3 Years

69 - Nine

Dopplegänger
That's it

🍪🍪🍪

It was time for Noah's birthday. The first step: breakfast in bed.

Both parents woke up early, as that was what they were used to, and began preparing everything. Ricky grabbed all the ingredients while Nia read the directions and took the lead on the whole project.

He dug out the grocery bags that were hidden under the sink as well as the small cake and took the candle out. He carefully placed it in the icing so that it was centered. Nia began splitting up the bacon since it was going to take the longest.

It didn't take long until the pancake batter was made either. Nia slowly poured it onto the pan and tried to make them all roughly the same size. Noah was a light sleeper, and the walls were thin, so they had that working against them.

"Ok, cake and candle are ready?" Ricky whispered. "I'll get his gift from the closet after we're done eating."

"Perfect. He'll probably start waking up when I have to flip these, and the sound of sizzling travels down the hall."

"It'll be fine. At least we've managed to make it this far."

Ricky helped Nia with the remaining food: eggs, bacon, and toast. Everything was going smoothly until the smoke alarm started blaring. "Shit, shit," Ricky mumbled, taking a dish towel and fanning the area underneath it.

Luckily, all the food was done by the time the alarm finally stopped. "I guess the bacon set it off?" Nia wondered, putting everything onto three plates.

Noah came out of his room a few minutes later. "What's going on?" he asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. There goes the breakfast in bed part.

Ricky went to go pick him up, quickly kissing his cheek and saying, "It's your birthday, bubba. Look." The boy's eyes bounced around the kitchen as he surveyed everything.

"Yay, we're having cake for breakfast!" he cheered, waking up fast.

"Hey, you still have all this other stuff," Nia pointed out, gesturing to the plates. "The cake comes second."

"Fine, fine," he grumbled.

"Pick your plate, bud," Ricky said. Noah chose the one with the tallest stack of pancakes.

"He is your son," Nia muttered, choosing one for herself.

The family sat on the couch together and let Noah pick the TV show; it was a rerun of some cartoon, but the parents didn't mind. Today, they were going to let him do just about whatever he wanted.

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The day continued and consisted of running around town. Ricky tried to remember what all he used to do when he was younger, but a lot has changed in the last three decades, so he didn't quite know the town as well as he thought he did. Nia was referring to a map on her phone to get them around, which was most likely the better option.

They went to the park first (the one thing Ricky knew hadn't changed) and let Noah do what he wanted.

The three of them played in the water, which was a little colder than they would've liked. The three splashed each other until their clothes were completely soaked. Luckily, Nia had planned for this and had towels ready in the car.

After they had dried off, Ricky and Nia watched from a distance with smiles on their faces as Noah jumped around on the playground equipment. "Hey, you know how we planned to have fast food for lunch?" Nia asked. Noah liked associating food with celebrations, something he and Ricky easily bonded over.