Childish

72

Cooper was already awake when mommy came to get me the next morning. Mommy always knew how to wake me up so I wasn't cranky. I wasn't a morning person at all.

"Cooper's been waiting for you," Mommy said as she slid a clean diaper under my butt.

I rubbed my eyes with my fist. "Can I have breakfast first? I need time to wake up."

"I thought this would be enough for you."

I shook my head. "I'm still tired, mommy."

"I guess we'll have to take a longer nap today then." Normally, I'd complain about a longer nap but I was still tired enough that I didn't mind it for once.

I reached out for her as she finished taping up my dirty diaper to put in the diaper genie. Some days, I wanted to be left alone and unbothered. I had my activity walker to use to get around and play with Cooper when we weren't just sitting on the floor with our toys. The independence was nice. But there were other days, which was apparently that day, where I wanted to be attached to someone's hip in some way or another.

Mommy slid her arms under my armpits and lifted me off my changing table. She set me on her hip and headed for my dresser. The nice thing about not changing much was that I still had clothes I fit into years prior. I was able to re-wear a lot of my clothes and find a style that I liked. Of course, I still had mommy's approval to take into consideration.

"What are we going to wear today?" Mommy asked as she opened the drawer with my shirts.

I pointed to a cute white top with a pink bow at the collar. The sleeves were ruffled at the edges.

"Do you want to wear shorts today? It's going to be a nice day today. Just in time for your birthday tomorrow."

I hid my face in her shoulder. "Mommy, don't remind me." I didn't actually hate the thought of getting older. That never bothered me. But it was the fact that it didn't... matter. I wasn't going to age so why bother with my birthday?

"I don't know why you hate celebrating it. You know we like to do something for you since we celebrate Cooper's."

"But it's not the same. I feel weird about it."

"Don't, baby. I promise it'll be fine. Plus, I heard that Ms. Diane might do something at school tomorrow."

I groaned. "Mommy, no."

She patted my back. "Alright, let's not think about that. What are you going to wear today? I don't think you want to wear just a shirt and your diaper."

"My red shorts."

She pulled open the third drawer from the top and got out a pair of stretchy red shorts. She set me down on my changing table and helped me get changed into a new outfit for the day. Once I was dressed, she picked me up and set my dirty clothes in the hamper near the door.

I could hear Cooper playing from the living room as we descended the stairs. He was making helicopter noises to imitate his helicopter toy. Usually, he did so as he circled the room as he made the plane fly in the air.

As we came into view, Cooper stopped flying the plane and turned in our direction. His eyes widened and a smile grew on his face. "Ly, you're awake!"

I turned to face him and smiled back at him. "Hi, Cooper."

"Do you want to fly planes with me?"

"Ly has to go eat breakfast before she can play." Mommy spoke up and gave Cooper a sympathetic look.

He sighed. "But can she play when she's done?"

"Of course, baby."

His sadness only lasted a second. He smiled once again and ran off toward the mess of toys he had in the middle of the living room.

Mommy shook her head before heading off into the kitchen.

---

Cooper stalked towards me slowly, lifting each foot dramatically a few inches off the floor each time. He carried his plastic dinosaur in one hand and made 'roar' noises as he moved the dinosaur. He approached my tower of blocks and crashed the dinosaur through the center of the tower. The blocks flew in either direction and tumbled into a pile in front of me. The block that I was starting to put at the top now hovered over the pile.

Cooper laughed and stomped over the blocks as if he'd done nothing wrong.

I groaned. "Ugh. Cooper!" With a loud yell, I called for mommy. "Mommy! Cooper knocked over my tower."

Cooper jumped over the last of the fallen blocks and took off running, leaving me sitting around the toys all alone.

Mommy walked into the room and looked around for Cooper. "Where did he go?"

I pointed in the direction of daddy's office. "He went that way."

"Let me talk to him. I'll be back."

I watched as she headed for the office. Mommy didn't like having to yell at us. She would, if needed, but she preferred talking to us and teaching us what we were and weren't allowed to do. She liked learning and understanding more than punishment.

It took only a few minutes before mommy came back to the living room with Cooper following behind. He ran over to me and knelt down beside me. "I'm sorry about your blocks."

"You shouldn't knock them over without asking. I worked really hard on getting it to be tall."

"Coop, why don't you help Lyla build her tower again?" Mommy suggested.

His eyes lit up and he set his dinosaur down beside him. "Okay. We can make it nice and tall."

I looked over at mommy as Cooper started stacking the blocks back up again. "Thanks, mommy."

"Play nice, okay?"

"Okay, mommy." Cooper never looked up as he spoke. Typically, he'd say what everyone wanted to hear but would never do what they told him. I was sure I'd be calling for mommy in just minutes for something else.

I nodded and tried my best to not let Cooper get on my nerves. I was supposed to like him. Having a sibling was supposed to be like having a best friend forever. I really wanted it to be that way.