#ofmd regression

He gets a simple bouncer to have on the floor in front of them. Izzy can strap into it and also entertain himself with the little additional hanging toys.

But then, of course, Izzy is so cute in his little chair that he can't resist buying more!

The issue with the bouncer is that it's so close to the ground - it's great for when baby wants to be as small as possible, but it's not so easy to keep an eye on him when he's so low down and you're running around the house.

Stede decides a taller bouncer is a good investment. Izzy loves it, being properly tall enough to watch Ed fiddle around in the kitchen and eat raw carrot and tomato and watch Stede work on his laptop beside him at the kitchen bench! And being able to have a nap while Ed and Stede are working beside him? Perfect.

But of course neither of these chairs are great high chairs - resting far too far back and not having any way to attach a tray in any stable enough way for Izzy to eat and slap his little hands in all the mess without it going all over the floor.

So of course Stede has to buy more!

And it's great! Izzy can be all comfy and keep eating his food, strapped in nice and safe so he doesn't try and climb out the second he decides he's done (about halfway through every meal).

But Izzy's fussy no matter what age he's at, and he decides when he's feeling more like a toddler that he's way too big for that baby chair! And then the next day decides he's too small to sit at the table altogether! So Stede must venture out to find a more grown up chair for dinner time and one a lot smaller.

Izzy's only little, and he always manages to tire himself out by midday. He's not too fond of naps before he realises he's sleepy, but the one thing that always gets him down is his rocker. It looks like some of his other high chairs, so he's always happy to get strapped in and rock back and forth beside Ed's feet as he works above him. Within five minutes, every time, Izzy is always conked out. Ed will tuck a little blanket over him and keep the little seat rocking until his foot gets too tired.

Ed and Stede (mostly Ed. Only Ed) like to take Izzy camping. Usually on their own property, they find a nice spot and set up tents and whatnot. Ed will start a fire and make dinner while Stede hauls Izzy around to play by the edge of ponds and puddles. Ed is mortified when Stede pulls out the portable crib, but Stede insists their baby needs it. "He can't sleep in a sleeping bag, Ed!"

Izzy, on the other hand, doesn't mind. He's got a cot (with a fly screen!), a cradle, and a changing pad all up off of the ground. Ed complains that it's not proper camping if he's got a proper bed, but Stede always wins arguments when it comes to Izzy being pampered.

In summer it's a lot more uncomfortable to go camping, with all the bugs and the sticky sweaty heat, so they pack Izzy up and go to the beach instead. Izzy will happily sit in the shallows, but will whine and cry when sand gets in his swim pants and won't calm down until Stede helps him wash off at the beach showers. Which is where his little beach chair comes in very handy.

Ed will dive for pāua and kina and Stede will set up their little picnic area on the sand, and Izzy will sit beside Stede in his special big boy chair. The beach can make Izzy feel extra small and also like a very big boy, depending if he's floating on someone's hip in the water or running around on the sand with Ed chasing him.

Thankfully, though they live on a lot of land intended for livestock, they only have the one or two that Ed insisted on purchasing as pets, so an infestation of mice, and the Eastern Brown Snake that follows (the second most venomous snake in the world), isn't very likely.

One day, unfortunately during one of Izzy's extended visits, Ed goes into the garage to get his car and he finds a Diamond Python all cuddled up around the wheels.

(This actually happened to me once!)

The car isn't as much of an issue - he can just take Stede's - but the garage connects to the house with a very flimsy door, and even if it's non-venomous and and docile, he really doesn't want it slithering inside.

He leaves the garage door open while he's at work, but the thing is still cuddled under his 4-wheel drive, so he and Stede have to call WIRES and distract IzY somewhere far away from any windows (because if he sees the WIRES truck he'll know there's a snake and throw a tantrum if he can't go down and pet it (which will not be happening under any circumstances)).

One day while walking in the undeveloped bush on their property (which is a lot, full of birds and plants and life) Izzy randomly perks up out of his little sulk and excitedly begins tugging on Ed's arm, pointing down to a little patch just off of the track.

There's a Red Bellied Black Snake (which I reckon would be one of Izzy's favourites) coiled up in the sun, staring right at them. Ed yelps and grabs Izzy's hand.

He tries to tug Izzy back down the path (because he knows those things, and those things bite) but Izzy wants to sit and watch it and dogs his heels in. Ed has to resort to hauling Izzy over his shoulder and booking back out of the bush.

(look how cool these guys are! they're venomous but not very aggressive, and give birth to live babies! we used to see them at school a lot)

Occasionally little harmless snakes will slither up into the trees beside their houses, and Izzy will sit right in front of the window, watching it intently.

He's so obsessed with it that he refuses to leave until it does - meaning Stede has to drag his play mat to whatever window he's situated beneath and get him his iPad and blankie so he doesn't have to take his eyes off of the snake, and Ed has to feed him his dinner and change him while he's just staring at the poor little snake trying to have a sleep beside him.

(non-venomous, a non painful bite, and calm around humans. they're a gorgeous snake)

The worst, and the only time Izzy didn't yell and cry until he could go and see the snake, was when there was a brown snake on the roof.

Ed had been outside feeding their chickens when he'd spotted it, splayed out on their roof.

He heads straight inside after locking the chickens up, putting towels over the cracks under the back doors and putting the grate over the fireplace in case in somehow manages to slip down the chimney (typically they don't go inside houses, but Ed isn't taking any chances).

Stede goes out to take a look when he gets home with Izzy, but Izzy dutifully sits in his little chair and watches warily as Ed and Stede call WIRES.

Stede scoops him up and takes him away while the snake handlers come and get it, but they watch from an upstairs window as they load it into the truck and drive off of the property.

It can’t be too late at night, since it’s light enough for him to see around the room, the huge pile of laundry he was supposed to do and the mess from where his work bag had tipped over. The window shows a few stars still in the sky, barely stuck out against the paling sky.

Ed sits up for a while, hands tangling in his hair and the soft red bedsheets. He can feel a gentle fog ebbing at the back of his neck and sitting on his chest, and lets it consume him from the inside out. His thumb finds its way into his mouth and he curls up a little tighter, sheets pulled up over his knees, hand fisted in his shirt when it would normally be curled up in his little bunny.

He doesn’t really know where his bunny is - he hadn’t slipped in a long while and Stede had probably tucked it away somewhere safe again, but safe to Stede meant somewhere that Izzy wouldn’t find it, which also means that Ed wouldn’t find it either. He could always wake Stede up and get Haeata back within minutes, but a big part of him thinks it would be mean to wake him up right now, so instead he just sits still and tries not to think about it.

A loud crackle ripples out across the room, out of nowhere, and sends a wave of goosebumps over his skin.

It takes him a little longer than usual to remember the baby monitor beside Stede’s half of the bed, though he blames that on his foggy disposition. He blinks slowly as more noise crackles out of the monitor, the sounds of quiet rustling and the occasional grumpy whine. Once his memories catch up with him he remembers the person sleeping in the nursery a few doors down, that Izzy had stayed the night last night. He’s not even really sure why he doesn’t remember, because it was a friday night last night and Izzy always sleeps over on fridays.

Slowly as he can, he slips out of the sheets and across the soft beige carpet over to Stede’s bedside table and takes the little monitor in hand.

“Izzy?” He whispers, pressing down on the little blue button at the side of the monitor. Stede had specifically wanted a two way monitor, just in case Izzy needed to hear them at night, and one with a push-to-talk on their end seemed the most appropriate. Izzy had vehemently fought against a monitor with a camera, and Ed and Stede hadn’t fought back - it did seem a bit invasive.

For a moment there’s no sound coming from the little speaker at the top, and Ed worries that maybe Izzy wasn’t awake after all and now he’s just woken him up, but a voice begins to warble across the channel.

“Baba?”

Ed frowns. He’s used to being Baba, just like Stede is Mama, but it doesn’t feel quite right today. He’s not anyone’s Baba right now.

“Not Baba.” He huffs, humphing quietly as Stede lightly snores up on the bed beside him.

“Eddie?”

“Yeah,” Ed whispers, sitting back on his heels, knees digging into the carpet, “Hi.”

Something rustles again, Ed assumes Izzy’s getting comfy again.

“Hi.” Izzy yawns.

“Are you sleepy?”

“Mm mmm…”

Ed’s brow furrows. He doesn’t like much when Izzy hums instead of just talking, it’s way too confusing.

“Do you wanna play?” He whispers, holding the monitor close to his lips so that Stede doesn’t hear. He’s pretty sure Stede won’t be mad, per s e, but he doesn’t really want to stop chatting to Izzy over the radio.

Izzy rustles the blankets again. “Okay.” He mumbles.

Ed frowns. Izzy still sounds tired, whining when he talks like he’s fighting to stay awake. “You c’n come here ‘n sleep with mum,” He sighs softly, picking at the fraying hem of his pyjama shirt. He doesn’t really want Izzy to go back to sleep, because that would mean that he would have to go to sleep too.

Izzy seems to consider this, humming crackling through the radio. “No,” He says wistfully.

Ed twists his lips up into a confused little pout. Within a moment, Izzy resolves it with a soft and quiet response.

“Eddie come here.” He humphs, sounding like he’d gotten closer to the bookshelf his monitor was sitting on.

Ed perks up. If he goes down to Izzy, he’ll have someone to talk to, and maybe Izzy will wake up enough to actually play! Stede won’t mind if he gets up, especially if he’s going down to look after the baby. He still kind of wants Haeata, but Izzy has plenty of teddies for him to borrow - Izzy could even double as a teddy if he was feeling cuddly.

“Okay,” He chirps quietly, squeezing back down on the button, “‘M coming.”

He sets the little monitor back on it’s resting stand, making sure it’s sitting back on the little charging piece, and pads as quietly as he can out of the bedroom.

It’s cold out in these months, and it certainly doesn’t help much that he’d gone to bed in only a thin tee and boxers, but he still pulls the door behind him almost closed and tip toes down the hallway to the nursery, soft blue light bouncing off of the sliver of wall he can see through the half open door.

He pushes the door open and is met with the soft spray of blue light up across the walls and room, spawned from the small canary shaped night light plugged in just beneath the window. Izzy’s sat up in his little bed by the corner, the three walls at the ends and back side of the bed covered with soft blankets and stuffed trinkets. He rubs his eyes blearily as Ed slips in and presses the door closed.

“Eddie.” He hums, wriggling back down under the covers once Ed comes into view, as if he’d been sitting up waiting for Ed to come in.

“Hi, Izzy.” Ed whispers, stepping over the few soft toys left scattered across the rug. Stede usually picks up what Izzy doesn’t, but last night he hadn’t.

Izzy’s bed is fenced in by a little drop rail on the one side of the bed that wasn’t tucked against a wall or furniture. It was small, only a foot or more high, but it certainly reduced the number of times Izzy had slipped out of bed in the night.

His tongue is stuck out in concentration as he tries to lift it up against the latch; he always has a little trouble with lowering the rail, and being all small and fuzzy doesn’t really help much. He does eventually get the little latch unhooked and the rail slips down enough for him to climb up beside Izzy.

Putting the rail back up is far easier, and he flops down on top of Izzy the second it clicks into place.

Izzy whines when Ed lays on top of him, shoving at his shoulder until he rolls off and curls up beside him.

“Hi.” Ed whispers, shoulder and arm pressed firmly against Izzy’s.

“Hi.”

“What are you doing?”

“I dunno.”

“Same.”

Ed chews on his lip. He’d had some vague idea of fun when he’d first thought of coming down here, but now he’s not so sure if anything that fun will be happening at all.

Izzy is looking back at him, sucking on his bottom lip. Mama would probably tell him to get a soother if he were here now, but Ed doesn’t really want to open the drop rail all over again to find one.

“Are you gonna sleep?” He whispers, rolling onto his side so he can look at Iz without getting a crick in his neck.