Some Good Reasons
6
Joey
pulled the big box of Honeycombs across the table and threw a few onto the tray
in front of Trey before he poured himself a bowl and grabbed for the milk. For a moment he had flashbacks of when
he and the guys would crowd around the table at Justin's mom's house and fight
over milk and cereal. His life definitely was a lot different than a few
years before, but what he would have thought years before would have scared him
half to death, now was what his home-life was all about.
"You
know what?"
"Hmm?" He
looked over at
"I
learneded a new joke," his son smiled devilishly at
Joey as milk dribbled down his chin.
Joey
reached across the table instinctively and grabbed a napkin and wiped his son’s
face. “Maybe you should wait to
talk until you swallow big guy.”
“It
depends on what kind of joke it is,” Joey said.
“It’s
a good one,”
Joey
looked up at Kelly across the kitchen and got a warning look from his wife. "And where did you learn your joke?" he
asked.
"Uncle JC tolded it to
me."
He
relaxed a little knowing that JC usually wasn’t the one that would tell the kids
inappropriate jokes. Sometimes the
guys in the crew would be cracking jokes and the kids would overhear them or
Chris would be on the phone and tell a joke or something, but JC normally could
censor himself in the presence of children. "Go ahead and tell it then," Joey
said.
"Knock knock,"
“You
answer Joe,” Kelly said with an amused smile.
Joe
cleared his throat, wiped his mouth and gave Trey some more cereal before
turning back towards his son.
"Who's there?"
"Youwanta nother--"
"Youwanta
who?" Joey played
along.
"Youwanta nother burger?"
Kelly
laughed a little. "That's a good one sweetie," she
said.
“It
was so funny that Chris spit his drink out his nose like this—“
“Ewwee,” Kelly said with
disgust.
“Big
guy,” Joey said reaching over to wipe his nose with another napkin, “Next time
leave out the nose part.”
“Ok.”
When
he looked up and found Kelly watching him he got a little nervous. There was a strange look in her eyes
that worried him. “You ok hon?” he asked.
“Who
would have thought you’d be sitting at the table here with these kids feeding
Trey sugar cereal and wiping
“I
know,” he said and tried to make the atmosphere lighter, “Martha Stewart, eat
your heart out!”
His
eyes moved to
“Ok
Daddy.”
“You’ve got this under control,” Kelly said, “Maybe I’ll
take a week off and go on vacation.”
“NO!”
he said and
“Mom-mee,” Brianna
started to instantly cry as if Kelly was disappearing right
then.
“I’m
not going anywhere baby,” she
said.
Brianna moved her arms up from her seat on the far side
of Joey and Kelly went over and picked her up and hugged her, wiping the tears
from her cheeks.
“I
don’t think you slept in enough this morning Jelly Bean,” Kelly said as Brianna
clutched her around her neck.
“I’m
sorry about—“
“You
aren’t nervous about watching the kids are you?” she
asked.
“A
little,” he said, “I mean I can do it, I know that, but if you up and went away
I’m not sure that I could cope with the 24 hour a day kind of thing that you
do.”
“Is
that supposed to be an insult or a compliment?” she asked.
“Compliment,” he said and looked at her a little
sideways, “You do this stuff like second nature and for me it’s harder to get
back into the groove of taking care of them.”
“Oh,”
she said and moved away from the table.
“Are you done Brianna?”
“Yeah,” she said then stuck her thumb in her
mouth.
“Jelly Bean,” Kelly said and pulled her thumb from her
mouth, “Wash your hands before you suck on your thumb.” She sighed, “You probably shouldn’t even
be sucking your thumb in the first place.”
“Yes.”
“No,”
Kelly said playfully back to her.
“I’m
gonna go grab a shower.”
“Take
“In the shower?”
“Yeah,” she said, “He needs a
bath.”
“In
the shower?” he repeated.
“I
take Brianna in the shower all the time,” Kelly said, “They like
it.”
“Are
you sure?”
“Joe,
don’t argue with me on this. Just
take him in the shower with you and wash him off.”
“If you say so.”
He went to
reach for
“No.”
Joey
sighed and prayed this wasn’t going to be too hard. “Well Mommy says you’re getting one
anyway.”
“But.”
“No
buts,” Kelly joked, “Except getting your butt in the shower with daddy and
getting you cleaned up.”
It
didn’t take long to get
As
Joey left Kelly stacked the dishes in the sink then moved to clean up Brianna
and Trey who both seemed to have gotten Honeycombs stuck in their
hair.
“Ok
Kiddo, bathtime for you too,” Kelly
said.
“No,”
Brianna state firmly.
“Not
a real one sweetie, but we’ve got to clean up your face and your hands and your
arms then go pick out clothes for today so that you can go to Suzy’s house for
her party.”
“Paw-ty.”
“Yep,” Kelly said smiling at her daughter as she wiped
her hand across her face. Brianna’s
gloom and doom expression that had manifested itself on her cheeks and mouth
when bathtime was mentioned now turned into the
excited “in-awe” kind of an expression as if Kelly had just done a magic
trick. “Suzy’s birthday is today
and her mommy said that she could have friends over to play so we’re gonna get you cleaned up and go over to her house and take
her the present we bought her last week.”
“Ok.”
Brianna’s hands and face were cleaned then Trey was
cleaned up too, although most of his breakfast was still on his tray due to the
fact that Joey hadn’t realized that Trey was still having trouble grasping onto
things so giving him cereal like that really only was a distraction and not a
meal for the youngest of the bunch.
Going
upstairs Kelly carried Trey in her arms and held onto Brianna’s hand on the
stairs. As they passed the master
bedroom she could hear the shower on and heard half of a conversation with her
husband and son.
“
“My
butt,”
“Your butt what?” Joey said back.
“Is Cold!”
There was
a noise of something falling over, probably the extra shampoo bottles that
wouldn’t fit on the shelf. “You sit
too!”
“Oh
no,” Joey said, “This is a shower.
You stand in the shower.
Besides.
If I sat down I don’t think I could get up again.”
“You silly daddy.”
“Don’t I know it,” Joey laughed a little
more.
“Mommy!”
Brianna said finally pulling her away from her eavesdropping. “Paw-ty.”
“Ok,” Kelly said, “Ok.”
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Productions
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WEG.
Thanks again to AmyK.