Who: Izzy and Johnny When: Tuesday morning Where: Their home What: Weird Baby Things Rating/Warnings: none Status: Completed gdoc
When Max started fussing early morning Izzy knew she should be the one to go and see to him, not only would he want food but she’d left him with Johnny for almost the whole day yesterday so a little mommy time was probably needed. She’d had a great day training with Jace, then catching up with Alec and she knew she was lucky that Johnny was so good about it. It was nice for him to spend time with Max and gain more confidence too, he was a great dad. Just as Izzy knew he would be.
It was only as more light filtered through the window that Izzy noticed Max’s colour looked a little...odd.
***
Even just a couple of months ago Johnny wouldn’t have been comfortable taking care of Max on is own. He wouldn’t have trusted himself not to accidentally hurt his little tater tot. He’d never have thought it before Mad had actually come into their lives, but the stupid little baby was the most important thing ever to him. Now, things were pretty good. Good enough he could hang out and not worry about hurting or accidentally killing his kid or anything.
Even if Max had a weird preference for mushed up food. Johnny was pretty sure they were all weird, so maybe the one he liked was the least weird one. Kid had to have okay taste. He was Johnny and Izzy’s kid,after all.
He stirred a little when Izzy got up to go to the baby and after a moment he just got up after her with a groan. “He’s fine,” he insisted. “Just give him that dumb toy from Sue and come back to bed.”
***
It was definitely easier now Max was starting to eat actual baby food, though he still needed bottles he was starting to prefer the real food. Izzy was fine with that, the less time she had to express milk the happier she would be. Thankfully her experience of breast feeding hadn’t been too bad, she’d taken to it fairly well and she knew she was very lucky.
“I’m not so sure, come here” she said beckoning him over when she realised he’d gotten up, “Does his colour look a little off to you?”
***
There was definitely a part of Johnny that wanted to complain. He was always going to want for Izzy to just come back to bed, maybe be in the mood to fool around a little, for a while longer before they had to be responsible parents again. Being a responsible parent didn’t sound at all like Johnny anyway.
Crinkling his nose a little he moved to stand beside her, arms folded across his chest. “Like pale or something?” To him, Max looked a little...orange. But that had to just be the light in the room. “Should we check his temperature?”
Meaning her. He couldn’t do it. Everyone felt cool to him.
***
Normally Izzy would be more than happy to be convinced to go back to bed but her maternal instincts wouldn’t let that side of her win in this instance.
Izzy rested the back of her hand on Max’s head, “He feels okay” she said, “He just looks...well he looks orange, right?” she said with a frown, moving so Max was in the light a little more. “I don’t know of anything that can turn a baby orange. I don’t think there’s such a thing as carrot disease” The fact she was joking meant she wasn’t seriously worried, Max wasn’t fussing, he actually seemed very content and he wasn't hot or anything. He just looked like a small baby carrot at the moment.
***
Okay so he wasn’t crazy or seeing things. Orange was the colour of the day or something.
He was definitely didn’t look right.
“Hey, if you don’t know, I definitely don’t know.” Izzy was definitely more knowledgeable about all the baby stuff, though Johnny knew that wasn’t really saying much. He didn’t know a single thing he just kind of tried not to let Max get hurt and made sure he was fed and hoped for the best. He wasn’t a great parent. “But yeah, I guess he looks a little...orangey.”
Which would make sense if Johnny realized that Max’s food preference was exclusively mushed up carrots.
***
“Should we take him to the clinic?” Izzy asked, she wasn’t worried, almost all of the books she’d read said the baby would show signs of distress if there was something wrong but it was definitely not normal for Max to be orange.
“I mean he seems okay, I don’t want them to think we’re panicking parents or something” she said, forehead creasing with a frown.
***
Johnny definitely lived in the realm of panicking parent. He didn’t know the first thing about any of this. But he did also deeply care what people thought of him and of Izzy and of Max and the prospect of being told they were freaking out over something that babies just did, however weird it was, was not appealing.
He shook his head. “If he seems okay then maybe it’s no big deal?”
Except he was absolutely sure that their kid was not supposed to be orange.
***
Being the parents who freaked out over nothing wasn’t something Izzy wanted them to be known as either.
“Maybe” she nodded, “Do a search online? See if anything comes up? We can’t be the first parents who have had their kid suddenly turn orange” She wondered if it was a Madison thing again.
***
She was right. As always. Johnny sighed, turned to go back to the bedroom and get his phone, knowing any chance of happily going back to bed was out the window. Instead he was dealing with a weird coloured baby.
A quick search gave an answer right away. “Carotenemia…” he sounded out as he returned to Max’s room. “Excessive consumption of carotene-rich foods, such as carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes.” Well that explained that. “It says it’s no big deal?”
But it also didn’t say how to fix it.
***
It most likely wouldn’t be the only time they’d lose bed time for Max, that’s what happened when you had a baby. It wasn’t the part Izzy liked most, she too would much rather be snuggling with Johnny but she couldn’t do anything knowing she’d left her kid a weird colour without knowing what was going on.
“Well, that’s good. But how did he manage to eat enough to turn him....” she trailed off before raising an eyebrow at Johnny, “So exactly how much mushed up carrot did you feed him yesterday? You did give him other stuff right?” she asked, her lips quirking a little as she tried to keep a straight face. Had Johnny really fed Max enough carrot to turn him orange, there was no doubt Max would eat it. He was a little carrot piggy.
***
Thinking Johnny was at fault was probably smart. He recognized that. But still turned defensive immediately.
“Woah. Okay. First, why are we assuming I had anything to do with this? And second, it’s the only thing he’ll actually eat. I can’t just let him starve.”
Maybe the baby was just better behaved for her and he ate whatever she gave him. Not so with Johnny and any other flavour of food wound up spit out all over them both. The kid had some serious opinions. Johnny figured that at least he’d picked a vegetable to like so that had to be healthy.
***
It wasn’t that he was at fault, it was just more likely he’d been the one to feed Max a lot of carrot. It wasn’t harming him so Izzy didn’t think it was a problem.
“Does somebody other than us feed Max?” Izzy asked him, putting on as much honest wide eyed innocence as she could before laughing. “I am very glad he isn’t starving, I promise” she consoled Johnny, “But you might have to call him carrot instead of potato for however long this lasts” she pointed out.
It was true Max tended to be less fussy with Izzy, but it was perhaps because Johnny was a softer touch and the baby knew it. Smart little carrot potato that he was.
***
“Sweet potato,” Johnny immediately corrected. Those were orange, right? He wasn’t some kind of vegetable connoisseur or anything. “But he’s fine, right? Maybe we should take him to the doctor to be sure if he doesn’t go back to normal soon but….”
He shrugged. Really, worse things could happen.
“Maybe you should just handle feeding him until he gets over the nothing but carrots thing.” He didn’t like that, it wasn’t fair to Izzy and Johnny did try to be helpful wherever he could. Max was his kid too. But there were some things he was no good for and apparently dealing with the fussy eater was one of them.
***
Izzy laughed, “Ah of course” she said, she should have known Johnny would come up with something to keep the potato theme going. So far he wasn’t getting bored of it and Izzy found it pretty cute. “Yeah maybe give it a day or so and if he’s not back then we can take him in just to be sure”
She smiled, “We can feed him together for a while, he just needs to learn you aren’t a pushover, that’s all” Max was already a smart kid even for almost one and he’d only get worse as he got older if they let him get away with it now. She moved closer to Johnny “You’re a great dad Johnny, the best Max could have” she assured him, pressing a kiss to Johnny’s lips.
***
Johnny didn’t buy that for a second, he was okay at best but he tried and knew that counted for something.
“Hm. Wrong on two counts because I’m definitely a pushover.” He was always going to give in and he knew that. It was cool. Izzy could be the strict one with rules and crap and he’d be the cool one who just made his kid happy. That sounded great.
That probably wasn’t a great parenting tactic but it was what he was going with for now.
“But put that baby back to bed and I’ll show you how great I am at something else.”
***
It counted for everything in Izzy’s opinion since it was all either of them could do. Neither of them were experts at this parenting gig.
She couldn’t really complain about being the disciplinarian, it definitely came more naturally to her than Johnny. She was used to bossing other people around, despite her brother being older than her she’d always taken charge a bit.
“Sorry Max, your daddy wins this round” she told the now sleeping baby as she gently lay him in his crib before turning to Johnny with a wicked smile, “You better not be all talk Mr Storm” she teased him.
***
He hadn’t expected that to work, it only did about half the time these days, and that went both ways. A kid made it easy to say not right now and to have other things to worry about.
He grinned, cast a quick glance toward Max to make sure he wasn’t going to wake up before just pulling Izzy along with him. “I’m a lot of talk,” he joked right back, voice quiet so as not to disturb the baby. “But I’ll make good on it.”
***
It was true that since Max there had been times when both of them hadn’t been in the mood but Izzy was feeling kind of good about them right then. They’d dealt with a situation new and kind of scary calmly and not freaked out, she was damn proud. “You better” she grinned before happily following as he led them back to their bed.