Fanboy (boyxboy)

The Morning After

Unpacking Clay's stuff took next to no time because Clay was eager to help take everything out of the boxes. With Adam and Cole helping, they had his room finished in just a couple of hours.

"Oops, there goes my hand again," Cole cringed when he tried to set down one of Clay's toys and his hand stayed in a fist. "Do you think they would surgically remove this from my hand? I don't really want to keep a plastic milk carton in my hand forever."

"Toy groceries are the best though," Adam had apparently never played with Clay's grocery set before. "Look, there's even a fake frozen pizza!"

"No is bad for you," Clay scolded and took the box from Adam. He put his stuffed broccoli in Adam's hand. "Here, has it."

"Oh, wow, it's like living with mini-Cole," Adam grinned.

"Good luck with that, by the way, Eli," Cole sighed. "I've been trying to clean up his diet since we got married but since he can't cook..."

"We're going to work on that," Eli shook his head.

"I learned the microwave, the toaster and the blender," Adam was still trying to dig through the food and Clay was having none of it.

"It's a good thing you're so cute," Cole shook his hand but the carton stayed in his fist. "I can't even hide this."

"Hide?" Clay's face lit up. "Papa, find me!"

"Okay, but you have to stay in this room," Eli was sick of Clay's new favorite game already. He backed up to the door so Clay couldn't escape. After a few particularly terrifying times Clay decide to hide without warning Eli first, Eli pretty much always watched when Clay was hiding.

The only good part of the game was that it wore Clay out for his nap. He still didn't want to take his nap that afternoon but when he did pass out, Eli knew he would be down for a while.

"This is weird, but carrying this around with me all day has made me really want a glass of milk," Cole announced when Eli got downstairs. "Anyone else?"

"Water, please," Adam was in the family room.

"I'm good," Eli shook his head. "Do you have dinner plans? I was thinking-"

"We're taking you out to celebrate," Cole interrupted.

"Oh, I was thinking I would treat you to dinner," Eli smiled. "It's the least I can do."

"You can get it next time," Cole opened the refrigerator door and the plastic milk carton fell out of his hand. "Aha! Look at that!"

"What just happened?" Eli frowned. Cole was wiggling his fingers like nothing was wrong.

"I have no idea. I guess because I grabbed something with my other hand it released the stuck one?"

"So strange," Eli went to sit in the family room with Adam.

"Have you seen this movie? We were going to watch it, but you can pick something else," Adam offered.

"No, I haven't seen a grown up movie since Clay was born," Eli admitted.

That was just one way that living with Adam was nice. It was also a big help having other adults around to help him take care of Clay. Cole also did a lot of cooking.

The morning after the move, Eli brought Clay downstairs to discover that Cole and Adam were already awake. They were both dressed in workout clothes and were drinking smoothies and coffee at the kitchen table.

"We were going to hit the gym after our run this morning, but I thought we should wait and see if you wanted to go," Adam said. "We can wait while Clay eats."