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Andreina
Andi loved both her parents. Even at the age of six months, it was clear Andreina absolutely adored both her parents. And Carla knew this.
But she couldn’t help but think that her daughter preferred Monty just a tad more than her.
“You can’t keep rushing to her over the smallest cry, Monty.” Carla cocked an eyebrow from her vantage point in the doorway as she watched her husband rush to pick up the fussy infant from her crib. She pushes herself off the open frame and walks towards them. Andi had completely stopped crying, crocodile tears drying on her chubby cheeks. Carla takes her thumb and gently cleans the soft skin. “How is she gonna learn to be self-sufficient if she knows her dad is always gonna comfort her?”
Monty tsk’ed with a playful roll of his eyes as he brought his attention back to Andi. “She can be independent and know that her father will always be there for her. Monty pecked the babbling baby in his arms and lightly shoved his nose in her short tufts of hair, Andi laughing as he did so.
Carla felt her heart warm at the sweet sight, but one of them had to put their foot down. She was going back to work in a couple of weeks, and Andreina needed to be less dependent. “Okay, that’s enough.” Both Monty and Andi turn to face her, Monty squeezing the girl in his arms tighter on reflex. Carla held her arms out, gesturing to her husband to give her the baby. Andi looked between the two of them with her adorable, wide green eyes.
Sighing, Monty gave Andreina one last kiss on the temple before handing her off to his wife.
The second Monty let go, Andi started screaming.
They both jump back. She hadn’t cried like that since she was a newborn, her cheeks red and quickly growing wetter as she wailed. She squirmed, kicking her tiny feet as she reached for Monty. For as dramatic as she was being, it only lasted fifteen seconds. In a flash, Monty took the baby out of Carla’s arms and started to soothe her.
Okay, rude.
“Oh, Darling, I’m so sorry!” He started to chuckle as Andi started to settle in his arms. “I’m sorry I gave you to the mean lady!” Carla let out a single humorless chuckle as she placed her hands on her hips, astounded.
Like clockwork, Andi quieted down and nuzzled her tiny head in the crook of her dad’s neck while sniffling. That used to be Carla’s favorite place to lay her head; the irony was not lost on her.
“Woooow, I see how it is.” Clicking her teeth and looking away, her eyes landing the framed photos of a newborn Andreina hung on a wall above her dresser.
Monty laughed in response, stepping closer to his wife as he cuddled the baby deeper into his narrow chest. He pecked Carla on the temple as he did Andi. “It’s not my fault, you can’t expect to stay her favorite when you keep depriving her of affection.” Carla gave him a look.
“I’m putting her down for a nap and walking out of the room. I would hardly consider that child neglect.” Carla looked down at the now calm baby with tear-stained cheeks and redened eyes. She couldn’t stay mad at her, not when she looked at her with the same pout Monty gave her on occasion.
Monty watched as Carla took Andi’s face in her hands and wiped her tears, crowding their faces together as Carla started to whisper to the girl in Spanish. With Monty’s limited knowledge of the language, he could pick up on phrases such as: “…nine months and thirty hours of labor, and this is how you treat me?”
Andreina giggled as she raised her chubby arms to hold on to Carla’s hands.
Calante
They say boys are usually more attached to their mothers when they are young, but seeing as though Andi still clung to her dad even at three years of age, Monty was pretty confident Calante would still prefer him to Carla.
Not that it was a competition, of course.
But if it were a competition, they would be tied.
A newborn wailing loudly in the wee hours of the early morning. Carla sat up on instinct, her eyes still closed as she robotically swung her legs over the bed. She feels an arm, gentle but firm, pull her back.
“I got him.” Monty rolled over to move off the bed, wincing as his legs began to ache when his feet hit the hardwood. Carla opened her mouth to insist that she be the one to get him, but Monty silenced her with an open palm and a pained groan as he stood up. “I got him.” He muttered, mostly to himself as he hobbled to the nursery.
Carla knew her husband was stubborn; she only hoped she could get up faster next time Calante woke up. She turned her head to the side and nuzzled into her pillow, letting her eyes slowly shut, and the world around her started to fade.
That was until she awoke with a jolt to Monty standing over her with their baby still screaming his tiny lungs out. “I-I’m sorry, Carla, I-I tried to calm him down but…” He trails off as Carla wordlessly sits up and holds her arms out for Monty to hand her the baby, squirming out of his blanket.
Calante began to still in her arms, quieting as his eyes opened to see his mom looking down at him with fond annoyance. Carla looked back up and watched as Monty flopped down onto the bed face-first, his legs collapsing beneath him as he let out a pained sigh. “Did you try feeding him?” Carla asks while rocking a fussy Calante, already knowing the answer.
“Of course, I tried everything.” The blankets muffled Monty's voice. He turned his head, letting Carla finally get a good view of his face. His hair was a fluffy, unkempt mess, and the bags under his eyes were large and darkened. She watched as his pupils struggled to focus on her without his glasses. “He’s been going on for ten minutes, and I didn’t know what to do.” He raised his hand to rest on Carla’s elbow lightly. “Sorry for waking you.”
“It’s fine, he probably just wanted his mom.” She gave the baby a tired smile as he finally quieted down. “I just hope Andi didn’t wake up.” Carla sighed as she rocked Calante in her arms.
Monty snickered and stretched his arms up over his head. “You can shoot fireworks in her room, and Andi still wouldn’t wake up.”
“True, I guess.” Carla tiredly giggled. The couple sat in silence as they watched Calante fight sleep, his tiny eyelids struggling to stay open. As if he closed them, his mom would cease to exist. It didn’t take long for the exhaustion to overtake the baby, soft snores coming from the tiny blanket in her arms.
“It’s just so unfair…” Monty whispered to himself, half in astonishment and half in offence.
“What is?” Carla asked with a shit-eating grin on her chapped lips.
“How can you just calm him down like that!” He whisper yelled, sitting up to get a better view of his wife and newborn, fast asleep in her arms.
“Ohhhh, now it’s not fair!” Carla giggled, recalling how Andreina acted with Monty. “It’s not my fault, I’m the only one who gives him affection.” She nuzzled her nose to his, carful to not wake him.
“I would love to give him affection,” He starts making space and molding the blankets into an oval shape in the middle of their bed, right between their pillows. “But every time I try, he either starts screaming or reaches out for you!” Carla gently placed Calante in the make-shift cradle, careful not to jostle him too much.
“He’s barely a month old, Monty, he can’t reach yet.” Carla lifted her arms above her in a long stretch before slowly lying back down underneath the covers.
“My point still stands.” Monty does the same with a yawn, placing a protective hand over the infants blanket-cover stomach.
Carla watches as both boys yawn at the same time in the same way before falling into soft snores with a content smile on her face.
Matteo
Unlike his older siblings, Matteo didn’t have a favorite parent. When he was a baby, he didn’t care who came to him when he cried to feed him or cuddled him, as long as it got done by somebody. All things considered, he was a fairly easy child.
At least in comparison to his brother and sister.
Matteo watched helplessly as his older siblings argued over what to watch on TV. They were between some action show from their parents' childhood or a Disney movie Andi had seen over a thousand times by now. Matteo would have gotten a say if he could say anything other than ‘Dada’ or ‘Here’.
The argument was starting to get heated. Matteo never liked listening to his siblings argue, mostly because it always ended in something being thrown across the room. And small children aren’t known for their impeccable aim.
Calante was punished for a whole day after he threw a controller dangerously close to Matteo’s head.
Matteo’s bottom lip started to quiver with the accelerating fight. He wrapped his tiny fists on the bars of his playpen in protest, his small wails quickly turning full blown tears as his siblings ignored him in favor of arguing.
The door to the playroom opens just as quickly as the thick tears start to flow from Matteo’s eyes. As Carla steps into the room, the warring siblings shut their mouths in a tentative truce and separate, feigning innocence. Carla glares at the two children as she passes, reaching into the plastic playpen and pulling Matteo out to soothe him. “Hi, Mommy!” The four-year-old Calante attempts to act naturally. But, due to the fact that he was four, he was failing miserably.
“We already heard you two fighting!” His dad called out from the hallway, at the same time Carla turned towards her two oldests with Matteo sitting in her arms with a stern look on her face.
“I asked you guys to watch your brother while your Dad and I work; all you had to do was pick a movie.” Carla’s face showed a mixture of disappointment and exhaustion, but not quite anger yet.
“Sorry, Mommy.” Both kids bashfully apologize as Carla takes the remote off the TV stand and puts on some show they’ve watched a million times by now. Both children almost immediately become enraptured by the program. Andi walks to take her seat in her designated beanbag, where her favorite purple plush cat waits for her.
Carla rolled her eyes with a fond sigh before walking out of the room, shutting the door behind her. She then turned her attention to the sniffling baby in her arms. “Did they scare you, ‘Teo?” She playfully laughs as Matteo reaches a fist up to grab at her curly hair. “You just needed your favorite parent to come rescue you.”
“If that we’re true, I would’ve come get him.” Monty exited the office across from the kids’ playroom. When Matteo saw him, his chubby hands stopped trying to bring Carla’s hair into his mouth and reached for him, causing Carla to hold him tighter to him.
“Umm, I think I got it right? I thought we established I’m his favorite?”
“I remember you saying that, but I don’t think I agreed.” Monty chuckled, tilting his head to the side with the same cocky grin that even after all these years Carla still detested. “If you were his favorite, maybe he would’ve say you’re name first.” Monty loved to gloat that ‘Dada’ was now one of their kid’s first words, with Calante being the exception with ‘Ball’ and ‘Mama’ within a week of each other.
“And if you were his favorite, he would’ve crawled to you first.” Carla stepped closer, with Matteo in the middle of them, looking back and forth, confused.
They were joking, of course.
Mostly.
As the whispered argument went on, Matteo grew more and more distressed. Looking between the two of them with tears in his eyes that threatened to fall again for the second time that day.
“I’m sorry, who carried him for nine months?”
“Oh, you love to throw that in my face-”
A loud (and frankly dramatic) wail comes out of the small child in the middle of them, cutting off whatever (probably sexist) thing Monty was gonna say next. They quickly divert all their attention to Matteo, Carla pulling him up higher, and Monty taking his cheeks into his hands to wipe away the tears.
“I don’t think he likes it when we fight,” Monty commented after the crocodile tears subsided after a few seconds.
“Let’s just agree to disagree, alright.” Carla turned towards Monty with a fond smile that her husband kissed in response.
“For now.”