Theodore was generally quite a happy baby; he barely cried, always seemed content and he slept a lot more than Arthur.
Like with their firstborn, they'd both tried to get Theo into some sort of routine - one that would let them get a decent night's sleep too but so far, their actions were pointless. He was up for almost half the night sometimes - just like tonight, positively wailing in John's ear as the bassist tries to settle him.
Roxy sits on the bed, watching worriedly as John paces back and forth, gently bouncing the baby as he does.
"John, let me take him," she pleads, "You've got-"
He shakes his head, "No, it's alright, I'm fine. You've got to sleep though, love."
"You've got the-" she stops when their bedroom door is pushed open, face falling at the sight of Arthur standing with his hands covering his ears, stuffed penguin by his feet, "Oh god,"
They were both up.
"Hey," John says over the crying baby, "What are you doing up?"
Arthur comes over to the bed, tossing the penguin onto it before he grabs hold of the blankets to pull himself up.
Roxy welcomes him into her arms, where he plonks himself down on into her lap, "Can you not sleep?"
He shakes his head, "Theo too loud."
John frowns - he'd completely forgotten that Arthur could hear the crying. He feels awful.
"I know he is," Roxy murmurs, "But he's just a baby. He can't tell us what's wrong so mummy and daddy are trying to work it out."
John sits himself down on the edge of the bed and Arthur crawls across to sit beside him, reaching back to grab hold of his penguin, which he sits in the crook of John's arm, by Theo's feet.
"What are you doing?" Roxy asks as he returns to her side.
"Pengy makes me feel better...maybe he can make Theo feel better too."
She puts her hand against her heart as John laughs, "Oh, you are just the sweetest."
"Okay, listen," John says as he stands, "I'm gonna take him downstairs and see if I can settle him down there."
"John, no," she shakes her head, "You've got that interview tomorrow morning and you haven't had any sleep."
He ignores her, "Take him for a minute, please."
Roxanne knows better than to argue, she knows that he'll tell her to get some sleep and that he'll see to the baby but still, in the weeks that they've been home, John had been doing most of the night feeds.
She cradles Theo against her chest as he continues to wail and Arthur covers his ears again.
2:30 was not a good time for anyone to be awake - much less a toddler.
"Are you sure you don't want me to take him?" Roxanne asks as John steps back into the room, "Your interview is at nine, John."
"I'll be fine," he kisses her as he takes the baby from her again, letting Arthur kiss his little forehead before heading for the door again, "'m an early riser no matter how little sleep I've had."
He closes the door softly behind him and Roxanne looks down at her son, who raises a hand to rub at his tired eyes before looking up at her.
"Alright," she whispers, pulling the blankets back, "In you get."
Arthur quickly scrambles under and Roxy knows that she shouldn't really be doing this, that she should put him back in his own bed so it doesn't become a habit but...she's so tired.
Arthur squirms as she wraps her arm around him, immediately settling when she starts singing to him, "A naeoidhean bhig, cluinn mo ghuth. Mise rid' thaobh. O mhaighdean bhan Ar righinn oig, fas as faic, do thir, dileas fhein."
She smiles as Arthur turns around to cuddle into her, leaning down to press a soft kiss to his forehead and it's really not long until he conks out.
And so finally, Roxanne can try and get some sleep too.
++|++
Before dosing off herself, Roxanne makes sure to set John's alarm clock for 7am. She didn't like getting up that early but she wanted to make sure that John had plenty of time to get ready for his interview.
She has to practically detach herself from Arthur, slowly moving out of the sleeping toddler's grip and replacing her body with her pillow.
"Please don't wake up," she pleads as she tiptoes from the room, leaving the door open just in case he needs one of them.
At the top of the stairs, there's a baby gate that she makes sure to close and secure before she's tiptoeing down into the living room.
John's fast asleep on the couch and on his chest, lays Theodore with John's large hand resting securely on his back.
Unable to help herself, she grabs the camera off of the sideboard and snaps a couple of photos.
John wakes with the flash, looking around blearily to find the source and visibly relaxing when he sees that it's just her.
"Blimey, love. Scared me half to death there."
"Sorry," she returns the camera to its rightful place, "You both looked so adorable,"
"What time is it?"
"Seven." she crouches down beside them, "I wanted to make sure you had plenty of time to get ready."
John peers down at the now thankfully peaceful baby, "I reckon we'll have our work cut out with this one, love. Think he's gonna be a little bugger."
Roxanne giggles as she carefully moves Theo from his chest so he can sit up, "You might be right."
"What about Arthur? Did he go down alright?"
"He did. No one can resist that lullaby."
John stands, stretching his arms above his head (and Roxanne has to refrain herself from poking his stomach). "I'll go jump in the shower," he leans down to kiss her forehead, "Thank you for getting up. 'm gonna talk to management today, after the interview. I'm supposed to be off for Christ sake."
He continues muttering to himself as he climbs up the stairs. That was the decision that he'd come to. With the band's support, he was going to take two months off so he could help Roxy with the kids and around the house but a couple of days ago, not even two weeks after Theo's birth, Prenter had called to let him know that there would be a couple of people (a journalist and an interviewer) coming around to the house to conduct an interview.
Now, John doesn't get angry very often, he doesn't but that, that was too far. He wasn't going to allow that. He didn't want photos of their home being taken, he didn't want photographs of his children plastered across magazines...Roxanne certainly wouldn't want that and so, once he had calmed down, he rang Paul back and told him to rearrange it to somewhere else or it wouldn't be happening.
His shower is quick and returning back downstairs, John finds Roxanne now sat in his spot on the couch feeding Theo.
"If you give me a minute, I can get you something to eat."
"Don't be silly, Rox," he tuts, "I can get my own breakfast. Was just going to have something light anyway."
As he's eating his cereal, Arthur wakes and so he goes upstairs and unlocks the baby gate, helping the little bot manoeuvre the stairs before glancing at the clock.
It was time for him to get going.
"Alright," he stands from the table once more, "Its time for me to go,"
Roxanne peeks into the kitchen with Theo cradled against her chest, "Do you think you'll be gone long?"
"I hope not," he mutters, deciding to forgo a jacket. It's April - it's warm enough, "If I'm back early enough do you want to take Arthur to the park? We could take a picnic?"
Roxanne nods happily. She hasn't really been out of the house since Theo was born, "That sounds lovely."
John presses a kiss to Arthur's hair as he passes behind where he's sat in his chair at the table, kisses Roxanne properly and then leans down to kiss the fair hair on Theo's head, "I'll try and not be too long."
++|++
Roxanne lets Arthur play on the living room floor for a little bit of the morning, letting her do a little bit of housework and then, she gets him fed and then has to get him dressed. Theo, he's no bother; she slips him into one of his onesies and lays him in the bassinet they had in the living room once he's dosed off again.
Arthur...he takes a little while longer. Half an hour longer actually because once he got him out of his pjs, Lillian rings and while Roxanne is distracted, Arthur sits his nappy-clad bum on the floor and starts playing with his Duplo Bricks.
The phonecall is short and when the conversation ends, Roxy hangs up and then writes a note to remind her to tell John that his mum is coming down for the weekend and to ring her back. And then it's time to get the little boy dressed.
Now, it's very hard to get a child out of play mode, she doesn't know what it is ut once they're in it...they never want to come out of it again and so she knows she's going to have her work cut out for her.
But Arthur doesn't protest when she lifts him to take him upstairs. When she puts him down again, he goes straight for his toybox while she rummages through his drawers.
She thinks ahead to this afternoon, they were going to the park. There was a good chance he would get dirty...especially if he jumps in that muddy puddle that is always there so she goes with something older and surprisingly, he lets her help him into the clothes with no problems.
A first.
They do a few arts and crafts while they wait for John to come home, making fingerprint drawings that Arthur gets so excited to show him, head snapping up when he hears an approaching car.
"Wait, wait, wait," Roxanne says, making him stop in his tracks, "Let mummy wipe your hands first."
The toddler bounces impatiently on his feet while she cleans him up and when she nods, he runs off towards the window, pressing his face against the glass.
From where she's starting to clear up, Roxy hears his excited cry of Rog! and puts the paint covered cup and plate into the sink, washing her hands quickly before stepping into the living room just as there are three light taps on the door.
She peeks into the bassinet to see that Theo is still sleeping as Roger lets himself in, hearing him greet Arthur with a just as excited Hey! and he sorts the baby's blanket as he comes into the living room with Arthur on his hip.
"Nessie," he greets peering into the bassinet, "Theo."
Smiling, Roxanne sits down just as Becca comes through the door, "Not that I'm not happy to see you but what are you doing here?"
"Becca's starting to get anxious about the birth," Roger explains, sitting down with Arthur on his lap, "And so we thought who better to ask than someone who's done it not once but twice."
"Finally," Roxanne grins, falling back against the couch, "My expertise is needed. What do you want to know?"
"Well," Rebecca nervously toys with her dress, "The obvious I guess. Does it hurt?"
"Like a motherfu-trucker," she quickly stops herself, "Yes, it hurts."
Roger squeezes Rebecca's hand when her face pales, "Love, you've got this."
His wife gives him a weak smile and looks back at Roxanne, "I'm scared for what happens after. Like bringing them home. I don't..."
"We were scared too," Roxy says, giving her what she hopes is a reassuring nod, "In fact, I was terrified. And I won't lie to you, Becca, it's the hardest part, that first week after leaving the hospital. I don't think I slept the first couple of nights. I just stayed awake, watching him sleep and making sure that he was alright."
"You never told us that." Roger frowns.
She shrugs, watching Arthur play with his uncle's necklaces, "You don't want to admit that you might be struggling."
Rebecca nods, drawing little shapes on her stomach, "What if people think I'm a bad mum?"
"Tell them to fuck off," Roger almost growls, apologising when Roxy glares at him but when Arthur doesn't even look up, he knows that he's gotten away with it.
"What if they tell me I'm doing everything wrong?"
"They will," Roxy murmurs, "You will have so many people sticking their noses in and telling you what you're doing is wrong. Like, you shouldn't be carrying him like that or you should have him dressed in appropriate clothing. It's inevitable, Bex but you're going to know your child. What they like and what they don't like. So don't listen to them, in fact, yeah, tell them to fu-go away."
"Thank you," the brunette whispers.
"Besides," Roxy stands when Theo starts fussing, "I've seen you with these two. I know you're going to do great. You too, Rog. You're both going to be fine."
And from the bottom of her heart, she means that.