So much to see
A brand New Year
Ready to begin
Let’s all stand up
And count from ten
The countdown began and the crew all shouted along, and when it hit zero, the living room erupted in cheers. Arthur wiggled Liam in the air, held his fist and pumped it like the little dude was at a rock concert. Then he handed him over to Wren, who laid a big fat kiss on him. Liam’s face remained blank, his eyes wide and confused—Someone save me from these people.
It was 7:00 p.m.
Arthur and Wren excused themselves from the party to go into the next room, one of two—TWO!—bedrooms, and put Liam down in his crib.
They hadn’t moved far from their old place, after all. The new apartment was still pretty shitty. It had a few poorly patched holes in the wall, outdated appliances, grout in the shower that had seen better decades. But it was slightly bigger and it had a pool and a playground, or as Wren was keen to call it whenever she wanted to feel fancy, aswim tennis. It also had a real, live maintenance department that attempted to fix things and kept up with the regular bug treatment. They were still throwing their money down the proverbial drain in rent every month, with very little hope of ever saving enough money for…well, anything. But, for now, it was perfect. And now, really, was all anyone ever had.
Liam was exhausted and went right to sleep, Arthur and Wren both giving him gentle kisses on the forehead—until they went to leave the room, sneaking out as quietly as possible. That’s when the cries started up.
“You go,” Wren said, “I’ll get him down.”
“You sure?” Arthur whispered back.
“Absolutely, I got this.”
Arthur wanted to protest, but Wren needed the win. She took pride in being the only one who could get Liam to sleep, with a patented combination of humming punk songs and rubbing his belly. Whenever Arthur tried, Liam cried and cried for Mommy, which sucked, but he didn’t take it personally. She was soothing and sweet and beautiful. He didn’t blame Liam one bit.
He sat back down on the couch next to his parents, both nibbling on cheese and cured meats, and both thinking they were the only ones slipping bites to Ferdie, who was snuggledbetween them both. It was going to be a gassy night, but Arthur figured their old boy deserved to live it up as long as he could.
“Doesn’t get any better than this,” his dad said.
“Can’t argue,” Arthur agreed. “How’s work?”
“You know, not bad. It’s amazing working with young people today, really feeling like I’m making a difference.”
“Dad. Tell the truth.”
“Oh, they’re all crazy. Completely incompetent. We’re all doomed.” He smiled. “But I’m doing my best.”
“We’re really glad we came, Arthur. It’s not every day that we get this kind of time with our only grandson,” Laura chimed in.
“I heard the way you saidonly.” Arthur groaned.
His mom reached around and squeezed his shoulder. Just then, Wren reappeared and flopped down on the couch next to Arthur, squeezing her way in.
“I give up. You’re in.”
“That was fast.”
He could hear Liam wailing in the background.
“None of my techniques were working. I even hummed ‘Adam’s Song’ and he only cried more! I think we’re in a sleep regression or something.”
“Regression? Hejuststarted sleeping. How can he be regressing already?”
“There’s a new regression basically every couple of months. This is our life now.”
“Someone’s been reading up.”
