How Green Becomes Wood

"There’s nothing to apologize for, all you wanted to do was something nice for someone." Daizi replied, hugging him with one arm, "Just give it some time, I'm sure as you get to know him, you'll learn ways to help him."
 
"Let me get the stuff set up, and then I'll take her!" Alec promised before dashing upstairs.

Xander watched him go and then shrugged. "I'll hang around and make sure neither of them eat the pencils or crayons or whatever."
 
"She will try to eat whatever it is you give her," Dark said, walking to the window and glancing out, "That is inevitable."

Daizi kissed Ivy's forehead and smiled warmly at her pretty face, "Are you going to be an artist, Habiti? I bet you will be, I'm sure you'll be absolutely wonderful at drawing."
 
Alec came down with several of the largest pieces of paper he could find as well as colored pencils and crayons. He set everything out on the floor, weighing down one paper carefully before spreading the crayons on the floor next to it. "Ready!" he reported to Daizi, offering to take her. "Let's see what kind of chaos we can create, right, Ivy?"
 
Ivy fussed a little bit when she was passed over, really having preferred to be held and rocked by her Mama, but was easily distracted when they put a crayon into her hand. It was so bright, and colourful, and she immediately tried to put it into her mouth.
 
Alec was quick to intervene before she could eat the crayon and redirected her hand to the paper. He helped her draw a line on the paper and then picked a different crayon to draw a few circles with, showing her how it worked. Xander sat on the edge of the couch reading the back of the box. He declared that - according to the box - the crayons were not toxic. They were not something you were supposed to eat, but they wouldn't necessarily hurt, either. Alec said he'd prefer if they skipped eating all together.
 
Ivy watched him, and shook her crayon, but couldn't quite get a handle on drawing on the paper. Occasionally, she would tap it down onto the page like Alec did, but figuring out how to scribble was a bit beyond her still. Instead, she ended up grabbing and crinkling the paper in one hand, which she held up to Alec.
 
"Thank you, Ivy! That is so kind of you!" Alec gushed as he took the paper from her. He laid it down and smoothed it flat before gently taking Ivy's hand and helping her to scribble a bit. "Wow! Look at that! What do you think?"

Xander snickered and picked up a piece of paper and a blue crayon. "She thinks, 'Hands off! I can wave all by myself!'"
 
Ivy watched what Alec did and babbled at him, pulling her hand away as soon as she could and once more attempting to put the crayon into her mouth, not quite making the connection between the crayon and the scribble, and she didn't quite have the motor skills to figure it out, and continued to pass the crayon between both hands while it was out of her mouth.
 
"I'll accept this new game," Alec told Ivy, amused. "Just remember that we do not eat crayons."

"Especially not after kindergarten," Xander said, smirking at Alec while he drew random shapes.

"Hey, that was only one time, and it's not my fault they smelled like fruit candy. Who thought it was a good idea to scent markers? And then store them with crayons?" Alec grumbled.
 
"Ah" Ivy babbled, picking up a second crayon so she now held two, and holding them up for him to look at. She had hardly managed to make more than a single mark on the page, but she was having fun, even if she didn't know what she was meant to be doing.
 
Ivy tried to crawl over to him with crayons in both of her hands, but couldn't quite figure out how to do so with crayons in her closed fists, so she ended up dropping them and crawling into Alec's lap to cuddle him, looking up with her big, cheerful eyes.
 
"And now I have a cuddle bug with no crayons," Alec chuckled, willingly cuddling her.

"Check it out. I made a portrait of you two." Xander showed them his paper filled with colorful whirls and no discernable shapes.

Alec stared. "Uh. Very nice. I guess.:
 
"Nice," Xander told Ivy, nodding approvingly. "That is a good crayon. But no one cares about my masterpiece?"

"No, not really. I don't get it," Alec admitted.

Xander balled up the paper and tossed it lightly at his brother. "Everyone's a critic."
 
With a squeak, Ivy reached out to the balled up paper, having become quite familiar playing with similarly shaped objects, and the crumpled paper was a unique texture to her, which was a great deal of fun to play with. Naturally, she also wondered how the paper would feel inside of her mouth.
 
"I probably shouldn't let her chew on that too much. It'll get all soggy and gross and what if it blocks up her stomach?" Alec worried, though he didn't immediately stop her.

Xander snorted and retrieved one of Ivy's ball-shaped toys that was also good to chew on. "That'd have to be a lot of paper, but, yeah, better not start with the junk food just yet." He tossed the toy to Alec, who showed it to Ivy and attempted to switch toys with her.
 
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