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All she wanted was a shower. Just five minutes to wash herself and hopefully feel a little bit human again. It was perfect timing; both kids were down for naps and everything that was urgent had been taken care of.
The first thing she does when she steps out of the shower, still with the towels wrapped around her, is check on the kids. June isn’t in her new big-girl bed, which should be concerning, but Ellen isn’t going to worry yet. Next she looks in on her baby, who should be sleeping alone, peacefully, in his crib. But he’s on the floor of the nursery, babbling happily, with his sister chattering to him. His hair is all in tiny tufts being held in by butterfly clips and his chubby arms and legs are covered in colorful stickers.
Ellen sighs. She really does not have time or energy for this. She needs to get dressed. “Catalina June, what is happening here?”
“Mama!” June looks up with a big grin. “Alex pwetty! Esta bonita, si?”
Ellen just sighs again. “June, sugar, how did you even get him–” no, that’s the wrong question. “Sugar… yes, your brother is very pretty. But please don’t put any more stickers on him. Just… let me go put some clothes on and we can talk about this.” Clearly, her children won’t be in any more danger if she takes another minute to get dressed. “Just holler if anything’s wrong.”
“I take care of him, Mama.”
“I know you do, darlin’.” Even though she’s barely three, June has taken to being a big sister like a duck takes to water. She loves it, and she dotes on him. Alex looks at her like the sun shines out of her head and maybe it does for him.
She twists her wet hair up into a bun and secures it, pulling on the first pants and shirt she finds before returning to her babies. Of course Oscar already let her know he’s on a big case and will be home late. They have to have a talk about when it’s appropriate to put the kids in daycare because she needs to get back to work herself. One thing about Ellen Claremont is she is not meant to be a stay-at-home-mom.
Ellen sits cross-legged on the floor and pulls Alex to her side. He whines a bit at first, but then cuddles up to her. “June, come here, sugar.”
June looks at her a little sullenly, like she knows she did something wrong. “I just wanted to decowate him,” she says quietly.
“I know, baby,” Ellen soothes. “But you know when you have a band-aid and it hurts to take it off?”
“Yeah…”
“Stickers are the same way,” she explains patiently. “When we take them off, they pull the skin and it can hurt. You don’t want to hurt your brother.”
“No!”
“He’s not one of your baby dolls, sweetheart. You have to be gentle with him. No more stickers?”
“No more,” June agrees. “Hair?”
Pick your battles, Ellen reminds herself. “As long as he seems to like it, you can do his hair all you want. Now, we’re going to use some of the baby oil to remove the stickers so it won’t hurt him.”
“When is Daddy home?” June asks, trotting along behind Ellen toward the bathroom.
“Not soon enough,” she can’t help herself from muttering.
“Soon?” Of course that’s the part that June heard.
“I think he’ll be home late tonight, sugar. But he’ll come kiss you when he comes in, all right?”
“Okay.”
Many years later, Alex is babysitting his niece and nephew while Philip and Martha attend an event and the nanny has a family emergency. He sends June a snap of himself shirtless on the floor, smothered in stickers.
“You look beautiful,” she sends back. “New look?”
Her phone rings with a FaceTime request. She answers it laughing. “It’s perfect. Post it online and everyone will be wearing stickers.”
“Ellie’s idea,” he explains, “and Georgie helped her.” He looks like he’s trying to be annoyed but she can tell he’s delighted.
“Hi, Ellie!” she calls, and Alex holds the phone out so Ellie can see June too.
“Hi, June! I decorated Uncle Alex. He looks lovely.”
“He does look lovely,” June agrees. “Just make sure you only do that to grownups who can say yes, okay? Not to your baby brother.”
Ellie looks confused. “No, just Uncle Alex.”
“I tried to do that to your uncle Alex when he was a baby, but our mom didn’t like it.”
“Did you get in trouble?” Ellie’s eyes widen.
“A little,” June admits. She doesn’t really have a memory of it, but before Ellen managed to take the stickers off, she took a picture to show Oscar, and it lives in one of their albums. She’s never lived it down.
The butterfly clips, however, were in Alex’s hair frequently. That she remembers clearly. “You should do his hair, too,” she suggests.
“Oh I have bows!” Ellie exclaims, scampering off.
Alex groans. “Why are you giving her ideas?”
