How Green Becomes Wood

When the twins came home, Dark, Daizi, Cooger, and Ivy were all in the living room together.

"No, you cannot stand on the couch."

"I gotta get higher than her somehow! The pole is only so long!"

"You are too heavy for the couch, you will break it."

"Please, I know what y'all get up to. Just standing ain't nothing."

"We have a step-ladder," Daizi laughed, "Just go get that."

"No step-ladder tell me what to do, it ain't my real ladder."
 
"We're home!" both twins called louder than needed to make certain all the adults knew they were there.

"Mama, Ba, I got you something!" Alec called. He grinned and added, "You, too, Uncle Cooger!"
 
"We're all in the living room!" Cooger called out, "We're debating where's the best place to stand to lure your sister. What did you bring home for me?"

Dark glanced at Daizi who rubbed the back of her neck before the pair of them got up and went over, "You really didn't have to bring us home anything," She said warmly.
 
"I know, but I wanted to!" Alec said cheerfully and presented the bouquet to her. "I'm afraid the flowers aren't greatly scenty, but there are a lot of different types! Uncle Tristan gave me a discount for being an employee and putting it together myself." He waited until Daizi had taken the bouquet before reaching into his loose jacket and carefully extracting a tiny bundle of half a dozen not-yet-blooming roses tied together with a colorful rainbow ribbon. "This is for you. I thought you might have someone who would like them.

Xander stuck the box-vase-things next to the stairs where no one would trip over them but they'd be remembered to take upstairs.
 
"These are lovely, thank you," Daizi smiled, feeling the variety of the blooms, "Thank you." Dark watched Xander take the boxes and passed one hand over his beard.

Cooger took the flowers, "You're breaking my heart, kid, here I thought ya wanted to give me something. Not that you wanted to give me something to give to someone else."
 
"I'm giving you the gift of favor with the woman you intensely like, if not love," Alec told him grandly. "For surely, with these blooms, you will earn that favor! And with good favor comes great power."
 
"...okay kid." Cooger replied, "I love ya, but you gotta stop watching so many soap operas. Didn't we decide I was free from having my love life meddled with?"

"No, you lost that bet," Daizi pointed out, "Dark and I are free from having our affection criticized."

"Shit. Well I still don't like it."
 
Alec giggled. "Fine, then keep the flowers for yourself - they do suit you - and lose out on the favor."

"Hey, why were you looking for something to stand on? How's the baby fishing going?" Xander asked, coming in.
 
"You know what, I will, 'cause I've got more experience in relationships than you do," Cooger grumbled, going to find water to put them in for the time being.

"We finally convinced your father it was worth trying, but when we try just standing in the room, she crawls over to us and stands up that way," Daizi explained, "So we need to make ourselves higher up so she doesn't notice we're the ones dangling the toy."

"Basically, she is clever."
 
"Is that an invitation to come to you for relationship advice?" Alec asked with a mischievous smile.

"What if one person distracts her while another person holds out the pole around a corner or something?" Xander suggested. "I mean, even if she uses you to stand up, she still can't reach the toy unless she walks or crawls to it, right?"
 
"Why would you do that given the fact you've clearly got no faith in me?" Cooger asked, "I keep saying we gotta go outside, put 'er in the grass, and use the fishing pole over the porch so she can't see us at all."

"We are not trying to get her to walk, we are trying to get her to stand up on her own." Dark said.
 
"Standing comes first," Daizi said, setting the flowers down somewhere safe, "Standing unassisted is important for developing strength and balance, both of which she needs to be able to walk. If she can't stand on her own without toppling over, walking will be hopeless."
 
"Oh, alright," Xander said with a shrug. "That's easy, then. No pole needed. One sits behind her, holding her up. The other distracts her from the front. Slowly let go. Safe if she falls, but tricked into standing. Right?"
 
"Sure, but she also needs to learn to stand up on her own," Daizi said patiently, "Right now, every time she stands up, it is like if you grabbed something above you and used your upper body to pull yourself up instead of pushing your weight up using your feet and legs. A lot of adults will push up off the couch or the floor for support, but that is different from what she is doing."

"It is actually a fitness marker in adults as well," Dark pointed out, "being able to sit down and stand back up without using your hands or other supports is a simple test you can do to check your strength and flexibility."
 
Xander turned away, no longer having any fun. "Well, if it's something she's supposed to do to grow, then I guess she'll do it when she's ready."

"She'll figure it out with enough motivation!" Alec said encouragingly. "Maybe if you put her in the middle of the room and dangle the tooy over her suddenly, she'll get focused on that!"

Xander wondered when they'd be focused on dinner and wandered toward the kitchen.
 
Dark stared blankly after Xander, confused and a little bit frustrated. He probably wouldn't be, if it were a different day, but he was more sensitive than he realized. Resultingly, he didn't understand why after an entire year, his sons still seemingly doubted he and Daizi knew what they were talking about with their daughter. He was fairly certain they read more books on early childhood development than they did. And he was also pretty sure that earlier, he was arguing against the fishing pole idea and Xander was advocating for it and it, frankly, didn't make much sense to him that the teen chose to be annoyed.

"Well yeah, Alec," Cooger chuckled, "That's the whole plan. But that's why we gotta get above her, which is what we were discussing. Y'all gotta catch up, we've been working on this puzzle the whole time."
 
"But if you're using a fishing pole," Alec explained to Cooger, "then it does not matter if she uses you to crawl up because she still can't reach it. She'd have to crawl over to wherever you're dangling it and reach up, so what does it matter if she uses you? She has to keep trying to accomplish her task."
 
"Oh, okay," Alec agreed. He didn't quite understand why it was important that Ivy didn't know where it was coming from, but he was willing to roll with the idea. "Well, in that case, it's easy! Ish. Just get a curtain and string it up across the room, and then hide behind the curtain with the pole poking out over top. That, or stand on the furniture, but Ba won't like that."
 
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