The Baby Albums (Those Three Little Words sequel)

Part 97

17th February 1987
Brian's POV
I found Roger sleeping with Rory again, his legs up on the top bar and Rory draped over his chest, and the both of them were still asleep so I dropped the side of the crib down and gently shook my baby, "wake up, sweetie, we need to go and get you changed" I whispered and she squeaked out a groan as she stretched then looked at me and put her bum in the air as she tried to stand.

"Come on, stinky bum" I said and picked her up then rested her on my hip and carried her into the bathroom where I'd already set up the changing mat. I got her nappy changed with as little crying as possible then put her in some nice clothes so she would be ready to go out on a walk when Roger woke up.

I went back into the nursery and sat down next to the crib where my fiancée was sleeping, "babe? Are you gonna wake up?" I said and he grunted at me in his sleep before I started shaking him gently and he slowly came round, "go away" he groaned and rubbed his eyes, "what time is it?" He asked and I looked at my watch, "eight... why?" I said and he groaned and closed his eyes again, "I've had two hours sleep! This is stupid!"

"Do you want to stay here? I'll take the kids out if you want a rest" I said and he rolled out of the crib and into my arms, "would you mind?" He asked and I shook my head as his eyes started to close again. I gently tapped his cheek and his eyes opened then he tried to get up and wobbled a bit until I stood up to support him, "I'll let you get in bed" I said and walked him to the bedroom and got him into his pyjamas.

He was half awake as I put his shirt on him so I let him lie down and he ended up sleeping with it open. I put his legs up on the bed and a pillow to support his head then covered him with the duvet, "I'll be back soon, sweetheart" I said and he opened his eyes just for a second and grabbed my hand, "love... you" he yawned and patted my stomach then closed his eyes again and fell asleep.

I left the room as quietly as I could then saw all the kids in the living room, playing with Rory's Lego bricks and carrying on building the house that they'd started yesterday whilst Jimmy was doing some homework on the sofa. I sat down next to Jim and looked over his shoulder at the paper, "need help?" I asked and he nodded, "what's this?" he said and pointed at a question on his paper.

"Convert 0.25 into a fraction... is that the one?" I asked and he nodded, "what does that mean?" He asked and I smiled, "it means you have to make the decimal into a fraction. Do you know how to do that?" I asked and he shook his head, "okay... the easiest way to do it is take the numbers after the dot, so that would be two and five, and put them at the top of your fraction" I explained and he wrote down what I was telling him.

"We can't put it over ten because twenty five is bigger than ten so we have to put it over..." I said, wanting him to figure it out, "a hundred?" He said, his answer sounding like a question, and I nodded, "so it would be twenty five over a hundred... easy, right?" I said and he nodded with a smile, "I'm done now, thanks"

He put his homework back in his bag for tomorrow then I told all the kids to go and get their coats and boots and got Rory ready and nicely settled in the pram. I put a blanket over her legs and pulled her hood up over her head, "is that okay?" I asked and she put her gloved hand up on my cheek, "thank you love" I smiled and kissed her hand which made her squeal.

I made sure her coat was done up and she was nice and warm then put the clear cover down so she wouldn't have snow all over her and helped the other three. I got Louisa into her coat and zipped it up then checked Jim and Felix were okay with Daisy before I opened the door and shuffled them all outside then got the pram out and stood Louisa on the board so she wouldn't have to walk.

We walked to the park and I made sure the boys didn't go too far in front since Daisy knew she was being taken for a walk and she'd started pulling. "Boys, stop" I shouted and Louisa looked at me, "hold on, sweetie... Daddy's gotta run" I said and she held on as I started running and pushing the pram as quickly as I could without slipping on the snow.