Tarin was now asking about what they, or probably more accurately she, would do if Michael started crying again since he has already eaten.

"Well, unless it's obvious that he's frustrated he not doing something he's trying to do," Lee explained, looking down to see that Michael was just about finished his bottle. "I'd start by checking his diaper. If that's clean, or he's still crying after being changed, it could be he's not feeling well, or is uncomfortable, or misses his parents."

Lee shrugged as she took the bottle away from Michael's mouth since he was still trying to drink even though it was empty. "Basically go down a list of things that potentially could be wrong and hope one of them works. There are times when you either can't figure it out, or there's no real way to fix the problem.

"And sometimes," Lee continued, looking up at Tarin as she sat Michael up on her leg again. "They just have a bad day, just like we can, and let everyone around them know that."

Tarin then said that he could probably help with the playing, and when he picked up the toy lion, Michael immediately started babbling and reached for it. "Well, it sure looks like he wants you to," Lee said.

So it was basically a process of elimination Tarin decided. A guessing game over and over again to figure out what a baby wanted when it was crying. God, that sounded awful. Sure, it was fine for a few hours, but it was no wonder that infant parents were always portrayed looking like they were a single missed cup of coffee away from the edge. ”That sounds awful.” he said, but was smiling just a little bit. Surely it was worth it if people sometimes had more than one kid.

And Lee continued. Sometimes even when you’d tried everything, they were still just mad at the world. Tarin kind of understood that part. They’d discussed several times how babies were whole little people. It would be frustrating to want something and not be able to express what it was that you wanted. Hell, it was frustrating as an adult to know something and not be able to put it into words. Tarin knew that first hand.

Michael saw his toy lion and it was apparently another favorite. Holding it up, Tarin shook it a little bit and Michael reached, snagging one of the legs. As Michael pulled, Tarin booped the baby's little nose with the lion’s face and was rewarded with a bubbly little giggle.

Well that was a surprise and it was impossible to avoid grinning at the sound. This was vastly preferable to the crying. So Tarin did it again and got another giggle.

”Well, that’s just cute.” he said, letting go of the lion so Michael could immediately try to eat it.

Awful was an understatement when you were so tired you could barely keep your eyes open. "It really can be," Lee agreed.

"But then you have times like this," Lee continued when she heard Michael's giggle. "And hope that they turn out even close to how Kevin has, and it's worth it."

Lee sat and watched Tarin interacting with the baby and her smile widened even more. It was so cute, both of them were, Lee didn't think it would be possible to not smile.


"Though maybe I had that part a little easier," Lee mused softly after a few moments. "As long as I was able to get out and around people, I didn't have to deal with any of that while exhausted. And no matter how long Kevin fought and wouldn't sleep, I didn't have to worry about being able to stay up, or ended up begging him to sleep so I could get some rest."

Tarin hadn’t really expected Lee to agree when he said that dealing with a baby when you couldn’t figure out what they wanted was awful. Tarin supposed it was like anything though, the bad times made the good times even better and the good times made the bad times worth it.

Lee echoed that sentiment a few moments later as Michael giggled and played with his little lion and she mentioned Kevin again. Tarin could see it. Yes babies grew into their own people with their own personalities who made their own choices…but there had to be something incredibly satisfying about seeing that child be successful. They’d already discussed how great Kevin was so Tarin just nodded thoughtfully.

Lee was thoughtful again and mused that she’d been able to avoid some of that exhaustion and Tarin gave a thoughtful little, ”Huh, that’s definitely a silver lining.” he said and thought for a moment, “Did Kevin do that a lot? Fight sleeping?” Tarin added, picking up the little lion again.

They went on like that for a few minutes, playing the boop game with the lion and an increasingly giggly and wiggly Michael.

”I think I’m winding him up.” Tarin said after a particularly energetic squeal. “Maybe we ought to chill out a bit.”

Remembering that the game was on, Tarin glanced over at the TV. Top of the third? Still scoreless. Huh. Babies were distracting.

Lee shook her head when Tarin asked if Kevin fought sleep often. "No, not really that often," Lee said. "Sometimes when he was sick. There were a couple times when he just would not sleep for longer than an hour at a time. And every spring without fail, he has about a week where he just has trouble sleeping and then everything goes back to normal."

Tarin grabbed that lion again, booping Michael on the nose again a few more times, getting a more and more excited reaction from the baby each time.

"We could," Lee agreed with the idea to chill out. "Or it could tire him out so he sleeps easier."

Lee grinned even wider, happily but slightly teasing, as she looked at Tarin. "But if you're done playing, we can go back to watching the game."

Ooof. Tarin hadn’t even thought about that it would be like to have a sick baby. They probably couldn’t do things like blow their noses or take medicine. Yet another check in the awful column.

Tarin wondered if Lee meant that Kevin still had trouble sleeping in the spring. ”I feel like I read somewhere that daylight savings time messes with our circadian rhythm. Maybe that’s it?”

The more important thing right now was that hgMichael was still happy and Tarin shrugged when Lee suggested all the play might wear the boy out.

Reaching out again, Tarin grabbed the jellyfish and dangled it where Michael could see and the lion fell onto the couch as the baby lunged once more for the jellyfish.

Tarin held on to it and let out a little laugh of his own when Michalel still managed to get one of the legs of the thing in his mouth.

”The game is on…” Tarin said juggling and tugging on the jellyfish to make it jingle and crinkle as the baby reached his little uncoordinated arms and tried to grab.

Lee thought about it for a few moments. She had heard that daylight savings messed with people's, not just baby's, circadian rhythms. And there had been quite a few years that Lee thought that's what it was.

"That's possible," Lee agreed with a nod as she watched Tarin grab the jellyfish again. Only for Michael to drop the lion and lunge for the other toy almost instantly.

"There's been a few years when I swear he's started before the time change," Lee continued, smiling as she watched Tarin playing with Michael some more.He seemed to not only be enjoying it, but Tarin was doing a good job playing with Michael, getting plenty of giggles and squeals out of the boy.

"You're right, the game is on," Lee agreed, though her eyes were on Tarin the entire time. "But we don't have to watch every game. Surly wearing the hat while the game on is enough magic, right?"

Lee didn’t seem convinced that it was daylight savings time that messed with Kevin’s sleep cycle. Well, Tarin figured, she would know better than he would. Maybe it just had something to do with the days being longer…who knew?

Something Tarin did know was that the jellyfish toy was solid gold as far as entertainment for a baby was concerned. Every time the thing crinkled or jingled or bounced, Michael got excited all over again.

Jigging the little toy again, Tarin let Michael grab ahold of it, though the goal for the little guy didn’t seem to be winning tug-of-war, just getting the toy into his mouth as much and as fast as humanly possible. Still, when Tarin pulled it away and dangled the little legs over the boby’s face he didn’t get upset, just went to grab at it again with chubby hands..

Lee pointed out that even though the game was on they didn’t necessarily need to watch it since they had the hats on and Tarin shrugged, ”One of the best things about baseball is that it’s easy to catch up if you miss a little.” he said, ”Besides, I know that the Mets have two on base and only one out since we put the hats on. The commentary does a good job keeping up.”

This time when Michael grabbed the toy, Tarin let the baby pull it from his grasp, it went immediately into the mouth, ”Guess you win round two…” he said, giving those little curls a tousle before settling back into the couch and draping his arm behind Lee.

Lee had to admit that Tarin was right in that it was pretty easy to get caught up with baseball. There had been times in the past that they had only tuned into the game late and it took next to no time to figure out what was going on. Or, more often, they had gotten distracted in the middle of the game, starting to pay attention again a fair time later.

"Well, that's good," Lee replied regarding how the game was going. Though she continued to smile softly at Tarin.

Tarin then let Michael 'win' the second round with the jellyfish before he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Lee smiled as she leaned into Tarin, only looking away from him at this point to rest her head against his shoulder. "This is rather nice, though," Lee murmured after a couple of moments, glancing between the tv and the baby.

Lee was smiling an interesting little smile at him and Tarin tilted his head slightly, ”What?” he asked, as she pointed out that it was good that the commentary made things easy to follow. Lee already knew that for a fact, but Tarin just mentally shrugged it off.

The game was getting into a stride though and the Mets had managed to knock in a couple of runs so the score hit 2-0 before the half inning ended. Lee was still smiling at him though and Tarin shook his head slightly trying to figure out what she could possibly be so tickled about.

Lee finally looked away though and snuggled into his shoulder so for a few moments they just watched the game. Then Lee spoke softly, but not so softly that Tarin couldn’t hear the words.

This was nice? They did this all the time. The only thing that was different was…

”It is kind of nice now that he’s not screaming his head off…” Tarin said thoughtfully, wishing he could see Lee’s face, but it was covered by the bill of her hat. ”I would probably not mind too much if you offered to babysit again sometime.”

"What?"

Lee just shrugged when Tarin spoke. There really wasn't much reason to explain what she had been thinking about. Especially not with Michael there and Kevin able to walk out of his room any moment.

Having no screaming baby was a vast improvement to how things had been before.

When Tarin mentioned that he wouldn't mind babysitting again, well, that he wouldn't mind if she offered to babysit again, Lee turned to smile up at him again. "That is good to know," Lee replied. "Hopefully he'll be happy and relatively quiet until Shin gets back."

When he tried to get her to explain what that little smile had been about Lee just shrugged and Tarin almost pushed for more, but let the topic drop. If she didn’t want to tell him what she’d been thinking about, then she wasn’t going to and there probably wasn’t anything Tarin could do about it. It was better to simply preserve the peace and let the matter rest.

The game was still 2-0 and the Mets pitcher had had a good half inning so the Mets were up to bat again. Hopefully the trend would continue. There really weren’t all that many games left in the season.

Lee seemed happy that Tarin was open to the idea of babysitting again sometime though and that made him smile as she looked up at him.

”He really does seem pretty easy to please. I don’t know what we would have done without that jellyfish though. Better make sure it gets back in the bag when Shin gets here.”

Michael was happy at this point, crinkling and gnawing away at the toy. ”And he has to come back…how else would he ever get his hat?”

It was nice, but a little strange, to find out that she had been right about the hat and the interdimensional magic working whether they were watching the game or not as the Mets were up by 2 and they had just made their third out so they were about to be at bat again. A much better position than they had been in before Tarin had put the hat on her head.

It really was starting t get a little freaky how that always seemed to work out.

"Oh definitely," Lee agreed. "I have the feeling that this is a toy he frequently plays with no matter where he is. If that's the case, it'd be the end of the world if we forget to send it home with him."

When Tarin brought up the fact that Michael wouldn't get his Mets hat if Lee didn't babysit him again, she laughed slightly. "That's a good point. But what happens if the season is over the next time I babysit Michael?"

Lee was probably right. Tarin didn’t want to think about what would happen if Michael ended up at home without his jellyfish. It definitely wouldn’t land any of them in Shin and Kealey’s good graces.

The lion was still there somewhere too and Tarin took a minute to find it and set it on his lap so it didn’t end up down the side of the couch or anything. ”This thing is awfully cute too.” he said, holding it up and giving it a shake in front of Michael. The baby was not nearly as impressed by the lion as he was by his jellyfish though.

Lee seemed to accept Tarin’s point about needing to babysit again so they could make sure Michael got his Mets hat. She kept talking though and Tarin sighed. It was too fair a point, even if it was super sad.

”Only a month left….” she said, ”And then a long cold winter…with no baseball” He paused for a moment, “There was like a one percent chance we could still make the wild card game though…”

Lee watched as Tarin tried to distract Michael with the lion again, but the baby was having none of that. While the lion was cute, Lee knew that it would not hold a candle to the jellyfish at this age. The jellyfish just had too much to keep it interesting.

Tarin also didn't like to be reminded that the baseball season was slowly but surly reaching the end. "Well, that's still a chance," Lee reminded Tarin.

"But remember," Lee said, looking up at Tarin with a smile again. "You're going to be warm this winter."

Tarin doubted her ability to keep him warm without him looking like a poof ball. Lee hadn't forgotten about that challenge and she still had every intention of winning.