Close Your Eyes: Book Four

Chapter Three

       

"Mommy, I can't do this anymore," Theo sighs in frustration as I set a bowl of fruit in front of him for his after-school snack. I put a glass of Hawaiian punch with it and sit down beside him. Our golden retriever, Luna, is sleeping under the table. I see her head pop up when she realizes Theo has food, hoping for him to drop some.

"What's going on?" I ask him.

"This is too hard, I need help." he tells me.

I lean closer to him to look at his homework. It's addition problems.

"Okay," I nod as I glance over what he's already done. It's all wrong. "Let's just start over, okay? Can you erase that for Momma please, Peanut?" I slide him his paper and he erases his answers.

He puts his chin in his left hand and his left elbow on the table, frowning.

"Okay, so the first question is three plus two," I say to him, pointing to the numbers. He frowns but nods his head slightly to show me he's listening. "So lets say you and Bennett are playing with your hot wheels and you have three cars, right?"

"Right."

"How many is that? Show me three on your fingers."

He holds up three fingers.

"Right, so you have three," I point to the number three on his paper again. "And then Bennett comes over to you and he gives you two more, how many is that on your fingers with your included?"

He puts up all five fingers.

"This one, and this one, and this one is mine, right Momma? And then this one and this one is Benny's?" he points to his fingers as he talks.

"Right, so how many cars do you have now?" I ask.

"One, two, three, four-I have five, right?!" he looks at me for confirmation. I smile.

"I don't know Peanut, what do you think?"

"I think I have five." He nods his head.

"Okay, so write five down for number one," I say.

He writes it down.

"Okay, the next one is one plus zero, but that's easy. If I only have one car and Benny doesn't give me any, I don't get more, so I still only have one," he looks at me. "Right Momma?"

"If you think so, you go ahead and write that."

He puts a number one down, and goes on to the next one.

I watch him as he counts on his fingers, mumbling about his brother and his hot wheels.

I hear talking on the baby monitor and I grab it, hitting the button on the top.

When the camera comes on, it shows me Bennett sitting up in bed playing with an action figure of the green goblin and spider man.

"I'll be right back, okay Peanut? I'm going to get your brother."

"Okay Momma."

I stand up and head towards the staircase, taking the steps up to Bennett's room.

I open the door and peek my head in. He looks up from his toys.

"Momma, I went pee on accident." He tells me immediately.

Theo is obviously fully potty trained, but Bennett is two years old. When he talks his words sometimes don't make sense to other people because he still has trouble pronouncing some things, but Liam and I always understand him. Since he can talk to us, we started potty training him. He usually always has on a pullup when he sleeps just in case.