Beaming Love

Can't Work Here

"Sisi, you're three... you should be distracted by sparkles and stuff. Not daddy's work."

I try moving her off my lap, but she just clings onto my legs.

"Daddy I help youuuu!"

"Okay well what if you help by playing with your dolls? If it's nice and quiet I can work faster and we can go to the playground earlier."

She jumps off of me, running over to her playroom to destroy all her toys trying to find her favorite dolls in the process.

I go back to reading over the production plans Jen left for me, very confused about all of the little notes she has written randomly throughout the papers.

None of them seem to make any sense, yet somehow both her and her assistant understood them and passed them onto me and George, leaving us completely clueless.

"Daddy," I feel Sienna leaning against my leg "Daddy Belle wanna pway soccer."

"Well put her little shoes on then. Do you know where your ball and net are?"

"No mommy take them."

"Is that what you were playing with when you got in trouble yesterday?"

"Yeah cause Belle be bad."

"Honey Belle is a doll..."

"Her be bad!"

"Okay, okay. Let's go look."

I put the dolls cleats on as we walk around the house trying to figure out where Jen would have hid everything.

"Ohhhh mommy say no go in here!"

She runs up to the pantry door trying to open it.  I help her turn the handle and she runs right in looking around.

"I see it! Daddy I can pway?"

"Yeah, you take Belle back over and I'll bring all of this."

I grab the net and ball, secretly regretting my decision to let her play now that I can remember why Jen took it from her yesterday.

"You need to play nice today, okay? No throwing the ball at anything."

"I know. I be rewy good."

She runs back over to play, this time telling the doll all their plans, kinda scaring me how she thinks she's having a conversation, even if Jen says it's normal.

I finally get a chance to sit back down after making her and Belle some snacks, only to realize I was looking at the wrong plans and that's why they didn't make any sense.

"Sorry babe. I was writing notes on these as we were talking and didn'trealize they're on the wrong pages. Use these notes for the plans that start on the fifth page."

She conveniently only wrote that part after I spent forever trying to understand plans for a movie we aren't even working on.

I look through, putting my own notes along what I think still needs help, but for the most part surprisingly agree with everything they've decided on so far.

"What are you doing, baby?"

Sienna climbs right up on my lap as I try looking over the last part, not caring at all that she's knocking over everything around us in the process.

"Did you want me to hold you that bad?"

"Daddy we do masks?"

Before I have a chance to say anything, she's squeezing a huge glob of some random face mask she obviously stole from Jen all over her little hands, getting closer to my face.

"Baby you're supposed to let people answer you when you ask a question..."

"Daddy so pwetty!"

She smothers my face in this fruity smelling concoction managing to get it all the way in my hair and over my eyes, not caring at all.

"You turn!"

I slowly open my eyes, moving the mask away from them just enough so I can see as she squirts the other half of the bottle in my hands.

"Does it feel funny?"

She laughs hysterically as I gently rub it into her soft face, trying to tell me exactly where it needs to go since she's obviously in charge. I make sure I have it all over her before wiping off our hands so we can take pictures to show Jen.

"Mommy wuvs this."

She gives me a big hug, getting even more of it on me before jumping off my lap again, this time laying on the floor with Norman so they can color together.

I get to finish the last page before sending it off to George waiting on his input before we move on any further.

I watch her finish a very detailed family picture once I'm finished, noticing that she doesn't leave anything out. She has all the dogs, with Peanut next to her since he's her favorite, and Jen and I in the background holding hands even though we both look like we're mad.

"That's beautiful, baby. Are you going to show it to mommy later?"

"Shhhhhhh daddy. I draw!"

I back away as she rolls her eyes, whispering something to Norm, probably about how annoying I am being since I interrupted her work. She goes back to concentrating very hard on her new picture while I move on to more work.

"Hey so did Jen's notes not make any sense to you ei- oh my God."

"What?"

"What the hell is on your face? Is it shaving cream?"

I immediately grab the blanket next to me, rubbing the mask off my face realizing I forgot about it.

"Uhh yeah, Sienna wanted to do facemasks..."

"Cute look. Glad I got a good picture."

"You're an asshole."

"Can't wait to sell it to a magazine. I'm thinking probably People. Think Sisi will let me get a good picture of her too?"

"Are we going to talk about work or not?"

"Oh I'm sorry did dress up time end already?"

"George!"

"Gorshhhhh?"

Sisi jumps up again, this time standing on my lap so she can get right up against the camera.

"Hi Gorshhhhhh!"

"Hi honey. Are you having fun playing?"

"Yessssss! I draw and I use facemasks!"

"Woooow. Sounds like fun!"

I let her talk for a little so I can get the rest of my mask off before everyone else joins in on the meeting.

"Okay, you can sit here but you have to be quiet," I move her slightly to the side so she has her own room to color "Daddy and George have to talk to everyone."

She sits there quietly for a while until she hears Jen's voice and practically jumps on me to get to see her.

"MOMMY!!"

"Hi baby! Why do you have my lotion all over your face?"

"Oh no..."