Teddy's Third Birthday
Monday, April 9th, 2001
“Toy train. Apple juice boxes. Diaper bag.” Harry muttered to himself. “Toy train. Apple juice boxes. Diaper bag.”
“Apple juice boxes. Diaper bag.” Sage crawled behind him as much as possible as he paced around the house. “Apple juice boxes. Diaper bag.”
“Bag. Diapers. Bottle. Teething ring. Blanket.” Harry sat Sage in their crib so he could finish without interruption. “Bag. Diapers. Bottle. Teething ring. Blanket.”
“Toy train. Apple juice boxes. Diaper bag.” Harry checked everything in the pile. “Diapers. Bottle. Teething ring. Blanket.”
Harry sighed, picking up Sage in one arm, and everything else in the other. “Alright, kiddo, time to go to Grandma and Teddy’s house.”
“Te-ey!”
“That’s right, Teddy. You just love your big cousin don’t you?” Harry cooed, trying desperately not to drop the precariously stacked items, or Sage, as he threw the floo powder into the fireplace.
Harry may or may not have dropped everything, knees buckling, once he was in Andromeda’s house, but, on the bright side, Sage was fine. Actually, Sage was laughing, even more so when Andromeda took them from Harry’s arms so he could stand.
“Well, hello there, Sage.” Andromeda smiled, rocking the nearly ten-and-a-half month old. “How are you today?”
“Gamma!” Sage squealed, before changing their mind on who they wanted. “Te-ey!”
“Teddy? You want to see Teddy, baby?”
“Te-ey!” They confirmed.
“Alright then.” Andromeda agreed, leaving Harry to situate his stuff while she took Sage to Teddy’s room.
“Teddy, love, Sage and Uncle Harry are here.” She practically sang.
“Sage!” Teddy stood from where he was playing with blocks and ran up to his grandmother. “Hi, Sage!”
“Te-ey!” Andromeda sat Sage down on the ground in front of Teddy when they began to squirm.
“Sage, guess what?! I’m three now!”
“Tee!”
“Three.” Teddy corrected, but didn’t really seem to mind the younger's mistake. “You’ll be three in—how long gran?”
“Two years.”
“You’ll be three in two years. And when you’re three I’ll be—” Teddy looked at Andromeda expectantly.
“You’ll be five.”
“I’ll be five.” Teddy nodded. “Oh, wait! I can count to five, can’t I, gran?”
“You can.”
“Can I show Sage? And Uncle Harry?!”
“I don’t see why not.” Andromeda picked Sage back up, nestling them on her right side, and gave Teddy her left hand to hold as the trio walked to the living room to find Harry.
“Uncle Harry!” Teddy ran, quickly climbing into the man’s lap. “I can count to five! Wanna hear?!”
“Why of course I do, Teddy bear.”
Teddy waited for Andromeda to sit next to Harry on the couch, Sage in her lap, before beginning. “One, two, three,…four, and….And….” Teddy’s face scrunched in frustration.
“Come on love, you know this. What are you counting to?”
“Five.”
“Alright, so you said: one, two, three, four. If you’re counting to five, then what comes next?” Andromeda gently prompted, unconsciously rubbing Sage’s back.
“Oh, five!” The birthday boy suddenly remembered. “One, two, three, four, five!”
“Good job, Teddy bear!” Harry praised, kissing his cheek. “You’re doing so well at learning to count!”
“Thank you!” Teddy was positively beaming. “....You didn’t ask before kissing me, though.”
“You’re right, Teddy bear, I didn’t. I remember a few months ago we talked about that. And you said it was okay for me to kiss your cheeks and forehead always unless you say not to right before, right?”
“Right.” Teddy nodded.
“Has that changed? Would you like me to ask first?”
“Hmm….” The newly three year old thought hard about it. “No, you don’t have to ask….But you do have to for other places still, ‘kay?”
Teddy looked very serious about this and Harry couldn’t be more proud. “Of course, lovely. Thank you for reminding me of your boundaries.”
“What’s that mean?” Teddy asked like he always did when Harry said the word ‘boundaries’.
“Boundaries are rules about what you can and can’t do to others and what others can and can’t do to you.”
“Good rules, right?”
“Oh, yes. Boundaries are very good, very important, rules. You should always respect people’s boundaries, and if they don't respect yours, you should stay away from them.”
“Are rules good?”
“Some are, some aren’t.” Harry was honest. “There are personal rules like boundaries, but also people who have more power, or want power will often make bigger rules. Sometimes these are good because they keep people safe and/or help them. But, sometimes, these rules hurt people, usually minorities. Those rules are bad and you shouldn’t listen to them.”
“Minnoriritities?”
“Minorities are groups of people who are discriminated against for being different.”
“Like what?”
“People of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, muggleborns, people living in poverty, and more. Some people are part of multiple of these groups and so are discriminated against more. And some minorities have it worse than others based on how visible their difference is.”
“What’s discrimnateded?”
“It means some mean people treat them badly.”
“Why?”
“Honestly, that’s a really complicated question. I can answer it, but I’ll need some time to think first. So, I can find a way to explain it to you.”
“Why explain dif’ent to me?”
“Because people of different ages understand things differently. People older than you typically know more words and have experienced things you haven’t. So, I have to explain things with words and situations that apply to you.”
Teddy scrunched up his nose. “But I smart and big. I’m three!”
“You’re right, you are smart and getting older, so you can understand more than used to. But, you’re also still growing and learning, which is completely fine, great even. It just means you don’t know some stuff yet, which is why me and your Grandmas and Grandpa and your aunts and uncles are teaching you it.”
“I want cake.” Teddy informed after nearly a minute of silence.
“We have to eat lunch first, hun, but then you can have as much cake as you want.” Andromeda finally rejoined the conversation.
“Yay!” Teddy cheered, hopping down and running to the kitchen so he could eat lunch, and then have cake, as soon as possible. Andromeda, however, held behind with Harry and Sage for a moment longer.
“Thank you for explaining all that to him.” Andromeda handed Sage over and walked to the kitchen where Teddy was standing in the door. “Feel free to get whatever you want, Harry.”
Harry sat back down on the couch, Sage now in his lap. He would get the both of them some lunch in a couple minutes, but he just wanted to relax there for a second.
His baby sitting happily in his lap, Andromeda laughing as she served food, and his godson singing an impromptu, original, song about cake.
Life really could be perfect sometimes.