I jumped back, thankful Daddy was there to keep me from falling over.
“Happy birthday, Jamie!” Henry hugged me. “Did we scare you?”
“Little bit.”
“Casey, Mitchell, let’s give Jamie some space so he and the boys can pillage his new playroom.” Daddy Jensen said. As they walked past the daddies wished me a happy birthday. I had a birthday party of my own, my first, and a cool new playroom.
“Hi Chase.”
“Happy birthday, cool room.”
“Thank you.” Chase looked scared, but Henry and I would make him feel better soon.
“Daddy, you made this all for me?” I spun around in the middle of the room. The ceiling was covered in clouds and stars, that someone had hand painted. There was a big one in the middle with “Daddy’s Shiny Star” written around it in fun lettering. They must’ve been really tall to reach up that high.
“I did. Does Daddy’s Shiny Star like it?”
“Daddy!” I cried for the second time today while he held me. “No one’s ever thrown me a party and now I have my own room and my own friends, and everybody is here.”
“That’s ‘cause we love you,” Henry hugged me from behind since Daddy had my front.
“Look at all the animals, Daddy. You even have Sloffers, Kiki, George, and Patty painted on the walls.” I pointed all around, with so many animals my finger didn’t know where to stop. “And Kiki’s on a big tree! George is so tallhe reaches her without standing on his tippy toes. Think he lifted her up there?”
“Probably,” Daddy smiled, “that’s what friends are for, to lift you up.” Daddy was so smart, he knew everything.
The shelves were filled with toys and stuffies and there was even a huge jungle rug on the floor. Books lined up along the bottom shelves, waiting for Daddy to read them to me. “Your bed has a giant puppy paw on it.” Henry pointed at it. There were so many prezzies I didn’t know where to start. I wanted to play with everything all at once and nap in my new fun bed.
I ran across the room, jumped on it, and high-fived the paw headboard first. “It’s so bouncy!” Chase stood there staring at Henry and me. “Are you okay, Chase?”
“I-I don’t know what to do?” Poor guy was lost. I wonder if his Daddy bought him any toys of his own.
“What do you want to do?” Daddy had taken the time to label the containers on the shelves he’d filled. “We have blocks, cars, dinosaurs. Oh, I got a new tea set. Want to have tea party?”
“Okay.” Henry and Chase answered at the same time.
“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” I hollered as I ran out of my new playroom. “Need help.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, but I need help moving my tea set and my stuffies. We’re gonna have a tea party.” Before Daddy could pick anything up, I hugged him again. “Thank you for my room and for the bestest birthday ever, Daddy.”
“You are very welcome, sweet boy.” Daddy helped me get it all moved, then went back to play with the other Daddies while the three of us set up our tea party.
“Hey, look,” Henry ran over to the shelf and came back with one of the containers. “You have a whole bucket of pretend food.”
“Ooohhh, my Daddy is the bestest!”
Henry passed around the food while I filled our teacups. “Okay, pinkies out like this.” I showed them how Daddy did it. “Nummy, nummy, nummy.” Chase played along but didn’t say anything. He stared off at the row of new stuffies on the shelf. “Do you want to hold one of my new stuffies? You can if you want to?”
He nodded, but didn’t say anything, though he did return with a teddy bear. “What should we name them?” I thought it would be fun if he helped me out with that. Plus, he was super new to being a Little, or a Middle, I wasn’t sure which he was, but he’d figure it out on his own. Either way, he was still my friend. “I like your tattoos.”
“Thank you. This one is my band logo.” He pointed to a big knife with blood on it.
“Embrace the Fear. That sounds scary.” I didn’t like blood.
“It’s not. It’s fun but overwhelming sometimes. When I get off stage, I have all this nervous energy, and I don’t know what to do with it.”
That didn’t sound like fun to me. “Do you have any toys?” I asked him. “Coloring or playing with my stuffies helps me after work sometimes. Now that I have a Daddy, it’s a lot easier to unwind when I get home.”
