Umpteen Hassels

[feldman]

215 words about babysitting

Umpteen Hassels

"I dunno, I think I saw fangs."

"Your sister doesn't have fangs." John glances through the cell door of the playroom. Everything's under control, it's just jitters. "Well, you know...nothing compared to what you had at that age. You could take her in a fair fight."

Grey eyes quirk at the corners, an adult gesture. Puberty has finished with the boy's long bones and is now busy rearranging his face. "I'm not watching her if she bites me again."

John rubs his forehead. The longer it takes to sort out this babysitting situation, the more likely she'll call off the whole damned trip, and he did not spend weekens planning this weekend and sweet-talking Aeryn just to be caught by a last minute snag.

A plastic drannit sails through the air, skittering across the deck to the accompaniment of frantic pant-hoots of "Deeeee! Deeeeee!"

"She's two, she's just frustrated."

His son crosses his arms, big hands tucked around skinny elbows. He's growing like his mom must have, height before heft. "Double."

The girl with the curls seethes her brother's name, begging for reprieve from the safety-locked play room. The boy eyes the drannit by his foot with a soft eye, but his expression hardens when he looks up at John. Testing. They're always testing.

"Fine."

Comments

[sabaceanbabe.livejournal.com]

Hee. Not only a cute, schmoopy ficlet, but a really nice avatar. :P

Puberty has finished with the boy's long bones and is now busy rearranging his face. Love that imagery.

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Thank you 8 )

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Dude, I so very, very much love this. The reality of life among families, the negotiation between children and adults:) Seeing the people you love in your kids and being a little awed, a little baffled, knowing you're just frelled:)

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Dude, you have a way of distilling exactly what I'm trying to say with this stuff 8 )

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Hee:) Yeah:) I love how you're able to do so much in such a small space, that the whole thing works towards its goal, gets there and you end up just having a fully formed picture in less than 300 words.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

this is delightful. john is *so* himself, and it's great to get a glimse of his relationship with a child. especially his own.

i loved this: ""Well, you know...nothing compared to what you had at that age. You could take her in a fair fight."

i'm enjoying thinking about how john would continue to change as he 'grows' with his son. and that moya is still their home.
*blissful sigh*

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

It's been an interesting thing to see friends of ours accomodate kids and grow into parenthood, to see the things we like about them refracted and filtered through these interactions; to see them through new lenses, caught in a new web of relationships with these people they've brought into the world.

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

i love how you've described this: "refracted and filtered", that's perfect. such an intense process, parents are brave i think, although i'm not one myself, i am usually astounded just watching my friends going through the process.

*g*

ps, admiring you icon...heh "to the bumper cars" bwahaha!

[rubberneck.livejournal.com]

ps, admiring you icon...heh "to the bumper cars" bwahaha!

Hee! lowdownbeat made this one; I've been enjoying her work lately that she's posted to snurchcons 8 )

[jenlev.livejournal.com]

god, i love this show, i'm still so in love with it. and tomorrow i'm going to get snowed in....so.....to the bumper cars indeedy. *bg*

part of the fun is picking out which episodes to watch in what order. although i'm just tempted to watch them all, that's just not pratical for a two day weekend. ;)