"Hey, I'll have you know I'm currently hoarding him and his extremely full diaper so that he doesn't come to our bed to start Christmas with a special sort of odour lingering around him," Joel calls back down the hall with a laugh as he finishes with Dane on the change table. It was a rather good decision on his part, he thinks, and once he has Dane clean and changed and dressed in a fresh new onesie, he scoops their son off the change table and heads back down the hall into their shared bedroom. As soon as they're through the door, Dane is bouncing in his arms and making soft cooing noises, syllables that don't quite mean anything yet, but Joel is hopeful that he's going to be saying da any day now. It's a little early and he's not going to push, but Dane seems to be right on schedule with his milestones and Joel loves seeing the way he looks at Spencer, how happy he is to see his daddy.
"There you go, don't go leaping out of my arms," he says, setting Dane down on the bed in front of Spencer. He can't quite crawl yet, but he's up on his hands, rocking ferociously as if that's going to get him right into Spencer's lap. Their baby is quite sweet, Joel can admit it, even though Dane looks an awful lot like him and he wonders sometimes if it seems arrogant for him to say Dane is cue when they share the same dark, curling hair, the same hazel eyes. He had Erin's wide mouth, though, something that makes him look just a touch more like Spencer, which Joel loves, and as he flops down on the bed again, Dane giggles, his lips pulling into a wide grin. He's not crawling, but he's getting close, and he rocks himself hard enough that he falls, collapsing onto his belly and trying to squirm closer to Spencer.
"You need to pick up your son before he has a fit just trying to get to you," Joel says, laughing as he watches the scene. They're so lucky they have this perfect little family, so lucky to have found themselves in the position where all this is possible, and Joel doesn't really believe in the idea of people getting what they deserve, but he thinks the two of them struggled for a long enough time to get here. That it's easy now, that it's so simple just to be happy, he feels like it's something they should be allowed to just enjoy without worrying about what it might mean or if it might be taken away. He'll protect this family with every last reserve of power he has and while he's been slacking lately, he knows that power is considerable. They don't need to be afraid of anything.
"How long do you think we'll last up here before one of us gets impatient and wants to open presents?" he asks as he lies back against the pillow and then tips his head over to look at Spencer and Dane. They make an adorable pair, two of the people he loves most in the entire world, and Joel honestly knows this is the best Christmas he's ever had. They both make him so happy, just the fact that they're here with him, the fact that they love him, he doesn't need anything more than that. They both make him feel like he'll never want for anything else in the world and he certainly can't imagine a circumstance in which that isn't true. So long as they're together, everything else is secondary.
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"There you go, don't go leaping out of my arms," he says, setting Dane down on the bed in front of Spencer. He can't quite crawl yet, but he's up on his hands, rocking ferociously as if that's going to get him right into Spencer's lap. Their baby is quite sweet, Joel can admit it, even though Dane looks an awful lot like him and he wonders sometimes if it seems arrogant for him to say Dane is cue when they share the same dark, curling hair, the same hazel eyes. He had Erin's wide mouth, though, something that makes him look just a touch more like Spencer, which Joel loves, and as he flops down on the bed again, Dane giggles, his lips pulling into a wide grin. He's not crawling, but he's getting close, and he rocks himself hard enough that he falls, collapsing onto his belly and trying to squirm closer to Spencer.
"You need to pick up your son before he has a fit just trying to get to you," Joel says, laughing as he watches the scene. They're so lucky they have this perfect little family, so lucky to have found themselves in the position where all this is possible, and Joel doesn't really believe in the idea of people getting what they deserve, but he thinks the two of them struggled for a long enough time to get here. That it's easy now, that it's so simple just to be happy, he feels like it's something they should be allowed to just enjoy without worrying about what it might mean or if it might be taken away. He'll protect this family with every last reserve of power he has and while he's been slacking lately, he knows that power is considerable. They don't need to be afraid of anything.
"How long do you think we'll last up here before one of us gets impatient and wants to open presents?" he asks as he lies back against the pillow and then tips his head over to look at Spencer and Dane. They make an adorable pair, two of the people he loves most in the entire world, and Joel honestly knows this is the best Christmas he's ever had. They both make him so happy, just the fact that they're here with him, the fact that they love him, he doesn't need anything more than that. They both make him feel like he'll never want for anything else in the world and he certainly can't imagine a circumstance in which that isn't true. So long as they're together, everything else is secondary.