I walked down the hall and into T's room, her calm kingdom. I turned on the light and walked towards her bed.
"Good morning, good morning, good morning to you, good morning, good morning, good morning to you..." I softly sang. I sat on the side of her bed and rubbed her back until she rolled over to look at me.
"Good morning." I signed T smiled at me.
"Eat." Tatum signed I chuckled and nodded.
"Hey you, mom and I are gonna go out to breakfast. Then we can go to the park, Okay?" I explained waiting for a response.
"Eat." She signed again, I nodded.
"What do you wanna wear today? Hm, let's see..." I asked opening her draws. I pulled out a pair of leggings and a simple shirt, Sarah's undoubtedly better at dressing Tatum then I am.
"What do you think, T? Huh is this a good outfit?" I giggled turning to her. She was up and "singing", as I call it, to herself. She makes noises to herself all the time, the doctors call it "stimming". It is self-regulatory behaviors, we think it's becoming she is missing her hearing so she compensates for the lack.
"Okay love, come on let's get you dressed and ready."
*jump cut*
"And we are all ready to go! Can you tell Mama we are already?" I cooed holding Tatum, she snuggled into my neck.
"That's good, and Dad dressed you halfway decent." Sarah snarked with a giggle. It's pretty true that I'm not the best at dressing her but I try sometimes.
"You are a fashionable man, just not good at styling others." She smiled taking T from my arms.
"You're maybe right..." I chuckled, grabbed my shoes as Sarah put shoes on Tatum.
"Abababab..." Tatum whined stomping her feet. She clearly didn't understand that we weren't having food at home.
"Hey hey... look at me." Sarah got down to her level pointing at T's eyes then pointing at herself.
"We are going out to eat." She continued, with the signs "go" and "eat".
"Ammmm..." she responded flapping her hands up and down then signing eat. I could tell Sarah was weary about going out, it's stressful to not know what Tatum understands and what she doesn't understand.
"Okay, are we ready to go?" I smiled and called.
"As ready as we will ever be..." Sarah mumbled leaning against the countertop.
"Hey, it's gonna be good. We have games and she'll get food, and we'll go to the park. She'll have a good day." I smiled and kissed her forehead. She hummed a response and nodded, I picked up Tatum and we went out to the car. As I put her into her car seat she got more vocal and frustrated with us. Asking to eat, and we continued to sign "go, eat" Hoping she would understand. But once we had music playing on her speaker, so she could feel it, and we were driving she quieted down. We soon were parked outside a local restaurant by our house, Tatum recognized the place for sure and started signing "eat" again.
"Yeah love, we are gonna eat." Sarah nodded, getting her out of the car seat.
"Dddddd..." Tatum called waving her hands over Sarah's shoulder.
"Hi love," I giggled mimicking her she smiled and me. Sometimes that's rare, I don't get many smiles but when she does it means the world.
"Ow T!" Sarah scolded, quickly putting her down. T pinches, we don't know why but she pinched us and herself. It hurts like a bitch. She'll also kick you in the ribs but she did that in the womb too. She mostly does it to Sarah, we don't think it's a malicious thing but it most definitely isn't friendly. I grabbed her hand and she walked by my side. Today Tat is making lots of noise, which isn't unusual just normally we are at home and no one is there to look at us funny. But she's 4 so people see a loud 4 years old and understands, it's only that's she doesn't speak that throws people off. Tatum pulled my arm and I looked down at her, she yet again signed eat.
"Yeah, we are going to eat." I nodded back at her. She flapped her hands and took off running as she yelled. In seconds we went for inconspicuous, to everyone's eyes on us. Sarah immediately turned and looked at me dead in the eyes.
"T! Tatum," I called chasing her, she continued to run around and yell till I scooped her up. Finally, a waitress came over to seat the three of us, we both sighed in relief.
"Bbbbbbbb..." she cooed grabbing and pulling at the collar of my shirt. We were sat at a booth so I put T by the wall and me on the outside, Sarah sitting across. Tatum needs to be blocked or she'll hop out of the booth and take off running. Sometimes even going after other people's food or under tables. We order and then the food comes.
"She's so chatty, how old is she?" The waitress asked putting a plate in front of Tatum.
"Yeah, she gets that from her dad, she's 4." Sarah smiled, in response, the waitress nodded and said "she's so cute" we both smiled back. We talked about the two shows and Tatum quietly ate rocking in her seat.
"I just feel bad about leaving you two again..." I mumbled looking at Sarah, she sighed and nodded.
"It's okay, we will be here waiting for you. She will be okay." She smiled, we looked over at Tatum and she smiled at us.
"I think she understands..." I sighed pushing Tatum's hair behind her ear. Tatum turned to me and sighed "bath", we chuckled.
"Later sweetheart, mama will give you a bath later." I smiled back.
"Play? Do you wanna play at the park?" Sarah asked, signing "play". Tatum didn't respond she went back to rocking and fidgeting in her seat. We soon got the check and got back in the car, then heading to the park.
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Hi friends! I've had some writer's block recently and it's impacted all my stories but here we go! This is kinda a filler but I'm not sure. Thank for reading, please if you like it give me a vote. If you want to follow me? That would be cool😂. Thank you!!!
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FanfictionA man who writes songs, and plays shows for a living. He dreams of teaching his daughter to piano, guitar, drums, everything. He can't wait to share his world with her. Music. But when she gets sick as a infant those dreams might disappear. #1 - afy...
