Raised by Wolves

The next morning, I woke up at exactly seven, and laid in bed thinking about how I was going to wake Amber. It most likely wouldn't be easy. “You sure you don't want me to do it?”, Ryan had asked me. “No, its alright. I'll do it. You're too nice, she wont get up for you.” He pouted, like Amber would if she were mad. “I'm not too nice. I can be mean if I want to.” “Sure you can.” “Yes, I can. And I will.” He got up and went to Amber's room. I at least I know why she's so stubborn. She got that from him. I waited patiently for Ryan to come back. When twenty minutes went by, and he still hadn't returned, I went to see what was taking so long.

When I walked into her room, I saw nothing but a sleeping Amber, and a very aggravated Ryan. “Come on Amber! Get up!” She buried her face deeper into her pillow, and pulled the blanket up over her head. “Don't do that! You're going to suffocate!” “Having trouble?” He turned to look at me. “No.” We glanced back at Amber, who was making some weird growling noise that was muffled by the pillow. “Okay, you got me. She's all yours.” With that, he left the room, leaving me to deal with Amber. “Now sweetie, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. What's it going to be?” She didn't move, or even make a sound. “Okay, I guess the hard way it is then.” I stood over her and lifted the blanket off her feet, before tickling them. She squirmed, kicked and squealed with laughter.

“Daddy, stop!” She said between giggles. “Nope.” I continued to tickle her for several minutes. “Please, stop it daddy!” She was laughing so hard that her face was bright red. “Are you going to get up?” “Yes!” I stopped tickling her, and she sat up. “There, you're up. Now lets get you dressed so you can eat breakfast and brush your teeth.” I went over to her closet and rifled through her clothes. “Do you know what you want to wear?” She didn't answer me. “Amber?” I tuned in time to see her run out of the room. I sighed. “Amber, we don't have time for this!” She ran down the stairs and into the kitchen. “Come get your clothes on!” Thankfully, she didn't get very far, because Ryan was in the kitchen, and he caught her for me.

“Whoa there, where do you think you're going princess?”, I heard him say. When I finally got to the kitchen, she was in his arms. “There you are.” He gave her to me, and I carried her back to her room. I sat her on her bed. “This time, stay put, okay? Or else you'll be late. Its already almost seven thirty, and your school bus comes at eight.” She nodded. “Okay daddy, I'll stay here.” She actually did this time, and I was able to get her dressed. One down, two more to go. I still had to get her to eat and brush her teeth. I brushed her hair for her, then brought her to the bathroom. Surprisingly, she brushed them without a problem. Hopefully breakfast would be as easy. “Okay, now go to the kitchen and eat. Mommy made pancakes for you.” “No, I don't want pancakes!” Oh boy, here we go.

“Well, you have to eat them. You can't go to school hungry, and the bus will be here soon.” She still refused to go. “Amber, go eat your breakfast.” “No.” I didn't even argue with her. I picked her up and brought her to the kitchen, sitting her down at the table. It took a long time to get her to eat, but eventually, she did. Somehow we had managed to get her ready in time, and she was out the door the minute we heard the bus pull up to the house. Ryan and I walked her to the bus and watched her get on. “Bye princess, have a great day!” Ryan shouted after her. She waved at us one last time from her seat before the bus was driving away.

“Well. That sure was tiring.” “Yeah, it was. Now just think about it, we have to do that again every day until she graduates from high school.”, Ryan said. “Oh dear god, thanks for reminding me.” He laughed and put his arm around me. “Lets go back inside.” He led me in through our front door and sat us on the couch. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back on the couch, exhausted from this morning's events. It was quiet for a while, almost kind of peaceful. “Hey Ron, you know what tomorrow is, right?” I smiled, my eyes still closed. “How could I forget?” Tomorrow we would officially be married for four years. Time has passed so fast.

“Well I have a surprise for you.” I opened my eyes now, interested in what he was saying. “Yeah, what?” “The guys have agreed to take turns watching Amber so we could go have some time alone.” “Really? That's awesome!” “Yep, we're going to be staying at a hotel. Wait until you see it, its so amazing.” I didn't think Ryan was going to do something like this, but I'm glad he is. We haven't spent much time together since Amber was born. It'd nice to have some time alone with him. I gave him a kiss. “I can't wait.”