I Do It For Avory

Chapter Fifteen: Baby Steps

I don’t mean to brag but my cooking skills have to be the best. Avory was the living proof of that. See, I’ve never made Spaghetti before so I was feeling uneasy but Avory didn’t even wait until it was cooled down before he dug in. All I could hear him say was ‘yummy’ before he took another handful (the boy refuses to use a fork). Ethan wasn’t like that though. I’d ask him if my cooking was okay and all he would say was, “I guess.” He can cook also and he believed he was the best. But, he finally met his match.

“Mommy,” Avory whined. I got him into calling me mommy instead of ma because it made me feel old whenever he called me that. Plus, it sounded so cute because he emphasized the y.

He pointed to my plate even though there was a bit left on his highchair. “What? You want some of mine.” He nodded frantically. It was funny how he could understand you but you couldn’t understand him have the time. “Can you say please?” It was just a test because you never know what your kids would repeat (I learned that the hard way).

“Pease!” It made me mentally squeal at his cuteness and feed him a bit of mine. Yeah, I know, he had some on his highchair and he could eat that first but he had me. Avory could play mommy because he had a way with his partial words. Of course I showered his cheek with kisses, talking about how cute he was. It was then that I noticed Ethan had a look of disgust on his face.

“What the hell,” he furrowed his eyebrows.

My eyes widened, did he eat something he wasn’t supposed to? “What?”

There was a long pause and I thought he was going to say something intense… but then he put down his fork. “You can’t do that to a boy!” I rolled my eyes, turning back to show my baby affection. “He’ll be all mushy and he’ll expect kisses form his mom when he says something cute.”

“And what wrong with that,” I took partial offense to that. What if I wanted him to do that? “I kiss you when you say something cute. Are you saying you want me to stop?” Then he went quiet, looking down. “Thought so,” I laughed as I went over and did exactly the same to Avory and covered his cheek with my kisses.

Ethan groaned, “I thought we moved passed the cheek stage.” Just as I was going to plant another one on his cheek, he quickly turned his head so I caught his lips instead. Of course, this one wasn’t the normal peck on the lips. This one had to last for then next two minutes. “That’s more like it,” Ethan smiled as Avory squealed in the background.

I laughed and turned to let Avory out of the highchair. When I lifted him out, he used his legs to pull himself to me and he tried to copy what Ethan just did. Ethan laughed his ass off, thinking it was funny how I had to struggle with my own kid. Avory had his slobbery, spaghetti covered mouth open and got my cheek when I turned because he aimed for my mouth. See, and I planned to make this as clean as possible but now I had spaghetti sauce all over my shirt and he continued to plaster his mouth on my cheek, smearing sauce on my face. And Ethan was laughing so hard that tear came to his eyes. He had to move his plate and put his head on the table, holding his stomach. Whatever happened to helping me?! And remember when I said I didn’t know what kids would repeat? Uh, perfect example.

“I should have got a picture of that,” Ethan wiped his eyes, looking at me. “You can’t do that Avory. Only daddy can kiss mommy like that.”

Again, Avory repeating Ethan. “Only daddy.” Except it was muffled because he was still plastered against my face. Ethan nodded and laughed at the same time, even though I was giving him daggers at the moment. “Okay,” Ethan laughed. “You can stop now.” Avory stopped (thank god) and gave me the “what’s wrong with your face?” look.