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Derek received the stuffed iguana on his third birthday.
He was so excited about the toy that when Peter helped him unwrap a flashy new tricycle, all he could focus on was the green, fuzzy lizard sitting on the coffee table. He dinged the bell on his new trike a few times, but his eyes never left the lizard and finally, after what felt like ages, he was allowed to have it back.
His mom told him that the lizard was called an ‘iguana’. Well, that was a little too hard for his three year old mouth to say, so he decided he would call him Iggy. From that day forward, Derek and Iggy were inseparable.
After presents were open and Iggy was safely in his arms, they ate his birthday cake together, smearing chocolate and green frosting all over their faces. Derek wailed for twenty minutes when Talia made him let go of his toy so she could clean the frosting out of its fake fur and off of his tear streaked cheeks.
The rest of his birthday passed in a blur of grown up conversations and ice cream; Derek and Laura and their cousins snuck off into the other room to play. Derek brought Iggy with him, his green body held close to his chest while they played hide and seek and ran around the ground floor of the house, laughing and roughhousing.
~*~
Even after weeks and weeks and months and months had passed, Derek still played with Iggy every single day. He brought him to breakfast and Derek’s dad Mark made quarter sized pancakes that were especially for him. Derek was more than happy to gobble them up when Iggy got too full and he even shared with Laura when she poked her fork toward him.
Laura thought Iggy was pretty cool but she didn’t like to play with him as much as Derek did. Sometimes, she would go play outside by herself or with uncle Peter while Derek played pretend with Iggy and some of Laura’s teddy bears.
There was a white table in the playroom that he and Laura used when they played house together and the kitchen set in the corner had a colorful tea set that was one of Derek’s favorite things to play with. One time Laura had told him it was girly to play with pretty tea sets but he knew that was only because she was jealous of how well he set the table. Talia had told him before that he always put the forks in the right place so they were easiest to reach. Plus, he knew that Mark helped Talia plant the flowers outside and if his dad could play with flowers, he could play with tea sets.
Derek always took his time when he set the table, carefully placing a teacup and saucer in front of every tea party member and sticking their small plastic spoons inside the cups. He took his seat at the head of the table and cleared his throat, raising his glass for a toast. He met every pair of dark, sewn in eyes and smiled brightly.
“A toast to Iggy the ‘guana!” he said excitedly. “He’s my best friend in this whole wide world ‘cept for Laura.” He paused briefly and scrunched his nose up, adding, “And daddy and mommy and uncle Peter too. And also cousin Daisy and Robbie and their mommy, aunt Grace.”
He sighed and looked around at his stuffed animal friends. “But besides that it’s just Iggy! He plays pretend with me and he’s really good to drive cars over and he likes all of my favorite foods and he hates green beans, just like me! I love him a lot and that’s the end. Everybody can drink their tea now.”
He looked over the rim of his purple cup and slurped loudly at it, making extra slurping sounds for Iggy and Laura’s bears, Steven and Leslie.
“Well that was a yummy tea everyone! But I think it might be time for a nap. What d’you think Iggy?” Derek made his toy nod and gathered up their tea sets to dump into the toy box against the wall. Talia made sure to remind him to clean up after himself when he was done playing and he tried hard to remember that, even when he was sleepy.
He picked up Laura’s bears and Iggy and padded out of the playroom, skipping down the hall and toward the stairs so he could put Laura’s bears back in her room. Halfway there, he caught the scent of chocolate chip cookies and took a deep breath, remembering what Talia had told him about using all of his still developing senses, not just his eyes and ears.
“Is that a little boy I hear?” came Mark’s voice from the kitchen. Derek stared wide-eyed at the doorway until his dad’s head popped out from around it, dark hair flopping onto his forehead. “Hey, squirt. Wanna lick the cookie spoon?” He lowered his voice and looked shiftily side to side. “I won’t tell mommy if you won’t.”
Derek giggled and ran toward Mark, jumping up and squealing happily when he caught him and Iggy and swung them up in the air. Laura’s bears were abandoned on the stairs, only Iggy clutched tight in Derek’s small hand as Mark held up the spoon for him to lick cookie dough off of it. “Mmm.”
“That good, kiddo? Does Iggy want a bite too?” Derek nodded eagerly and held Iggy up, grinning with Mark touched the tip of the spoon to his lizard’s mouth.
“Yum!” Mark kissed the side of Derek’s head and bounced him lightly on his hip.
“You’re lookin’ a little droopy there, little guy. You think maybe we should go take a nap while these babies are cooking?” He waited until Derek considered it and nodded before carrying him into the living room and lying back on the couch. “Ahh. Now this is the life, huh, kid? Cookies baking, my favorite little boy on my lap, and his favorite friend. How are you doing today, mister iguana?”
Derek beamed, wiggling until he was lying on his belly on top of his father. “Me and Iggy just had a tea party with Laura’s bears. But then I smelled the cookies and so we came in here with you, papa.”
Mark poked Derek’s nose with a gentle finger and ran his hand over his hair. “That’s a good little nose you got there, baby boy. Make sure you pay attention, your nose will be able to tell you when our cookies are done.”
“Really?”
“Really really, Derek. But you have time for a nap first. Go on, get some sleep.” Lifting his chin, Mark let Derek settle under it and started up a low rumble deep in his chest. Ever since Laura was a baby he’d used this tactic to get the kids to sleep when nothing else worked. In minutes, Derek was out like a light, his mouth slack with sleep and his arms curled around Iggy.
~*~
Twenty five minutes later, Laura and Talia came back inside to find two sleeping boys on the couch in a house that smelled overwhelmingly like chocolate chip cookies. Putting a finger to her lips, Talia winked at Laura and moved into the kitchen, taking the cookies out of the oven and pushing them onto a large plate to cool. She picked up the plate and carried it into the living room, waving it under her boys’ noses while Laura stood beside her, giggling quietly.
Mark was the first to wake up, eyes blinking blearily open to see his smirking wife looking down at him and his sweet little girl giggling into her fist. “I forgot about the cookies,” he stated. Talia laughed, setting the plate down on the coffee table and running her fingers through Mark’s hair.
“Yes, you did. But you didn’t forget about naptime, so I guess I can count on you for some things.”
Mark gave her a blinding smile and sat up, shifting Derek easily onto his shoulder so he could reach for a cookie. He didn’t notice when Iggy fell off of his lap, but Derek did. He was up in an instant, bottom lip already quivering as he looked around. “Iggy? Daddy where’s-”
Laura plucked him up off of the floor and held him out, smile on her face. “He just fell down, Derek. He’s okay.”
Derek smiled and rubbed at his eye, sleepily reaching out for Talia with the hand holding Iggy. “Momma.”
Talia held out her hands and Mark passed Derek over, smiling when he snuggled right into Talia’s arms with a quiet sigh. “M’still sleepy, momma,” he whispered, tucking his head under her chin. Talia kissed the top of Derek’s head and rubbed his back, humming softly to him.
“Go to sleep, angel. These cookies will still be here when you wake up. And so will Iggy.”
Derek drifted to sleep with a smile on his face, one hand curled around his mother’s shirt, the other clutching Iggy tight to his chest.