ll have to see if you want to do it by yourself or if you want my help.”
That had him cocking his head and peeking over at me curiously.
Had it been the by himself comment?
“Daddy controls the bottles. Period.” That got another smile from him, but I wanted to make sure I was clear about my thoughts on the subject. “But as long as I’m supervising, I think we can try you holding the sippy cup if you’d like.”
I was a mild control freak not a complete one.
He shrugged.
Great.
Was I the only one who had an opinion on the sippy cup?
Maybe I was more of a complete one than I’d thought.
“What else did you find?” I played dumb as he brought out a box of zoo animals from Africa. “Oh, look at that.”
There were several other parts of the world still in the package, but he handed me the first load and bounced up and down on his knees. “Open this one first? I think that sounds like a wonderful plan.”
It would also drag out the whole experience if we were doing one at a time and setting it up before we took the next one out. I’d have made different decisions, but he was in charge of the toys, so I went along with it.
Ha. Not a complete control freak.
“Where should we set it up?” That was also something I was not picky about, so I took myself down the control freak scale another notch. Ashton looked around and shrugged, not picky either. “Okay. Options.”
What were the possibilities?
“We can put it up here in the living room. Maybe over by the bookshelf if we move that chair back a tiny bit.” It wouldn’t be subtle in the least, but we didn’t have people over that often. It would also make it easier to watch cartoons or something like that while we played.
What else?
“We could put it up in the big bedroom. You’ve already got a lot of your stuff in there.” It’d been a reasonable place to start putting everything when I hadn’t been sure what direction his little space would look like, but he didn’t seem drawn to that idea and just stared at me.
Wondering what he was thinking, I finished opening the packaging and slid the plastic tray the pieces were in out of the box. “What if we set it up here for now but we made a playroom in the little bedroom upstairs?”
We’d need to do some shifting around because at the moment it was a junk room with a bed in it, but Ashton’s eyes lit up.
Bingo.
“Would you like a playroom?” His excitable nod was back and looked like he was going to give himself whiplash. “I think painting it a bright color would be fun and we could pick out some animal sheets for the bed?”
The small twin had been a leftover from our bachelor days and got no use at the moment, but it would be perfect for naps or to cuddle when I read him a book.
And Ashton’s wide eyes said he thought that was amazing.
Giving his forehead a quick kiss, I sat down beside him and laughed as he shoved his way onto my lap. “Would you like an animal playroom?”
He patted my cheeks, nodding as he sucked happily on his binkie. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
I’d still want to keep some of his stuff in the bedroom to make it easier to change him first thing or right before bed, but setting up a second changing station in the playroom would give us more flexibility. We might even be able to find a small fridge to keep bottles up there too.