Jonghyun blinked open his eyes when he heard little thumps on the floor next to him and felt a constant tugging at the comforter. He rolled over, looked towards the floor, and found his little, almost-three-year-old son trying to climb up onto the bed.
“Good morning, Mini-Mommy,” Jonghyun said.
“Mornin’, Daddy,” Taemin said.
The toddler let out a groan when he couldn’t pull himself up again, but when Jonghyun reached over to tug Taemin up by the back of his pants, Taemin whined and batted at his hands.
“No helping, Daddy,” Taemin whined. “Do it myself.”
Jonghyun smiled, and he made sure Taemin wasn’t about to fall over and bang his head against the corner of the nightstand. Taemin was going through what Taeyeon kept calling a “big boy phase,” and he was refusing any help he could possibly have. And Taemin positively glowed any time Taeyeon or Jonghyun called him a big boy, and he would get a big smile on his face and scrunch up his nose and hop around. It was the cutest thing. Jonghyun thought Taemin was just as cute as his mother.
“Come on, big boy,” Jonghyun said, patting Taemin’s back. “Come sleep between Mommy and Daddy.”
“I’m gonna keep Mommy company,” Taemin said, gripping at the covers and shuffling his feet up the side of the bed as he pulled himself up, “while Daddy goes and makes toast.”
“Why does Daddy have to go make toast?” Jonghyun asked.
“Because Daddy makes good toast,” Taemin said. “With jelly.”
Taemin managed to make it onto the bed, and he smiled real big and crawled over Jonghyun’s legs to fall in the middle between Jonghyun and Taeyeon. He wiggled in between them, and he pulled at the comforter that was covering Jonghyun. Taemin smiled real big at him, wiggled closer to Taeyeon, and snuggled his head into her shoulder.
Taeyeon woke up a little bit, rolled over, and smiled at the happy faced little boy snuggled up next to her.
“Good morning, baby,” Taeyeon said, wrapping an arm around him, and then looking up at Jonghyun. “Go make toast?”
“What is with you two and toast?” Jonghyun grumbled.
He got up anyway, kissing the both of them on the way out of the bed, and he went into the kitchen to make toast and pour cups of coffee and a sippy cup of chocolate milk. It was Saturday; Taemin could have chocolate milk with breakfast.
Saturday breakfast was always fun, because the three of them would stay in bed and watch TV while they ate their toast. Taemin always wanted jelly toast on Saturdays, and Taeyeon and Jonghyun weren’t complaining.
Taemin always smiled up at Taeyeon when he was halfway through his first piece of toast, and he would hold it up for her to take a bite. Taeyeon would squeeze him closer to her, take a bite, and giggle with him.
Jonghyun loved watching every second of it. Taeyeon and Taemin were two of a kind, two peas in a pod, and Jonghyun loved them both with his whole heart.
When breakfast was over, Jonghyun pulled Taemin up to his chest and got up from the bed.
“Come on, big boy, time to go take a shower,” Jonghyun said, bouncing Taemin on his hip.
“No,” Taemin said, wiggling and trying to reach over towards Taeyeon. “Wanna take a shower with Mama.”
“Mama’s gonna clean up breakfast while Daddy and Taemin take a shower,” Jonghyun said. “Just real quick, Taeminnie. You don’t wanna be stinky all day, do you?”
“No,” Taemin whined, kicking his legs.
Taemin usually took a shower with Taeyeon, but last week he pointed at Taeyeon’s boobs and asked what they were, and they decided it was time for him to start showering with Jonghyun only now. Taemin didn’t take too kindly to this new development. Taemin thought it was fun at first, because Jonghyun would blow soap bubbles in the shower and spike Taemin’s hair up with shampoo, but once he realized that he wasn’t showering with Taeyeon anymore at all, he started putting up a fight.
And now there they were, Jonghyun and Taemin in the shower, sitting on the tile floor while Jonghyun washed Taemin’s hair.
“Why don’t you have boobies like Mama?” Taemin asked.
“Because I’m a boy,” Jonghyun said. “Don’t say boobies.”
“Why?”
“Because we shouldn’t talk about boobies to other people.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s not polite.”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
Jonghyun smiled at Taemin, poked his nose, and told him to cover his eyes while he rinsed out his hair.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“If I’m a mini-Mommy, why don’t I have mini-boobies?”
Jonghyun laughed, but he didn’t want to make Taemin feel bad, so he smiled at him and pushed the wet hair from Taemin’s forehead.
“Because you’re a little boy,” Jonghyun told him. “Little boys don’t have boobies.”
“Do little girls have boobies?”
“No,” Jonghyun told him, and he couldn’t believe he was talking about boobies to his toddler. “Girls don’t get boobies until they’re older.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s just how it works.”
“Why?”
“Because.”
Jonghyun moved his own head under the water, and he rinsed the soap from his hair while Taemin “helped” by running his hands throughout Jonghyun’s hair. Afterwards, Taemin reached his hand out and patted Jonghyun’s chest. He frowned at Jonghyun, but Jonghyun just thought he was still mad that he couldn’t shower with Taeyeon.
When Jonghyun brought Taemin out into the living room after their shower, the both of their heads still dripping, Taemin held his arms out for Taeyeon to hold him, and he latched onto her.
Taeyeon held him close and kissed his cheeks, telling him he smelled so good now that he took a shower and wasn’t a stinky little boy. Taemin smiled at her, and he squished her cheeks together before putting his head on her shoulder and holding his little hand on her chest.
“Mama, I like your boobies better than Daddy’s,” Taemin said.
Taeyeon nearly lost it, and she laughed so hard Jonghyun was afraid she was going to drop the baby.
“Daddy doesn’t have good boobies,” Taemin said, patting her chest. “Mama’s are soft. Daddy’s boobies are hard.”
“Mommy has great boobies, doesn’t she?” Taeyeon asked, bouncing Taemin on her hip and smirking in Jonghyun’s direction.
“Best boobies,” Taemin said, nodding his head.
Taeyeon threw her head back and laughed. Jonghyun was a blubbering mess, trying to tell Taemin to stop talking about boobies, but Taeyeon kept egging him on to say how great her boobies were. Taemin laughed with her, because he loved when Taeyeon laughed, and because Jonghyun kept making funny faces.
“He’s gonna go to daycare on Monday spouting off about boobies, and we’re gonna get a call about how our baby is talking about inappropriate things to other kids,” Jonghyun said.
“Daddy’s just mad he doesn’t have good boobies like Mommy, huh?”
“Stop encouraging him!”
Taemin just smiled and laughed, his little face lighting up, and he wrapped his arms around Taeyeon’s neck and tangled his fingers in her hair.
“He’s just a baby,” Taeyeon said, rolling his eyes. “It’s funny when babies talk about things like boobies.”
“Not a baby!” Taemin whined, kicking his leg.
“You’re my baby,” Taeyeon cooed, peppering little kisses on his cheek.
Taemin giggled at the way her kisses tickled his cheek, and he hid his face in her neck and squeezed his fingers around the locks of hair in his hands.
Jonghyun shook his head at them, and he went to fall over onto the couch while Taeyeon danced around the living room with Taemin at her hip, the two of them giggling and singing made up songs together. And as he sat on the couch and watched the two of them giggling together, he couldn’t help but smile and watch their every move.
So? Did Jonghyun AND Taeyeon get called to Taemin's daycare?
That Monday afternoon, Jonghyun and Taeyeon were sitting in the office off Taemin’s daycare director. She was an older lady, the daycare was just down the street from Jonghyun’s work, and as they were sitting there, Jonghyun looked a mix between smug and mortified while Taeyeon just looked like she wanted to laugh.
“He was going around telling all the girls that they ‘don’t have boobies yet,’“ she said, and Taeyeon put her hand over her mouth. “And then when we asked him where he heard such a thing from, he said, ‘Daddy told me in the shower.’ I’m sure you can see why we’re concerned.”
“I know it sounds bad,” Jonghyun started, “but-”
“Taemin showers with us,” Taeyeon explained, patting Jonghyun’s thigh. “That’s why he was in the shower with Jonghyun. Last week, he noticed my breasts while I showered with him, and we decided it was time for him to only shower with Jonghyun. He’s had a lot of questions about them ever since, and we’ve answered them. He’s a very curious little boy.”
“It’s not that we think he’s being bad or anything,” the director explained. “Just maybe we could stress to him about what is and is not appropriate to talk about.”
“And we’ve tried,” Jonghyun said, sending Taeyeon a pointed look. “We’ll try to explain it better to him tonight.”
When they collected Taemin and got into the car, Taeyeon burst out laughing while Jonghyun said this was the exact thing he was worried about. Meanwhile, Taemin was buckled in the back in his carseat, completely unaware as to why both his mommy and daddy picked him up from daycare that day. Usually only Daddy picked him up, but he was very happy to see his mommy there, too.
“Mama!” Taemin called, swinging his little legs over the side of his carseat. “Missed you!”
“Aww, I missed you too, baby,” she said, turning around while Jonghyun drove them all home. “Did you have a good day today?”
“Mmhmm,” Taemin hummed, still swinging his legs. “Told Amber she doesn’t have boobies yet. Then told her what boobies are.”
Taeyeon tried to hide her laughter, she really did, but Taemin had become a little booby-connoisseur over the last couple days, and it was just too funny. When Taemin saw his mommy’s face light up, though, he grinned at her and laughed with her. He loved making his mommy laugh.
They went to Taemin’s aunt’s house later that evening for dinner, like they did every Monday, and the second they got inside, Taemin ran to Hyoyeon’s arms and smiled real big at her before turning back to his parents.
“Mama! Auntie has boobies, too!”
“What?” Hyoyeon laughed, holding Taemin at her hip and petting his hair.
When Hyoyeon and Taeyeon both laughed, Taemin absolutely glowed, and he gripped at the hair hanging around Hyoyeon’s neck. But then he quickly got antsy, and he wiggled around in her arms and asked to be put down.
“Down, down,” he said. “Wanna tell Onew ‘bout boobies.”
The second he was on the floor, he scampered off to go find his big cousin and tell him all about his recent discovery. Taeyeon and Hyoyeon laughed the entire time, loving how determined Taemin looked, but Jonghyun and Minho just looked flabbergasted.
“Your two-year-old is going to corrupt our six-year-old,” Minho said. “I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.”
“DADDY!” Jinki shouted from his bedroom as he came hurrying down the hall, Taemin in tow. “Taeminnie’s talking about boobies!”
“See!” Taemin said, pointing with the arm that wasn’t held in Jinki’s grasp. “Mama and Auntie got boobies, but Daddy and Uncle don’t got any.”
Jinki looked completely baffled, and he stared at his parents while his baby cousin spouted off about boobies.
“Why’s he allowed to talk about boobies but I’m not?” Jinki asked.
Jonghyun and Minho just groaned and tried to explain to the two about why they both weren’t allowed to talk about boobies, that it wasn’t polite, and Taeyeon and Hyoyeon were just trying not to outright laugh at how a toddler was so sure about the concept of boobies.
