Change My Mind || Sam Pauly || ✔️

Thirty-Four

The Next Day

6 AM

Up bright and early, Zeek sat between his parents. They'd only gotten in five hours ago, but he was wired. Without a second thought, Sam grabbed her phone, turned on Cocomelon and handed the phone off to the baby. She'd just given them easily at least 45 minutes more sleep.

knock knock

Or two seconds. The bedroom door slowly opened to reveal Nick letting Ellanie in. "She was up when Gene got up with Avie," he said, before shutting the door. Ella flashed a huge smile, coming to her father's side. She held her arms up, allowing Matt to slowly pull her into the bed.

"Good morning, Ella. Say hi, Zeekie," Sam mumbled, pulling her hair in a bun and sitting up. Ella waved as Zeek looked up from the phone and shoving his sister back a bit. Ella looked at Sam before mushing her brother in the side of the face. "Guys, no," Sam said, trying not to laugh. She quickly got out of bed to go to the bathroom and rectify her situation when Zeek saw her leaving and stood up with the phone in hand.

"Ma!" He screamed in a high pitched voice. Sam's eyes went wide, definitely awake now. Her son started to reach for her, barely paying attention to the fact that he was walking to the edge of the bed.

"Ezekiel, no sir. You can't go to the bathroom with me. I'll be back," Sam said, sitting him down. The baby hated the word no and was very vocal about it. Forcefully, he threw his mother's phone on the floor, tears streaming down his face, with a cry that vibrated through Sam's ears. But, she ignored his dramatics and headed to the bathroom. She had to deal with one mess at a time.

6:30 AM

Sam came out of the bathroom in fresh clothes, feeling less gross. She saw Ellanie sitting next to her father, watching something on the bed and her son nowhere to be found. "Where is Zeek?" Sam asked, shutting the bathroom door behind herself. Matt pointed to the other side of the bed.

"He threw himself off the bed. I checked, he's fine. He's just pissed," Matt answered. Sam threw her pajamas into the dirty clothes hamper and came around the bed to see her son sitting on the floor with her cracked phone watching Cocomelon. Sam snatched her phone out her son's hands, seeing the massive crack down the middle of her screen.

"Are you fu-," Sam stopped herself. "This is why you have your own IPad!" She yelled, away from her child, as to not scare him.

"What happened?" Matt asked, seeing his frustrated wife slump into the office chair she never moved back, from the last time they were there.

"Your child cracked my fucking screen!" She growled, slamming her phone on to the table. Normally, Sam wouldn't care at all, and she would just get it fixed. But with her period and lack of sleep, she was a hormonal mess.

"Hey, it's fine. I'll take it to get fixed," Matt said. Zeek crawled up to his mother, which annoyed Sam even more. She wished he would just fully walk already. He walked sometimes and crawled others. Once at her lap, Zeek pulled himself up to her and held his arms up.

"Mommy doesn't want you right now," she said, pulling her arms into her body. Zeek started to snort at her, telling Sam he disagreed. "Stop! You're not an animal!" Sam said, wiping her hand over his face and pulling him into her lap. He started to bite at her shirt, signifying that he wanted to nurse. "You're too big," she chuckled, smiling down to him while fixing her shirt and allowing her son to feed.

"When do you think you'll be ready to stop?" Matt asked. Sam glanced at her watch.

"I said I'd stop on his first birthday. That's in a few days," Sam answered, stroking her son's hair out of his face. "You're about to be one, buddy," Sam whispered to her child.