Remember When ↠ l.p.

Rearranging

"No, Cailyn put that down!" I groan and hurry over to where she is now standing frozen with a lamp in her hand. "When I said that I wanted to take anything fragile out of this room, I didn't mean for you both to help me so much." I hide a smile at their crestfallen, partly guilty looks. I left for one minute and return to find them trying to be helpful by moving things.  However the ignored when I asked them not to touch anything I didn't tell them they could.

I honestly don't care if a vase breaks, but if Cailyn or Tessie were to step on the broken shards? I would feel very guilty and angry with myself for not stopping the accident from happening. "I love that you two want to help out, but I don't want either of you getting hurt." I crouch down and look them both in the eye. I reach out and take their hands in mine. "I am more than happy to find another way you can help me, something that doesn't involve carrying heavy and easily breakable objects. Okay?"

"We just wanted to help." Tessie says sweetly. Cailyn nods in agreement, her smile a little awkward due to losing her first tooth this morning. "An we wanted to show," her face falls as she struggles to remember the right word. She turns to Cailyn and tugs on her sleeve urgently. "What's the word!" She hisses to Cailyn in a whisper.

"Eenitiahtive." Cailyn answers, slightly garbled because she's still getting used to the gap where her tooth used to be. I've seen her at the mirror several times, poking at the now bare gum and staring at herself while holding her mouth wide open.  

"Yeah we wanted to be that." Tessie says, motioning to Cailyn. It's a talk I had with them earlier this week after...something happened. This week has been a blur of playing with the girls, taking Cailyn to kindergarten, organizing a few play dates, and trying to find a free moment to talk to Liam. Some little fight broke out about Cailyn wanting to Tessie chore because it was easier, some squabble about something. The end result was that I sat them down and talked to them about initiative and how it was nice to do something for other people every now and then. I'm not sure if they completely understood, but what they have been doing is helping me out a lot more. They have even set the table twice this week, before I've asked them to do so! 

"I appreciate that so much. But I wouldn't want you to do something that might end up with one or both of you getting hurt." I smile at them. "Promise me that if you know or even think that you could be hurt by something that you won't do it. If you might get hurt than there is no reason for you to take the risk. Promise?" 

They look at each other and nod seriously before turning to me again. "We promise!" They say in unison. We share a group hug that end in a short-lived tickle fight. I put a stop to it when I realized how close we were to a vase and lamp that I had set on the floor. "Alright, let me see what you girls can do to help me," I glance around the room. "What about taking that stack of towels into the closet and unfolding them on the floor. Put half of them down on the empty spaces in the floor of the closet and put the other half just outside the door. It would really help me out a lot." Their faces quickly shift to grins as they hurry to split up the task between the two of them and take the towels out of the room. They each grab at least five in their arms and walk out of the room leaning backward because of the bulk of cloth in their arms.

I turn back to the matter at hand. There are still a number of things lining the bookshelf that are easily breakable and another lamp I want to move. When Louis called and told me that he and Harry were flying back to LA for a visit I didn't necessarily freak out. I was happy, it was only when he said that their daughter was beginning to walk that I got a little concerned. I remember when Cailyn was little, how much trouble she got into and how quickly she went from being an amateur walker to running around everywhere. It was in the space of about two weeks, maybe less. I realize I babies are different, but I wanted to baby proof everything, just in case. Thus, my sudden rearranging of lamps and decorative objects made of glass. 

"Alright girls, did you finish?" I call out to them. "I'm about to start bringing in another lamp." We need to get this finished today, since Louis and his family will be arriving late tonight.