How Green Becomes Wood

"She's working for a wild bird agency now, or was when last I checked." Daizi said.

"Usually. Xander is fairly neat, Alec tries to be but I think it is less natural to him," Dark said, "We have been working on teaching Ivy to wipe her high chair after she is finished eating. Mostly she spreads the mess around, but it is about building that foundation. She is figuring out laundry fairly well, though, at least in terms of putting clothes her dirty clothes into her hamper and sometimes she manages to put the clean ones in the drawers we tell her to without unfolding them."
 
"That is very impressive," Sally told Daizi, nodding.

"That's excellent work," Jack told him. "Little kids are so clever and cute! And so much smarter than most people seem to think."
 
"Ivy is certainly very clever," Dark said, "We cannot keep her in puzzles."

"She's also been helping to feed Enkidu lately, and not just because she drops food all of the time," Daizi chuckled.
 
"It's good for a child to grow up with a pet, when possible," Jack nodded.

"Speaking of, how is Alec doing with his cat?" Sally asked curiously. "It has been how many days now? Peter keeps getting texts with pictures of her."
 
"It seems to be going well, I think," Dark said, "she is settling in fine. Alec is in love with her, and as of yet she has not broken anything. And he wears her like how we wear Ivy."

"Her name is Kikimora, but he calls her Kiki," Daizi added. "It took him awhile to think up the name."
 
"Really? You can put a cat in a baby sling?" Sally asked in surprise.

"You can put one in a sling and it stays?" Jack asked in even more surprise.

"Kiki is an adorable name. I'm glad she's settling in and Alec loves her as much as he thought he would."
 
"I think it probably depends on the cat, and how young you start them," Daizi said, "For now, she seems happy enough. Currently he actually borrows Ivy's when we don't need to have her in it."

"She loves her sling. Well, I suppose it is more accurate to say she loves being held, and sometimes my hands are too busy to do so."
 
"She's been so fun, and so stressful," Daizi said with a warm smile, "She had the biggest tantrum yesterday because it was time to get out of the bath."

"I believe I ended up more damp after that than I did helping Ciara."
 
"Oh, that is funny!" Sally laughed. "Peter went through a phase of refusing to get into the bath, and then when we got him in, he wouldn't come out!"

"Fun times. It made me question if I was still working at an aquarium sometimes," Jack sighed. "Toddlers are so random, but it's easy to forget it's all new and big to them. Has she started her 'no' phase yet?"
 
"Ivy has always loved the water, so, thankfully, she doesn't fight bathtime, only the end of it." Daizi chuckled. "She'll have so much fun this summer when she can go swimming again."

"Not yet, but she knows what the word means. Sometimes she gets this scowl on her face when I catch her about to engage in mischief and I tell her not to." Dark said, and then after a few moments said, "I think it is when I see my features most in her."
 
"I surprise myself with it, I keep expecting I would forget how."

"I think it's funny how she sometimes grumbles like him," Daizi grinned, "Dark does these cute little grumbles under his breath when he's working on something, sometimes I catch Ivy copying him."
 
"It's so cute," Daizi sighed, "For awhile I didn't put together what she was doing, she babbles all of the time anyway, but then one day I heard them doing it at the same time. I can differentiate it from her normal babbling because of the tone she uses."
 
During all of this, Dark had been staring down at Daizi, slight lines of confusion creasing his brow. Finally he spoke up, "I do not grumble to myself that frequently."

"Yes you do, Goose," Daizi replied, "Anytime you're focused on a puzzle or a drawing or a carving, you talk to yourself under your breath. When you still worked at the high school, you did it a lot when you were grading. It's how I know when you're really focused."
 
"Jack does this weird little almost whistle when he's thinking too hard, which is far less adorable," Sally told her. "I'd rather have the grumbling."

Jack frowned. "I do not."

"So, the last four people to share an office with you were imagining it?"

Jack opened his mouth and then paused. "Fine. But you tap your nails."

"I do, I can't help it," Sally admitted. "Jack forbade long nails for that exact reason or else he'd never work in the same room with me ever. Yet, he gets away with his whistling!"

"It's not whistling, and I do try!"
 
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