Adventures of the Playpen

Baby Alex is sitting happily in his playpen, chubby fingers pressing the mystical round things on a toy phone, his eyes widening every time the round things light up and make noise. He chews on his other hand, or gums it rather. It's maddening having none of those white things every adult mouth is full of. He thinks that those things somehow grant the big people yummy smelling food. But he's unsure. That's an adventure for another day.

He hears a commotion, his mom making the kinds of squealing noises she does every time he makes a face at her or blows bubbles with his mouth. He looks up momentarily to find the reason behind it but gives up quickly due to his inability to see past her at the door.

He turns his attention back to his phone, moving to another of the round things, pushing on it before his attention is again drawn by his mother talking to him.

"Alexander, sweetheart, this is Jack! He's your new friend!" Both young women giggle then, chatting about something he isn't even worried about. All he is concerned with is when he eats, when he needs to go poo, and when it's time for nap nap.

Before he's even realized it, there's another baby sitting in his playpen beside him. He's slightly less chubby with super dark hair. So Alex does the only thing he can think of. He stares at him. He's not really used to seeing other people like him. Not up close anyway. Whenever there's people around that his mom says is family, they're mostly big people like her. The smallest ones are still a lot bigger, and they can talk and walk. He's only seen babies like him when his mom takes him out to the store.

The other baby grunts at him and Alex takes his hand out of his mouth, reaching for him with a drool covered hand. He grabs a handful of the other boy's shirt, tugging on it. Jack reaches out himself, grabbing a handful of Alex's blonde hair and pulling.

It's not very hard but since he's still not great at the whole keeping his balance thing, he falls over onto his back. He promptly starts to wail and both women giggle.

"Oh Jacky, we don't pull hair baby," Joyce scolds lightly, gently prying his fingers from the baby fine hair.

"Alex, sweetie, it's okay. You're okay, shhh," Isobel says in a soft voice, rubbing his belly. She's begun this whole 'self soothing' crap that his grandmother told her about so now she won't pick him up when he cries. It's madness.

He screams, trying his best to form some of the big fat tears that make her feel bad enough to pick him up. His attention is grabbed by the noise from the toy again and he stops crying, looking over to find the boy is interested in his phone. He starts to sit up to take it from him but in the process of his rolling over, he spots his pacifier. He reaches out, grabbing it and popping it in his mouth.

Once he rolls over onto his belly, he pushes himself back into a sitting position, finding himself directly facing Jack instead of sitting beside him. He watches him for a moment, seeing the boy completely engaged in playing with his phone. Instead of snatching it, he decides instead to watch him. He doesn't know this baby human and by what he understands of the grown ups actions and words, he's going to be around a lot. May as well get used to him.