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Lately, Jason has been trying to get Maxwell to pull himself up into a stand. So far, Max seems pretty resistant to learning these skills and prefers for one of you to carry him everywhere. Whenever Jason tries to pull him up to help, he would just go limp.
"Come on, bud," Jason grumbles, "You need to learn how to stand." He gently tries to pull Max up by the hands, but his son's body is like a wet noodle. No matter how many attempts, nothing was getting done. Jason groans and throws his head back in frustration, "Maxwell James, you are not skipping this milestone; you will learn to stand sooner or later."
Lying close by, their pitbull-bullmastiff mix, Dog, watches the scene with curious eyes. Her body is tense and at the ready to step in whenever.
Maxwell leans his head forward and nips Jason's forearm. He made sure to keep eye contact the whole time to show it was intentional.
Jason quietly hisses through his teeth while picking Max up. "Yep, you're stubborn like your mom," He looks over his shoulder for any sign of you before whispering, "Don't tell her I said that, she'll stubbornly argue that she isn't."
Finally free from being forced to try standing up, Max regains the ability to move his limbs again and snuggles closer to his papa's chest.
"One more thing," Jason pokes Max's side to make him giggle, "No biting." He leaves the living room and heads to the bedroom, with Dog following behind.
That didn't go as planned. Max is willing to do pretty much anything to avoid learning. Not all hope is lost; just last week, Jason bought a baby bouncer for his son. Maybe Max will have so much fun on it that he will want to learn how to walk!
Jason sets Max in his baby bouncer with a smile on his face, "Do you like it? It has everything it needs to keep you entertained." He grabs the monkey hanging on a string, "Hi there, little Max!" He speaks in a high voice for the monkey.
Maxwell giggles and babbles at the monkey. The two go back and forth in their conversation while Max is kicking his legs in delight. Jason notices this and tries to convince him to learn.
"You know, if you learn how to stand, you will be able to do so many fun things like dancing!" He shakes the monkey around to show it dancing, "See how fun dancing is, Max?"
Max bounces around in his seat like he is dancing as well with the monkey. He giggles and babbles without a single care in the world.
The two continue to dance together for a little while longer before Jason takes him out of the baby bouncer and carefully places him on his feet. Just like before, Max's legs stay limp, besides the occasional little kicks.
"Bud... Why don't you want to stand on your own?" Jason quietly asks as he places him back into the baby bouncer.
He doesn't pay his papa any mind and just keeps bouncing.
That attempt didn't go so well, but Jason won't give up that easily. He just has to come up with another strategy. It's back to the parenting books!
And after reading a few parenting books, he's ready to give it another shot!
Maxwell sits back on his feet with one of his toys in his hands, yet his attention is fully on an episode of Bluey playing on the TV in the living room. The episode playing was "Baby Race," something Jason put on to put the thought of wanting to walk in Max's head.
Jason steps into the living room, Dog following, then sits down next to Max and picks up a toy. "You see what Bluey is doing on screen? Do you want to start walking too?" He drags Max into his lap, "You have to learn how to stand first." He murmurs against the top of his head.
Dog lies down and places her head on Jason's lap. She takes in a deep breath, then lets it all out like she had a long day.
It doesn't seem like Maxwell heard him because he doesn't react to his dad. Instead, he leans back against his chest and grabs Dog's ear.
He lets out a quiet sigh, then gently loosens Max's grip on her ear. Jason looks up at the screen; he understands how Chili feels in this episode. It feels like he's competing with every dad that ever existed, because if all of them can get their child standing already, then he's falling behind.
Jason carefully picks Max up from under his arms and stands him up, hoping he will start working to stand up by himself, but his little legs stay limp as he still watches the screen. "Still not willing to learn how to stand..." He sets him back in his lap and continues watching Bluey together.
Okay, so Jason hasn't had the best of luck so far with teaching Maxwell to stand. Every day now, he hasn't made any progress with Max, and it's starting to worry him.
What if Max never learns how to walk?
Does that reflect on what kind of father he is?
Has he failed at being a dad by not teaching Max how to walk!?
"Jase?" You call out to him and place your hand on his chest.
Jason snaps out of his thoughts, then looks down at you lying on him, "Is something wrong, darling?" He sits up on his elbows.
The two of you are lying on the couch watching a movie after putting Max to bed when you feel his body tensing up underneath you. You sit up on his lap, "Nothing's wrong with me, but what's on your mind?" You gently grasp his face between your hands.
He quietly stares up at you for a while, like he's afraid to break the silence, then he covers your hands with his. "Am I..." Jason bites his lower lip and looks away in embarrassment, "...Am I doing a good job at being a dad?"
"Oh, Jason," You lean in and kiss the bridge of his nose. "You're doing an amazing job. Max couldn't have asked for a better dad."
Jason softly chuckles under his breath. "Max can only babble right now." He meets your gaze with his own.
You softly smile at him. "He still couldn't ask for anyone better." Your thumb rubs gentle circles underneath his eyes, "You're doing the best you can, and you have to remember it's not a race for him to reach every milestone."
"But-!" He tries to speak, but you cut him off.
"No buts, Todd. This is a team effort." You cross your arms over your chest, "It's our job as parents to give the tools to Max so he can use them to succeed on his own. There's no need to rush it; he'll start standing when he's ready to learn." You lie your head against his chest again, "For now, just be patient."
Jason tries to think of an argument, but nothing comes to mind. Instead, he lets out a small sigh and wraps his arms around you. "You're right..." He closes his eyes, "He'll stand when he's ready."
Another couple of days go by without any sign of Max trying to stand on his own. Jason eventually started thinking that Max would just ride Dog like a horse before even thinking about standing on his own feet.
For now, Jason just cooks dinner for the family...
Jason stands in front of the stove, making mashed potatoes. He can hear Maxwell and Dog gently playing together behind him. Every once in a while, he glances back over his shoulder to make sure the two are playing nice and no one gets hurt.
Maxwell looks over toward his papa and starts crawling over with Dog walking next to him. He wants him to play with them, too. He stops just shy of a few feet away and sits back on his feet, then looks between Jason and Dog. Max grabs Dog and tries to pull himself up. He fails a few times and whines, but doesn't give up.
Hearing him cry, Jason whips his head around and witnesses Max successfully pulling himself up to stand with Dog's help. He lets out a surprised laugh and sets down the cooking utensils before moving closer to grab Max's hands, "Look at that! You're standing up on your own." He kneels to be at Max's height. "I'm so proud of you, Angel."
A big smile spreads across Max's face, and his natural blue-and-green eyes stare up at his papa's unnatural blue-and-green ones. He tries taking a step forward but ends up tripping into Jason's chest.
"That's okay, we have plenty of time to learn walking." Jason stands up with Max in his arms, "For now, just practice pulling yourself up into a stand."
You come out from around the corner with your phone out. Earlier, you noticed Max crawling towards Jason and decided to start recording for memories; you did not know you would end up recording one of the best memories of your life.