Our Life Together

Who Goes Where?

"Go Liam!!"  Gabe cheers him on next to me.  Jack sits on the other side of me with food piled on top of him, trying to see.

"Mommy, this pretzel is bad."  Jack hands me his half eaten pretzel and cheese sauce "You eat it."

"Gabe, do you want this?"  I hand it to him, "Your brother decided it isn't good enough for him anymore and I'm full." 

He takes it right out of my hands and scarfs it down like we didn't just have ice cream five minutes ago.  I don't think he even realized that Jack took tiny bites out of every spot instead of actually eating half of it.

"Hey Jack, do you wanna go stand over there?"  Gabe points out an opening at the fence in front of us "We can see better."

"Yeah!  I wanna see Liam!"

"Just be careful, boys.  Stay where I can see you."  I remind them.  They walk a few feet in front of me, joining the other kids at the fence.

I feel my phone vibrate and look at it to see a text from Brad.  It's a picture of Olivia all dressed up for her dance recital that she decided she had to have him at, which is why I'm stuck outside in the scorching heat.  I take a quick picture of the boys watching Liam to send back to him.

Jack walks back to me a few minutes later, looking bored out of his mind, and sits on my lap.  He gets my phone from my hand to play some games.

"This games boring."  He states after a while.  I notice him put my phone back and look up at me for entertainment "I wanna see Liv."

"We will, buddy, but we have to watch Liam first.  We'll go right over to see her once this game ends."

"Is Liam loosing?" He asks "Can he leave?"

"They're tied, and no, he can't leave." I laugh "Did you play your games on my phone?  I didn't hear your dinosaur one."

"I don't like that anymore.  That for little boys." He confesses "I need big games like Liam and Gabe."  I pull him closer, cherishing the few moments of cuddles I have left from him, and try to ignore the fact that my 5 year old thinks I'm going to let him grow up.

"We'll see.  I'll have to look for some new games."  I finally decide "For now you need to watch Liam.  His team might win."

"He's gonna make it!"  I get excited a few minutes later as I watch him run down the field with the football.  He runs right into the end zone and everyone stands up to cheer.  His first touchdown of the season, and Brad isn't here to see.

"Now we leave?"  Jack asks innocently, genuinely believing that the game is over "Liv is waiting."

"No, it's just getting good." Gabe walks back to us "The game is finally not the most boring thing on the planet."

~~~~~~~~~~~Brad's POV~~~~~~~~~~~~

"You should have gone with mommy."  I sigh, walking around with Scar, holding a bottle in her mouth, hoping she's hungry and that stops her crying.

"She's adorable,"  The elderly lady standing next to me looks over my shoulder at Scarlett, "How old?"

"4 months, she looks like my wife and older daughter.  I can't take any credit for her looks."  I laugh.

"Is your daughter one of the dancers?  My granddaughter is in the 4 year old class."

"Yeah, actually she's in the 3 year old class.  This is her second recital, but the last one she decided she wasn't really going to do much."  I look up at the stage as some of the older girls get off, waiting for Olivia's group "She's been talking about it for weeks."

"Julia has been too.  She's been running around, showing us parts of the dances."  She points out a girl in the front of the stage, "That's her."

I watch the dance, laughing at how random all of the kids are.  At 4 years old, they don't care about doing the right thing, they just want to show off as much as they can.  The song ends after a few minutes, and of course every kid stops at a different time in true 4 year old fashion.

"Oh my God, my wife would love to see all of these."  I think about Jen being stuck at the football game, "She's at our oldest son's football game because Olivia decided I needed to watch her dance.  She loves seeing the kids do their own random things."

"That's the best part of it."  She agrees "It sounds like she got the bad part of the deal.  Unless he's younger too and they just run around."

"Well, sometimes.  He's 13 though, so most of it is actually playing.  There are some interesting things that happen though."

I watch the stage fiercely as Olivia's class walks out.  The teacher stands in front of them and they all line up in their spots to start.  Olivia is right in the middle of the front, and surprises me when she walks up to be with the teacher.  I look at her in shock for a few seconds before I realize that she has a solo.

"Holy shit."  I mumble, looking over to the lady, "Can you hold her quickly?  I should probably record this."

She takes Scar and I walk up towards the front of the room to record.  Liv sees me right away and stops to wave and smile quickly.  I continue to record as she gets back into dancing, not following the teacher very well, doing her own little dance.  She's so feisty for such a tiny girl, which she clearly gets from Jen. 

When her performance is done, she runs off the stage to me.  I quickly out my phone away and reach my arms out to catch her.

"You were perfect, princess!"  I pick her up, walking back towards Scarlett, "Daddy loved your dance."

"I love it too."  She declares, proud of herself, "I do good."

We get Scarlett from the lady, and after the recital is finished, we leave to meet every one for ice cream.  The boys are all going crazy, obviously excited about something when I pull up, and Olivia is bouncing in her seat waiting to see Jen.

"Mommy!!"  She runs out of the car "I dance myself!"

"What?"  Jen asks "You danced by yourself?"  Liv nods her head like Jen is an idiot for asking.

"She had a solo."  I walk over to them with Scar, "I recorded it for you."

"I missed her first solo?"  Jen looks like I just told her the most tragic news ever, "I missed my daughters first dance solo all because she wanted her daddy to be there."

"That's what happens when you're the favorite," I smirk, handing her Scar, "What did I miss?  A bunch of falling?"

"Actually, your son got his first touchdown."  Jen replied nonchalantly, "I would have recorded it but we all thought he was going to fall before he made it."

"Next time, we switch."