Just us- SBI adoption story (Just me and him book 2)

Chapter 5: coming up for air

Phil's POV:

Everyone had a very busy day today. I was back at the school again, this time with Tubbo. James was taking Tommy swimming. Kristin was in town catching up with some friends. And Techno and Wilbur had their second to last day of school.

I got up earlier than usual, hoping to get a few loads of washing done because with2 more family members, we now seemed to have 10 times the amount of washing. Then, I got myself some breakfast before waking the boys up. When I knocked, I found Tubbo passed out in his bed, his alarm blaring. I smiled, silenced the alarm and hoped that it hadn't been too much noise to wake him up.

Meanwhile upstairs, Wilbur told me he was up and half-way through getting changed, so I left him to it. Techno was just about awake, so I went to get Tommy up, noting to go back to check on my eldest. Whereas my youngest was up and bounding around his bedroom already.

"Morning mate," I said. He waved, spinning round and giggling to himself. He had probably remembered that James was taking him swimming today: he was very excited. "Right, do you want to choose what you're wearing? And do you know where your swimming trunks are?"

"Yea." He started chewing on Zog's spikes so I gently pulled it from his mouth and offered a chew instead, that was a natural thing we all did now.

"Can you show me?" He looked at me with a confused expression. "Can you show me what clothes you want to wear and where your swimming stuff is?"

"My clothes are here, my swimming bag is in the washing room."

"The washing room? Do you mean the bathroom?" He shook his head and began picking at his fingers. Realising this was on the fast track to both stressing him out and becoming a problem, I decided to set it aside and try in a bit. "Okay, why don't you show me once we've got ready?" He nodded and began trying to pull out the drawers under his bed. "Do you want some help?" I asked, pretty much starting to help already.

He shook his head, signing "stop."

"Okay, thank you for communicating that with me. Can I go get some of your stuff ready in the bathroom?" He nodded and began pulling the drawer out again. I paused in the doorway, feeling like I was almost abandoning him. When he pulled the first drawer open and began throwing his chosen clothes on his carpet, I realised that I really needed to give Tommy more independence. I went to get Techno up first, checking he was happy to go to school and then bumped into my wife who was going downstairs to get started on breakfast.

By the time I had finished cleaning up the bathroom a little, Tommy was ready. I looked at his choices, his favourite red and white t-shirt, with blue shorts, socks and boxers. "Well done mate, that's some good choices. We might need a jumper or coat too, would you like to take your lightweight one that we have in the cupboard?" He nodded. "Okay, well let's just get changed first."

By the time Tommy and I had got ourselves dressed and ready for the day, we were the last ones to breakfast. Kristin was doing toast, and packed lunches. "That reminds me, we need to get you a lunch box Tommy," she said.

"Yes, we do. And I need to get back to that lady about the drama thing. Tommy, would you like to go to a drama camp? You'd spend a few days in a couple weeks time, learning drama, singing, acting, music with other kids your age. Does that sound fun?" He shrugged his shoulders.

"What if Phil shows you some videos or pictures of what it would be like?"

"Yea."

"Okay then, we'll do that later."

"Don't you have to go shopping for the barbecue stuff tomorrow? Why don't you like for lunch boxes then?" Techno suggested.

"Good idea mate, Tommy, Tubbo you want to go shopping tomorrow?" Both nodded. "And Tommy remember on the whiteboard we've got your meeting with Melanie tomorrow?" He shook his head.