Happy Christmas My Love

Chapter 2
Christmas Eve Night

The mounds of white bubbles are so big and sparkly. If Sophie tries then she can imagine that they’re small mountains of snow. She can gather a load in her little chubby hands and then pat them together to release a flurry of white snowflakes to fall around her, enticing a round of squeals and fidgeting excitement that causes her to splash vigorously in the shallow water.

Daddy laughs too. His big smiley face is constantly looking down on her as he leans over the edge of the tub and rubs her all over with the fruity smelling cream. Some of the bubbles land on his face and Sophie doesn’t know if she can control herself as she laughs and points at him. Silly Daddy! He looks like a half Snow Man!

She wants to do it all over again but Daddy’s hands are on her sides. She’s almost slipping over from her constant splashing and wriggling in the tub. Daddy holds her securely and uses his most gentle but firm tone to get her to calm down.

"We play safe in the bath, don’t we?" He asks her pointedly, furrowing his brow a little at her.

Sophie purses her lips and nods. She tries to put her hand in her lap and sit still like the best little girl she can be.

"That’s a good girl." Daddy praises and hands her the sponge shaped like a pink star.

The sponge has a smiley face on the front and Sophie smiles back. Daddy had been using it to help wash her a moment ago. But Sophie doesn’t need to do that, she can play with it along with her rubber ducky. Daddies wash and babies play. That’s how it works, of course. And there’s no limit to a toddler’s imagination that she can’t create a wonderful friendship between a duck and a pink star along with the all the adventures she can take them on in her creative mind.

All she has to do is close her eyes when Daddy says as he washes her hair to make it smell as sweet as her soft skin. There are never any tears. Not on Christmas. Not with Daddy, not ever.

Finished, she’s told to say goodbye to star and ducky for now which she reluctantly does before Daddy lifts her out the water and wraps her up all snug in a fluffy red and white towel. She wriggles one of her arms out and strokes the fabric.

"Th’anta!" She says, her lisp becoming more pronounced.

Daddy looks at his watch. Sophie blinks at it but there’s no way she can understand what it means, so luckily Daddy tells her; "Still got a few more hours! Enough time to get little girls ready for beddy byes."

He picks her up and takes her down the hall. Sophie frowns as they pass the door to the biggest bedroom that they share.

Daddy catches her gaze and pokes her nose.

"About time I showed you the second part of your present. And it’s not even Christmas. Aren’t you spoiled, hmm?" He teases, kissing her forehead.

He takes her to another room that had mostly been used as a junk room since they moved in, with plans to turn it into a guest room when they had some more time on their hands. Only now when Sophie looks at the door she sees some shapes stuck to it like alphabet blocks. Pink with blue, red and green letters on.

Unknowing to her, they spell her name. S-O-P-H-I-E.

Daddy holds her in one arm, balancing her on his hip, then uses his other hand to turn the door handle and lead them in.

Sophie is dumbstruck. She rubs her eyes and stares at the room before her, wondering if this is all some wonderful dream. A small shard of her adult thoughts is able to creep through the pink fluffiness coating her thoughts like sticky candy floss and appreciate what has been set up for her. Pink walls with a clouds and rainbow print on the paper. Toys stacked along the shelves. A changing table set up to one side. A dresser most probably filled to the brim with the cutest of baby girl outfits. And, most prominent, the white crib in the corner with the mobile of angels and fairies swirling over the top.

It all seems so new and yet she feels like she should know this room better than any in the house. It’s her nursery, of course! Her room. Who else could it possibly belong to?

"I knew you’d love it." Daddy smiles and takes her to the changing table to start.

Because the first thing she needs before her jammies is what Daddy pulls out from one of the drawers. Something white and chunky and crinkly. Sophie cranes her head up to look at it properly. It...it really is a nappy. Is it really for her? Should she be wearing something like that? Surely she’s far too big.

She squirms a little, waving her chubby hands in the air.

"Bi’ g’iwl, no need nappy." She tries to explain, the words so hard to pluck from her sticky thoughts; "Sophie go toy-let!"

"The toilet is far too big for you, sweetie. You’d fall straight in! And then we might accidentally flush you into the sea!" Daddy starts to chide, leaning in close to her; "You’d have to get Ariel and Nemo to come and help you swim back to land!"

The very idea with its fictional crossover potential makes Sophie giggle again. Almost distracted enough to forget about the nappy. But her tummy feels full after the big dinner Daddy made earlier. Almost like it was too much for her body now. She thinks she might need to go poopy soon and she cringes at the thought of doing it in a nappy and feeling it all around her bum. How yucky.

So she shakes her head again.

"No nah-pee, Daddy!" She juts out her chin. That is that. She can keep her dignity, despite currently sitting in her birthday suit on a changing table.

"Tell you what, smarty-pants." He smiles at her; "How about you wear this, just in-case, but if you feel you need to use it, you can tell me and I’ll bring your potty. If you can keep the nappy dry until tomorrow then you can wear big girl pants. Does that sound fair?"

He has to speak very slowly for Sophie to catch up. But she thinks she can get what he’s saying. Show Daddy she can be a big girl and use her potty and then no nappies! Easy-peasy!

So she nods and, just this once, lets Daddy lift her bum so he can strap the chunky night-time nappy up between her legs. It is a rather funny feeling to sit in something so thick that she can’t even feel her bum against the surface of the table. She pokes at the picture of the little angel girl on the front. A Christmas angel bringing special wishes. Maybe she brought this one for her and Daddy this year.

Daddy then dresses her in two-piece pink pajamas with two brown reindeer on the front of her top. She can rub her fingers against them, feeling how fuzzy they are compared to the soft cotton of the rest of her outfit. Daddy also tucks her feet into a pair of fluffy white socks. It’s so warm in the house with the heating turned on but always nice to be extra snug when it’s so cold outside. And on Christmas night.

Sophie feels like she’s floating on a cloud of delight. She sits on Daddy’s lap as he sits on the Panda chair and brushes and dries her hair. She feels a bit floppy but not proper sleepy yet. She hopes that she can stay up long enough to hear the reindeer clip clop on the rooftop! She smiles and sucks her thumb at the very idea.

Daddy hands her a white fluffy bunny toy from the shelf and hands it to her. Sophie grins and cuddles it with both arms against her cheek. The only thing is she wants to keep holding the bunny - Cotton, she calls him - like that except she wants to suck her thumb as well. Daddy must be a mind reader because he pops a white dummy between her lips.

At first Sophie blinks. Like the nappy, isn’t she too big for a dummy as well? She should probably take it out. But then she tries sucking on it and is rewarded with the most delightful of strawberry flavours on her tongue. It must be a special dummy for big girls! She squeezes Cotton and sucks on her dummy, sighing out with complete contentment as Daddy finishes brushing her hair.

He runs his hand down it before kissing the very top of her head.

"There. All pretty for Father Christmas! He’ll know you’ve been the most good little girl ever now." Daddy whispers to her.

A blush runs to Sophie’s cheek. She has tried to be so good. Good for Daddy, Santa, her friends and all the grown ups in charge. Memories muddle around her little confused noggin but the feelings are all the same up there. The desire to please. To make others happy. She hasn’t really thought about what she might get for herself. But she is only human and of course has thoughts of how she would like to be happy.

She just never imagined it was possible for those thoughts to become reality. Until now.

"Tired yet, baby girl?" Daddy asks.

Sophie shakes her head. She is a little tired but not a lot tired. Not can’t-hold-her-own-head-up or keep-her-eyes-open tired.

"Fair enough. How about some warm milk and cookies?" He tempts and Sophie almost nods her own head off.

Ten minutes later Sophie is sat on the sofa with a Frozen blanket across her lap and a plastic lidded cup of microwaved milk in both her hands. She likes to dip the cookies in but her hands are so clumsy and she doesn’t want to spill anything on her blankie. So every now and then Daddy takes the lid off, dips one of the cookies in and puts it to her lips. The taste is yummy! A mess on her face is inevitable but Daddy is quick to wipe it up.

Sophie does try to put one of the cookies to her toy bunny’s mouth.

"Eat up, Cotto’!" She encourages, brightly; "Tast’ee biccys for bunny!"

She no longer notices how squeaky her voice is.

"I don’t think Cotton is hungry, baby." Daddy tells her; "We’ll see if he wants one of the carrots we need to put out for Santa’s sleigh a bit later, shall we?"

"Yeah." She grins and gives the cookie to Daddy instead.

"Mmmm, thank you muchly!" He then makes the silliest noises as he gobbles up the cookie, as if he were the Cookie Monster, making Sophie laugh and kick her fluffy socked feet in pure joy.

When the cookie is gone he looks at her as if he wants to gobble her up.

"Oooh, my favourite! Little girl cookie!" He says in a deep voice, reaching his hands out to grab her; "Come over here you!"

"No-oh!" She squeals, trying to wriggle away.

But she doesn’t stand a chance. She doesn’t want one. She just manages to scramble off the sofa before Daddy grabs her by the waist and pulls her onto his lap for tickles, sloppy kisses and the tightest of cuddles. She kicks and bats her hands so very lightly because she doesn’t really want to get away or hurt Daddy. It’s all part of the funnest game ever as Daddy pretends to eat her up as if she were the most delicious cookie in the world.

The fun is only interrupted when there’s a loud rumbling in Sophie’s gut. And she feels her tummy cramp. She pauses, looking up at Daddy with wide eyes before she puts her hands on her padded bottom.

"Sophie need potty!" She whispers despite there not being anyone else in the room. Aside from Cotton.

Daddy is a bit red-faced from the game but gets his serious face on and nods; "Clever girl! Come on then."

He leads her over to the corner where a pink plastic seat has been placed. Sophie hesitates for a moment. Is she just supposed to go here? In the open? There’s a second of shyness before Daddy pats her bottom and the pressure increases.

"Go on then, sweetie. Show Daddy what a big girl you are!" He encourages with a smile.

Sophie takes a breath and pushes down her bottoms as well as her nappy which she needs Daddy to help her with a bit. Daddy then places her onto the potty. She winces a bit at the plastic against her washed skin. She looks up at Daddy. Should he really be watching this? Isn’t it super private?

But then, if Daddy doesn’t see it, how will she know that she’s used it? The logic doesn’t come to her that he could just look inside when she’s done. It’s so hard to think when her bottom feels so tight. She squirms and fidgets.

"Go on. You can do it! You’re Daddy’s clever little potty princess, aren’t you." He beams at her.

The word ’princess’ coats her mind in an extra layer of pink fuzz and she pushes. She pushes hard until she hears a bit of wee wee dribble into the plastic followed by a satisfying light splash and thud. And soon the pressure is gone as she feels happy to enter her load into the potty.

Daddy sees the look on her face and gives a cheer; "Yay! Well done, Princess!"

"Pot-ee pwinth-eth!" She cheers, putting her hands in the air.

"That’s right, baby. I knew you could do it." He praises before helping her stand up and he wipes between her legs and her bum before putting her nappy back on and pulling her bottoms up.

After the mess in the potty is flushed down the grown up toilet and cleaned, hands are washed with more sparkly bubble water, and Sophie is treated to more special cuddles. She beams from ear to ear, so proud of herself, so glad she’s made Daddy proud of her.

Somehow her dummy remains between her grinning lips and she finally begins to yawn. She rubs her eyes and reaches for Cotton so she can cuddle him while Daddy cuddles her. The games are over and this is how both of them are rewarded. Daddy’s festive jumper is soft against her cheek as she snuggles against him. He removes her dummy for a moment so he can hand her the cup of milk for her to finish. She needs his help to tilt it because the energy is depleting from her tiny body quickly.

No Santa midnight watch for this little girl.

Her eyelids droop and the cup is taken away. The dummy returns and she revels in how soothing each suck is. Daddy is rocking her gently on his lap, humming a Christmas carol as the fireplace crackles its warm glow around their living room.

Gavin’s phone vibrates, the volume turned down. He didn’t want to risk any noise disturbing his little girl tonight.

He picks it up, continuing cuddling the sleepy Sophie, answering the phone as quietly as he can.

"Hello?"

"Hello Mr. Tilly. Just calling to check up. Has everything gone smoothly so far?" The feminine voice replies on the other end.

Gavin smiles down at Sophie before answering.

"Oh yes. Everything is perfect so far. Thank you so much." He tells his special contact.

"You’re welcome. Just remember to be careful with those ingredients when you’re changing her back. Call us if you have any problems."

"Will do." He won’t risk screwing this up. That’s certain.

"Lovely. Merry Christmas, Mr. Tilly."

"Merry Christmas." He says before the call ends.

Sophie shifts but she doesn’t wake fully. She just squeezes her bunny close while also grabbing a fist-full of Gavin’s jumper. He kisses her head again before lifting her up. He hesitates between putting her to bed in the recently (and secretly) built crib or his own bed. First he checks her nappy. Still dry, good. Maybe she might surprise him overnight. There’s still that milk to pass.

Her head rests on his shoulder as he carries her and it’s clear she doesn’t want to be separated. Besides, Gavin is aware those adult thought might just creep back at any moment. No. Best to keep her close. Safe and reassured. He wonders, for a moment, if he’s always felt more like a father to her than a husband.

It never seemed to matter. Funny, that.

 

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