terribly sorry, officer (baelfiery) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-07-23 12:16:00 |
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Time went by far too quickly for Splendid's taste. She was another year older, Valerian was nearing that one year mark and all Splendid could think was how fast the time had gone by. She'd offered to help Neal with homemade diaper wipes, and while she'd brought the clothes to him that Valerian had outgrown at that time, she'd yet to show him how to make wipes and now their little one was there. Splendid had more clothes to bring them, things that Valerian had outgrown in the last few months, and a few other gifts for their new addition. She'd spoken to Neal briefly, agreeing to come over to show him how to make wipes and bring a few other things by. Pulling into the driveway, she parked and then took Valerian out of his car seat and pulled his diaper bag up on her shoulder. With her free hand she grabbed the bags that she needed, although there was another trash bag full of clothes that she couldn't manage right then. Going up to the front door she gave a soft knock, hoping that she didn't wake the little one up since she knew how hard it could be to get them back to sleep. Needless to say, it had been an action-packed week or so. What with the appearance of green portals, monsters, flying monkeys, oh my - and the culminating event was of course Nikolas’ birth, proving he was a patriotic baby by choosing to make his entrance into the world on the 4th of July. From then on, it was a madhouse at the Cassidy-Swan abode - visitors, getting into a schedule of caring for the newborn, cleaning up, other household chores. Even the dogs were a little frazzled, and tired, which was why they didn’t stir at the knock when it came. Neal was in the process of folding the upteenth load of laundry all spread out in the living room, while Niko slept in his bassinet nearby. It was a rare moment of down time, and even something as monotonous as folding shirts and balling up pairs of socks was a way for him to feel at least a little relaxed. He was expecting Splendid though, and went to let her in. “Hey,” he greeted her; he was exhausted, yet happy, and his goofy expression probably reflected as much. None of this, he would trade for anything. “Come on in - what's up, Valerian,” damn, the kid was growing rapidly, and Neal had to give him a brief belly tickle. “I can help bring some stuff inside if you need?” He wasn’t sure what else she had with her, but more arms could be of use. She could see the tiredness on Neal's face, and it was a look that Splendid understood all too well. Valerian had, however, slept through the night most of the time except when he'd been teething."Hello," She replied, chuckling as Valerian wiggled and giggled at the belly tickle, a tiny chubby hand going to his belly where Neal had tickled him. "The only thing left in the car is a bag of clothes that this one here has grown out of." In Splendid's opinion it was cheaper and easier to get clothes from other people rather than buy them since they outgrew them so quickly. "But I think those can wait. I want to meet the little one." Splendid sat down the bags she had in her other hand, and then put down the diaper bag. "You want to see the baby?" She asked Valerian, reaching over to smooth down his dirty blonde hair before kissing one cheek. He made a gurgling sound, and Splendid moved over to the bassinet to look down at Niko. Her features softened, and then she looked over at Neal, "Oh, he's beautiful, Neal. Congratulations to you both." She shifted Valerian slightly on her hip, the toddler looking down at the baby as well with his fist now stuffed into his mouth. Splendid was thankful that he wasn't loud like so many toddlers, at home it was a different story, but out? He was quiet and observant more often than not. Not wanting to disturb the sleeping infant, Splendid took a step back before she spoke. "I brought everything that we'll need to make the wipes, and the butt cream. Which is seriously a lifesaver, or tushie saver, whichever." Neal couldn’t help but let one of those proud, father smiles light up his whole face when Splendid complimented the little butterball. How Emma pushed him out, he had no idea - but he was definitely a healthy baby. And he looked so angelic when he slept - a lot more so than when his face was all scrunched, during bouts of wailing. “Thanks a bunch, Splendid. And for coming over to help with the organic stuff, I really appreciate it,” he said, grateful for the assistance, truly - because he hadn’t even considered the whole homemade butt wipe approach. A pile of laundry was moved from the coffee table, everything piled on the armchair in the living room, and he had space for setting up shop. “Here, will this work?” he asked. “We should have enough room to spread everything out.” And hopefully Niko would remain conked out for the duration, but if not, Neal was ready to grab a bottle from the fridge or change the upteenth diaper. "Oh you're welcome." Splendid replied with a bright smile. She was always happy to help out as much as she could, and besides, it helped her get out of the house as well. She found that these days she spent more time inside than out, which wasn't bad but she did appreciate being able to get out and spend time with people that she liked. "That'll be fine." Splendid nodded, "Just let me get little man settled here." She glanced over at Valerian, before leaning in to kiss one cheek which caused the toddler to giggle. Putting his diaper bag down, she reached in and pulled out a blanket with one hand. She spread the blanket out close to the coffee table, and then sat Valerian down onto the blanket. Pulling a few toys from the bag, she handed them off to him with a smile. "Alright so," Splendid went back over to the bags to pick up the ingredients for the wipes, "normally we'd have to warm the water, but I think it'll be alright." She pulled the gallon of distilled water from one of the bags, the plastic feeling warm to the touch since it'd been in the trunk of her car while she'd been running back and forth to load. "We'll need measuring cups and spoons too, if you don't mind getting those." She continued to lay out the various ingredients that they'd need, along with some paper towels. "Oh and a knife that can cut through these." She pointed at the paper towels. “Measuring cups, spoons, a knife,” Neal nodded, giving Splendid a salute. “Got it.” He was back up again, heading for the kitchen to find what they needed - it didn’t take him long, since he knew where everything was anyway. In the Swan-Cassidy household, it was Neal who was pretty domestic with a lot of the cooking and cleaning. Mostly because Emma’s talents lay in, uh, other areas besides food prep - and the further along she got in her pregnancy, the more bedrest she was told to take. So he simply got used to being Mr. Mom, or however the expression went. From the cupboard, the plastic measuring cups with matching set of spoons were procured. He also found a decent enough cutting knife to bring back into the living room. “How’s this?” he inquired, adding everything to the collection - the jug of water and the paper towels, along with the rest of the magic here. He was curious about the recipe, and how everything would turn out. “Just consider me your willing and eager to learn student.” Chuckling, Splendid removed the other few things that they would need, all the while keeping a close eye on Valerian. He, fortunately enough, was happy playing with the toys that she'd given him. He was always happy to entertain himself, for a time anyway, before he wanted to get up, crawl and try to pull up on any surface that he thought he could. It was then that he tended to get fussy, but that was only because he became frustrated that he couldn't do as he pleased. "That's perfect." Splendid replied, "Alright, so we'll cut the paper towel roll in half first." Splendid was careful in cutting the roll right down the middle, and she swept the extra bits that had been shaved off into her hand before dumping them into one of the now empty bags. "Next we'll follow this." She pushed a piece of paper toward Neal which read 1 ¾'s cup of water, 1 tablespoon of pure aloe extract, 1 tablespoon of pure witch hazel extract, 1 teaspoon of liquid castile soap, 2 vitamin E capsules, 1 teaspoon of olive oil and then drops of essential oil if wanted. "You can substitute almond oil for the olive oil, but with nut allergies I tend to err on the side of caution and would say go with olive oil until you know if he's allergic or not." She'd been thoughtful enough to bring over two rubbermaid containers that were large enough to hold the rolls since she found it was easier to roll them off than to try and fold them into smaller containers. She did, however, have some in Valerian's diaper bag that she had folded, but that was a small container so it didn't take too long. Pulling out a bowl, the one she actually used for mixing at home, she motioned to the recipe. "Now all you do is pour everything in. I brought over some lavender essential oil, since that's what I use but you can use anything that you like." Oh, hey. Lavender, how fancy. Neal took the cap off the bottle, giving the contents an experimental sniff. “Smells good, kind of soothing - I think he’d like this wiping his butt, and he’d smell like a garden of fresh flowers afterward,” was the decision. But damn, looking over the paper with the written instructions and ingredients on it? Seemed kind of complicated - and he wouldn’t have known where the hell to find Vitamin E capsules or castille soap. The liquid kind? What the hell? Some kind of whole foods, organic market maybe. This was all new territory for him. “You’re a savior, Splendid,” he laughed sheepishly, as he began measuring and mixing - he could handle that, at least. “Do we pour it all on the cut paper towels, or dip them?” Probably would take an eon to dip them, so he assumed the first - and then you just let the mixture soak in, and be absorbed. "It's supposed to have a calming effect. At least, that's what I've heard all of my life." Splendid shrugged, and then watched as he looked through everything. It could be a bit overwhelming. She'd not known where to find anything either, so a lot of things she'd just ordered online from amazon and other retail chains. "I figure it's better than all of the chemicals in wipes." Some were linked to cancer and other things which boggled Splendid's mind. Maybe that was one of the many reasons why their nation was so sickly when it came to things of that nature. "You'll pour it over the paper towels. Which, these two are yours. If you want to use smaller packages that you can take with you? You'll have to unroll the paper towels and then fold them to fit. Which is a pain, let me tell you." She chuckled softly with a shake of her head, "We'll let it soak for 10 minutes, then flip it to make sure that it soaks up the rest." She placed the paper towels into their respective containers, carefully pulling up one corner so it would unroll without any issues. "You can, eventually, use old t-shirts cut into squares or any other soft material like that. I don't personally do it since I have enough laundry to do, but it's possible." “Yeah, I would imagine, since you do the cloth diapers,” Neal nodded. That definitely made for a shit ton of laundry - babies, with their small digestive systems, went through diapers like wildfire. As he was rapidly learning. “I’m all for convenience and saving time, so let’s pour and see what happens.” No need to fold the paper towels to fit - grab and go was probably his philosophy at this point. Once the mixture was all set (and smelling like a rose!), he carefully poured it over the cut paper towels, evenly, letting it be soaked through. This was actually kind of fun - relaxing, maybe? Also sad that making baby wipes was Neal’s idea of fun these days, but that was parenthood for you. “Not bad. Really easy too. Is the butt cream also that simple?” "I swear, when he's ready to potty train? I'm going to be all over that." Splendid laughed softly with a small shake of her head. As it was, Valerian was just pulling up and taking a few steps here and there with some guidance. Splendid knew it wouldn't be much longer before he was up, running around and getting into everything. That was something she wasn't looking forward to, but she did want her son to be more mobile. She too was all for convenience, and she watched as he poured everything into the containers and over the power towels. "It is." She nodded, as she put the lids onto the containers. "It's just a matter of squeezing out a few tubes into a container. It is more expensive than buying the over the counter stuff, but it works so much better." She'd tried a few of the over the counter diaper rash creams, and none of them had worked as well as this one had. With that she pulled out yet another container, this one small enough to just contain what they needed. "All you'll have to do is mix about half the A + D ointment, the entire tube of zinc oxide, the entire tube of the bacitracin, and then add in the Maalox as you mix to get the right consistency down. It should be paste like, not too thin or thick." She also slid over another small card that had all of the actual measurements in regards to the tubes. Splendid just happened to buy the tubes that were the smallest in order to get the right amount into the tub. Wait, Maalox? Really? Neal was pleasantly skeptical. “Like the stuff for heartburn, that helps with diaper rash?” he wanted to know, because he had no idea, but he guessed it sounded plausible. There were all sorts of home remedies that one could whip up for a variety of purposes from things you found in your own cabinet or fridge and, hey, you learned something new everyday. He got busy measuring out the ingredients and mixing them together, brow knitted in concentration as he observed what he was doing to ensure the right consistency was found. “Not too thick, not too thin, just right - like Goldilocks,” he grinned, presenting the container when he was done - there weren’t many ingredients anyway, which was nice, and it looked pretty good to him. For his first attempt. “Did I pass the butt cream test too?” "Mhm," Splendid replied with a nod, "it neutralizes the acid in urine as well. At least, that's my assumption on what it does." Splendid figured that was what it did, at least, it made the most sense to her. Her eyes went over to Valerian to check in on him. He was still happily playing with his toys, and not yet trying to move off the blanket. Splendid figured it wouldn't be long until he was crawling around, and trying to pull up on the coffee table where they were working at. She watched Neal as he worked, ready to offer any help that he might need. She chuckled, "That's basically the gist of it." It was looking good so far from what she was seeing, and then once he was finished, Splendid peered down into the container. "I think you get an A+ for today's lesson." Splendid gave a small nod and a smile as she looked over at Neal. "So what do you think? Simple enough right?" It hadn't taken them too long, and in her opinion things were super simple to make. All it took was just a bit of time. “Definitely simple enough, way easy - I’m gonna keep at it,” Neal promised, and he knew Emma found the whole ‘organic’ route to be amusing, that he was going for it with gusto, but he really did want the best and most wholesome products for Niko’s sensitive tush. Plus, all those chemicals were gross, right? “Thanks again for this, Splendid.” Sure enough, Valerian came on by then - seemed like one second he was on the blanket, peacefully, and then another second later he was a baby Godzilla threatening the pristine homemade things his mom and Neal had just put together. “Oh, hey there - you move pretty quick, don’t you?” Neal laughed, picking up the little crawling crumb gobbler (wow, he was getting big!) and plopping Valerian into his lap. “Niko will be up and hungry soon, I’m guessing. How about a snack?” he suggested. "Oh he's such a little monster." She reached over to tickle Valerian's stomach, and shook her head. "I didn't think he'd sit still for much longer, and he is moving quickly. I really am dreading the moment he figures out how to walk." She laughed, wishing that she could keep time still even if it was just for a little bit to enjoy her son more. It was amazing how big he was getting, and that he'd be a year old quite soon. Splendid had to get things together for his birthday party, and quick. "Most likely.." Splendid was, admittedly, getting a bit hungry herself and she figured Valerian would be complaining soon as well. "Snacks sound good though, and anytime I can help with anything you let me know." Splendid meant that, she would help as much as she could even though she really didn't have a ton of experience being a mom. It was still a learning process, but she was happy to share what little bit of knowledge that she had. |