The Good Life

*Cassadee*

“You guys have fun! And don’t worry we’ll take good care of her.” I assured Jack and Alex.

Izzy was going to spend the night with Rian and I while Jack and Alex had dinner for Alex’s birthday and so they could do other adult things. I could tell Jack was nervous about spending basically a whole day and night without Izzy so I tried to calm his nerves. Alex, on the other hand, seemed elated to get a break from his usually hyper little girl.

“If you guys need anything, don’t hesitate to call us.” Jack said.

“Everything will be fine. You two just go enjoy yourselves.” Rian said.

“You’re going to have so much fun with you godparents aren’t you?” I bent down to Izzy’s level and asked her. She nodded her head, she was holding the bumblebee Oli brought for her that day at the hospital.

“If she gets upset or fussy just turn on Caillou and she’ll calm down.” Jack said. Alex shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“Thank you guys for doing this for us. We owe you.” Alex grinned.

“Just buy us a bottle of Daniels and we’ll be even.” Rian joked and they both laughed.

“Come give me kisses Izzy.” Jack said. He got down on one knee and opened his arms and Izzy quickly ran over to him. He kissed her all over her cheeks causing her to giggle. She moved to Alex next to hug him.

They both left saying one last goodbye and shut the door behind them. Izzy stood there staring at the door as if she was expecting them to walk back in. My plan was to keep her distracted so she wouldn’t have time to reflect on them being gone.

“Izzy! Let’s go have girl time.” I told her. She looked away from the door and walked over to me, her eyes were so wide and filled with sadness.

“Why does she seem so scared of us?” Rian asked me and I laughed.

“She just has to get used to being with us alone.” I told him. “Let’s go paint our nails, pretty girl!” I held my hand out and she grabbed it.

I lead us to the living room and sat her down in front of our coffee table. I already had the colors out so she could pick which one she wanted.

“Alright, which color would you like?” I asked her.

She looked at each color carefully until she stopped in front of a light pink color.

“This one.” She mumbled and picked up the bottle.

“That one’s pretty!” I exclaimed. I placed her hands flat on the table and began to paint her nails. She moved her hands trying to look as I painted them.

“Izzy you have to keep your hands still so I don’t mess up okay?” I told her.

“Sorry.” She mumbled and placed her hand back how I had it.

“Aw sweetie it’s okay.”

“So what are we going to eat for dinner?” Rian asked.

“I’ve been kind of craving lasagna. Jack said Izzy can eat whatever as long as we cut it up into smaller pieces.” I said.

“Sounds good to me.” He went into the kitchen to get dinner started.

I finished Izzy’s nails a few minutes later so we were watching Adventure Time waiting for them to dry and for dinner to be ready. We would have watched Caillou, but it wasn’t on.

“Hey Cass?” Rian called from the kitchen an hour later.

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking we should get Alex and Jack a wedding or marriage gift, I should say. What do you think we should get?” He asked.

“Hmm that’s a hard one. I don’t just want to get them a gift card because that’s boring. Maybe we can find something online.” I said.

“Okay well dinner’s ready.” He said.

“Let’s go eat Princess!” I picked up Izzy and brought her to the kitchen table. She was really quiet and calm I was starting to think that Alex and Jack were exaggerating her behavior.

I sat her down at the table and Rian sat a small plate of lasagna in front of her.

“Tank you.” She said to Rian.

“You’re welcome!” He smiled brightly at her.

“She’s so relaxed. I don’t believe that she could ever do anything bad.” I laughed.

“Maybe she’s putting on an act for us.” Rian joked.

I looked at Izzy, who wasn’t listening our conversation, she was concentrating on trying to get a piece of lasagna on her fork. She wasn’t holding the fork with her fingers, but instead holding it with her whole hand. After a few tries she finally had one piece on her fork and she slowly brought it to her mouth.

“Mmm” She hummed as she chewed the food.

“Good job, Izzy!” I praised her and she giggled.

“Yeah and thanks for the complement on my food.” Rian added making me laugh.

***

After dinner I let Izzy watch TV for a little while longer before bath time. Now she was sitting in my bathtub playing with her rubber ducky while I cleaned her. Everything was going well until it was time to wash her hair and that’s when the shit hit the fan. I scooped up some water in a cup and tilted her head back to pour the water on her hair and she immediately started screaming.

“Izzy! Don’t cry sweet pea, it’ll be over in a few minutes.” I tried to calm her down, but it didn’t work.

“What are you doing to her?” Rian asked as he walked into the bathroom.

“I’m trying to wash her hair, but she doesn’t like that.” I rubbed the shampoo into her hair and quickly rinsed it out.

Once I was finished she was still crying. Rian picked up her towel and wrapped it around Izzy as he took her out of the tub. “Let’s get away from that mean lady.” He pouted and took Izzy into our bedroom. I would have fought him if I didn’t need to take a shower. So I just closed the door behind them and began undressing.

When I stepped into our bedroom with my pajamas on I saw Rian and Izzy sitting down in our bed watching Caillou of course. Izzy was dressed in her pajamas with her eyes barely open.

“Thanks for getting her ready for bed.” I thanked Rian.

“Oh it was nothing once I dried her off she calmed down.” He said.

I laid down in bed next to Izzy carefully not trying to stir her. I was kind of nervous with her sleeping in the bed with us since we’re not used to a tiny body being here with us, but I doubt we would roll over her or anything. I looked over at Izzy and her eye lids were becoming heavier she was on the edge of closing them for good.

I grabbed my phone and saw I had a text message from Jack.

To Cass:
Hey how’s it going?

He sent it over an hour ago I wonder why he hasn’t called or anything.

“Don’t worry about the message. Jack text me too and I answered for the both of us.” Rian said.

“Oh okay! I was wondering why he hadn’t kicked down our door yet.” I laughed.

“I told him everything was fine.” Rian laughed.

***

The next morning I woke up to laughter in the kitchen and an empty bed. I got out of bed and went to brush my teeth and hair. When I walked into the kitchen Alex, Jack, Rian, and Izzy were sitting at the table eating pancakes.

“Look who’s finally up.” Alex said.

“Bite me” I said back to him and went to get a plate to eat.

“I should for making my daughter cry last night.” He told me. Rian just had to tell him about that.

“Hey I was trying to wash her hair and she completely flipped out on me.” I defended and Jack laughed.

“Yeah I probably should have warned you about that.” Jack said.

“Papa look!” Izzy exclaimed and showed Jack her nails.

“Aw they’re so pretty!” He smiled. “Thank you for that, I would have probably painted her whole hand.” He told me.

“You’re welcome!” I said.

“Yeah it’s nice that she’ll a female role model in her life.” Alex said and the made me smile.

“Izzy told me I was the best cook ever.” Rian gloated to Alex.

“I highly doubt that.” Alex chuckled.

“After the first bite of lasagna she said ‘oh my god uncle Rian this is the best thing I’ve ever eaten’” He lied.

“She literally said ‘mmm’” I said and we all laughed.

“Well that’s what she actually meant to say.” Rian said.

“Did you guys watch Caillou all night long?” Alex asked.

“Are you kidding me? I can’t get the freaking theme song out of my head.” Rian whined. Alex and Jack immediately burst into laughter.

Notes

I like this chapter, I hope you all feel the same!