Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 17:08:41 +0200
From: Nick Brady <y2kslacker@mail.com>
Subject: Marco in the Park - Part 26

Marco in the Park - Part 26

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Copyright 2015 by Nick Brady, all rights reserved.


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We went back into the kitchen and sat down to make our dinner from the
leftover macaroni and cheese.

	"You are a natural born Daddy," I said to Marco.

	He shrugged. "I hope so. I am really taken with those little guys."

	"They seem to be very comfortable with you. I bet you seem like
family to them. Maybe you look like their daddy."

	"Maybe I do. I wish we knew more about their real mom and dad. Do
you think Susan could find out something about them?" Marco wondered.

	"We can ask her. Surely we can find that out somewhere, maybe even
check with the newspaper. An accident like that should have been in the
paper," I suggested.

	"Whoever they were, they were good parents. Those boys have been
raised by somebody who loved them. They knew how to potty and seem pretty
well adjusted. They are really pretty cool little guys," Marco observed. "I
hope we can do as well."

	"Right now, they seem to be more comfortable with you. I think they
will be OK with me eventually, but maybe you should be the primary parent
at first," I told him.

	Marco smiled. "That's OK with me, but they will warm up to you soon
enough Marty. This is a team effort. I will tell you the truth though, I
never expected to fall in love with a couple of little boys so quickly."

We agreed that we were about worn out after such a busy day. We slipped
into the shower and did our usual dance as quietly as possible. After we
toweled off we both peeked in at the boys who were curled up together sound
asleep. We tiptoed into bed.

	"I think I'm going to sleep in shorts and a T-shirt," Marco
said. "They might need to be looked after during the night."

	I was a little disappointed but agreed. "Yeah, me too. Let's see
how things go, but that's probably a good idea at first."

We crawled into bed, did a subdued mambo and ended up with a minimum of
clothing before we fell asleep.

	About 3:00 AM I was awakened by Marco jumping out of bed and
quickly grabbing his shorts. I heard the sound of crying and followed him
into the boy's bedroom.

	"Hey what's up guys?" I could hear him asking in a quiet
voice. Then he called to me, "Are there any of those training pants in
their clothes box? They look like thick underpants."

I found some and brought them to Marco who then sent me for a wet
washcloth, a towel, and a clean bed sheet. We got them clean and dry then
put a fresh sheet on the bed. Marco tucked them in again and cooed a little
song to them as they snuggled together and fell back asleep. I went into
our bed and waited until he returned.

	"What happened?" I asked.

	"They peed the bed," he explained. "I don't know if they can't hold
it all night or just didn't know where to go. Maybe we need to put a potty
seat in their bedroom and make sure they know where the bathroom is. This
is all new to them you know. They might have been scared to be in a strange
place."

	"Sure, this is new to all of us," I said.

	Marco crawled in bed and hugged me. "Are you having second
thoughts?"

	I hugged him back. "No not at all. I just feel kind of
helpless. You are the one who seems to know what to do. Have you been
around little kids before?"

	"No, not really. But I can imagine how they feel and it doesn't
seem strange to me," Marco explained.

	"Do you think this will happen every night?" I wondered.

	"I don't think so. I think they will get used to us and to this
place. It will be OK," Marco yawned and put his head on my shoulder. "We
will figure this all out."

Around 7:00 we felt the mattress shake and looked to see two pairs of brown
eyes peering over the edge of the bed.

	Marco raised up and said to them. "Good morning boys. Want to come
up here with us?"

They didn't reply but stood still while Marco leaned over and pulled first
one and then the other up to sit between us.

	I fluffed a pillow up behind my head and smiled at them. "Good
morning guys."

I got a pair of shy grins but they snuggled over next to Marco who flipped
the covers over them and let them cuddle up.

	Marco rubbed their heads and asked them, "You guys hungry? Hmm?
What some breakfast?" he rubbed his tummy and smiled. They looked
interested.

	"See if you can get them to pee in the potty and I'll start some
breakfast," he instructed.

I ushered them into the bathroom and emptied my bladder while pointing at
the little kiddie potty. They stood side by side and mostly peed in the
potty although their aim could have been better.

I bragged on them then led them into the kitchen where Marco was scrambling
eggs. I put them each into a high chair and pushed them up to the
table. Marco poured orange juice into their tippy cups and put them in
front of the little boys. They seemed to know how to handle that. In a few
minutes they were presented with a small plate of scrambled eggs and a
piece of buttered toast cut into strips. They were offered forks but
ignored them to stuff handfuls of egg into their mouths.

	"They're hungry," Marco grinned.

	"Yeah they are," I agreed. "Your pups are eager eaters."

Except for what was pushed off onto the table they cleaned their
plates. Marco tempted them with strips of toast that had been drizzled with
a little honey and that went well. They drank most of their orange juice
and then looked restless.

	Marco looked thoughtful. "Grant had a little dog. He said that as
soon as you feed a puppy you should put him outside to poop. I bet these
guys need to go."

	"Let's try it," I said.

We each herded a boy into the bathroom and sat them down on a potty
seat. They scowled but knew what to do. The sounds and smells of poop were
evidence of success.

	"Hey it works," I said.

	"Yeah it does," Marco agreed. "We may get this figured out
yet. They're just like puppies. They eat, they poop, then they want to play
and take a nap."

We took them into the pile of toys and sat them down to inspect the cars
and trucks. They looked pretty happy.

We sat and watched them, wondering how we managed to get ourselves into
this situation, but very pleased that we had.

	Marco looked at me. "Well it's Sunday morning. Do we take them to
church?"

	I shrugged. "Why not? We might as well start off right."

	Marco grinned. "I want to show them to Father Hoover."

	"Right," I agreed. What's in their clothes box?"

I watched them play while Marco plundered the box of clothing. He returned
with two little pairs of khaki shorts and two T-shirts, one red and one
blue.

	"The blue one goes on Benjamin," he instructed. "As long as
Benjamin wears blue I think we can keep them straight."

	"Or let them run naked," I laughed.

	Marco grinned. "Maybe not at church."

We took turns watching the boys and getting ourselves dressed. We did a
final potty trip then were off to St. Jerome's. We got there before the
second service and went looking for Father Hoover. He was talking to
several people during the break between the services and we stood quietly,
each with a small boy in our arms. Suddenly he turned and caught sight of
us.

	"Oh! Here you are!" He rushed over to us with a big smile on his
face. "Oh what beautiful boys. And what are their names?"

	Marco pointed at one and then the other. "Samuel is in the red
shirt and Benjamin is in the blue shirt. Until we get better at telling
them apart we plan for Benjamin to be the boy in blue," he grinned.

Father Hoover looked like he wanted to take them both in his arms but when
they leaned back against us he thought better of it.

	"Well, we will be great pals soon enough. How was your first
night?" he asked us.

	"Interesting," I said.

	"It went great actually," Marco answered. I think they are going to
be just fine once we work out the details."

	"Oh, splendid," Father Hoover clapped his hands together. "You do
know we have a nursery during the service, and a day nursery during the
week."

	"Really? I didn't know that. Can we leave them here while we are at
work or in school?" I asked.

	"Well, that's the idea of course," Father Hoover smiled.

We were much relieved. Things had happened so quickly that we had not
thought through a lot of things. If we could safely leave them with the
church day nursery we could be sure they were safe and loved while we took
care of more adult business. While we were not familiar with St. Jerome's
Day Nursery, it was part of our community and existed under Father Hoover's
ever watchful eye. It had to be good.

	Father Hoover admired Samuel and Benjamin for a minute then excused
himself. "The second service is about to begin. Why don't you bring these
little ones in with you so we can all meet them? You can take them to the
nursery for the rest of the service."

We did as he suggested and sat in our usual place behind David and
Wayne. Their reaction was a comical mixture of amazement and delight. We
realized that we had not spoken with them for some time and the little guys
apparently caught them by surprise.

The organ began to play, the choir sang and the procession of candles,
servers, and clergy started to make its way up the center aisle. At the
sound of the organ the wiggling toddlers stopped their squirming and looked
to see where the music was coming from. We stood with them in our arms and
tried to join in the singing. This caused the boys to look at us with
interest. Marco smiled at the sight.

Before beginning the service Father Hoover occasionally would make a
special announcement. This was one of those occasions.

	"Good morning!" he boomed out.

	"Good morning!" the congregation responded.

	"Before we begin this morning, I want you to meet the newest
members of our family. Marco and Marty, would you please introduce us to
Samuel and Benjamin?"

We stood and with the aid of the color coded T-shirts correctly introduced
our new boys to the congregation. The response was a mixture of Ooos, Ahhs
and laughter followed immediately by applause. We smiled in acknowledgment
then retreated to the nursery.

	"That was cool," I remarked as we deposited the boys with the
nursery attendants.

	"I don't know what we would do without this church," Marco agreed.

The boys were uncertain about being left in a new place but the nursery
lady soon got them interested in a floppy bunny and they were distracted
long enough for us to make a hasty retreat.

We quietly took our place in the sanctuary and felt lifted up by the
service. As soon as the service was over we fetched our new boys and
carried them into the parish hall to see if they liked cookies. It appeared
that they did.

We were quickly surrounded by admirers. The boys were somewhat intimidated
by the attention of people who were strangers to them, but Marco and I were
gratified that they hid their faces in our necks and saw us as a source of
protection and comfort. They were quickly becoming our boys.

After church we stopped by our favorite Walmart for some supplies. We added
a few grocery items then went looking for shorts, T-shirts and
underpants. The few items in Susan's clothes box were a start but they
would soon need to be laundered. The shirts were all some variety of red or
blue. We found some sneakers that fit our squirming toddlers and grabbed
some socks as well. This would get us by for now.

There was a McDonald's in the Walmart and we decided to go with a proven
winner. We picked up Chicken McNuggets and fries for the boys and a couple
of Quarter-Pounders for ourselves then located some high chairs and tucked
into our lunch. Samuel and Benjamin basically fed themselves the finger
food and we helped them with their milk. We took advantage of the
opportunity to do some planning.

	"I think the first thing tomorrow I will take the boys to the
church and get them settled into the nursery," Marco suggested.

	"That may become your chore since I need to be at work earlier than
you need to be in class," I agreed.

	Marco nodded. "My schedule is a lot more flexible than yours."

	"When will we need to pick them up? I don't usually get off work
until after 5:00," I reminded him.

	"That's OK. I can pick them up after class. School is about out for
the summer anyway," Marco said. "I don't plan to take any classes this
summer."

	"I thought you were going to take lessons from Peter this summer,"
I recalled.

	"I was thinking about that, but plans can change," Marco smiled at
the twins who were busy gnawing on their fries. "I'll talk to Peter."

	I looked at the two beautiful little boys that had so recently
invaded us. "This is our first day with these guys. What should we do with
them?" I asked Marco.

	"There is a little park on Riverside that has stuff for little
kids. Let's take them to play," he suggested.

We wiped off their faces and ran them through the bathroom, then out to the
car and into the car seats. They were fairly cooperative but very
wiggly. Clearly our days of free time and casual travel were over.

There were a variety of kids at the park, some even younger than ours. We
each took a boy and began to try out the swings and slides. We assumed that
we would have to keep hands on for safety but the boys had other
ideas. They climbed, crawled and slid on everything within reach. We
quickly decided that in order for them to be happy, our best strategy was
to let them go and be prepared to catch them if they fell. Probably not a
bad strategy overall.

They had a good time and so did we. Other than a little dirt and a few
minor tumbles, no damage was done. Marco pulled out a sketch pad and sat
down to watch while I herded kids. This was a team effort and was to be a
frequent practice. Most of the parents were women, either mothers or
grandmothers. There were a few dads tagging along but we were the only pair
of males with little kids. If that raised any eyebrows it was not apparent.

We let the boys play until they started looking droopy then went back to
the house for a nap. They peed, drank some juice and conked out pretty
quickly. It was the first time all day that we had a chance to talk.

	"How's it going partner?" I asked Marco.

	"Actually, I think we did OK for starters. No blood anyway."

	"They seem to be doing pretty alright. I like that they play well
together. But I am a little concerned about one thing," I observed. "I have
not heard either one of them say anything."

	Marco nodded. "They aren't very verbal are they?"

	"Have you heard them speak?" I asked.

	"Just that one time when I called Samuel by the wrong name and
Benjamin said 'no' and pointed at himself. I guess they understand us."

	"Should we be concerned about that?" I wondered.

	"I don't know," Marco acknowledged. "Maybe we are talking to each
other and not really engaging them in the conversation. I think there is a
Richard Scarry book in those things that Susan gave us."

	"What's that?"

	It is like a picture book of all kinds of things in it. The idea is
to teach a kid the names of things," he explained. "You point at something
and ask them to name it. Maybe that's a way to get things going."

When the boys woke up from their nap we ran them by the potty again and
then sat down on the floor with them and pulled out the book. They were
interested in the pictures.

	We looked through it together then I pointed at a picture of a
little dog. "What's that?" I asked them. No reply.

	Marco pointed to the picture. "Doggy." he said then asked the boys,
"Can you say doggy?" No response but they looked interested.

We did this with cats, chickens and ducks. No response.

	Then Samuel pointed to the picture of a tippy cup. "Cup," he said.

	"Yes, cup!" we were enthusiastic and bragged on him. "That's right,
good job!"

	They seemed to get the idea and we got them to name a number of
things. I was so excited that I called Benjamin by Samuel's name. He
frowned and told me. "My name is Ben."

	"Wow, a complete sentence even. Good job Benjamin!" They both
laughed. We had figured out how to play the game.

We got them to name a number of things before they got tired of playing
this and went to their familiar toy cars. We decided to let well enough
alone. After this we started asking them questions instead of assuming they
were hungry, thirsty or needing to go potty, waiting for a reply and
occasionally getting it. It was a start.

Somehow we got through that first day. Marco kept it simple and did peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches for supper and then we read to them and put
them to bed early. As long as they were allowed to sleep together and Marco
waited for them to fall asleep before easing himself out of the bed, it
seemed to work. Once they were asleep we sat down and evaluated our success
so far.

	"There is more to this than meets the eye," I chuckled. "What's the
plan for tomorrow?"

	Marco smiled. "I think we can do this. These are basically two
pretty nice little guys. If we can figure out where they are coming from I
think we can make it work. If you can help me get them up and dressed in
the morning, I can take them to the nursery and then work on some
things. If they are happy with that we might get into a workable routine. I
would like to continue to work with Peter this summer but will have time to
look after them for part of the day at least."

	"Not to borrow trouble, but what happens after the summer when your
classes start back up?" I wondered.

	Marco looked thoughtful. "We are going to have to sort of play this
a day at a time, but as you have reminded me, I have plenty of time for
school. I might take a break until we get these guys settled in."

	"This is putting a lot of the responsibility on you," I
observed. "I am getting off kind of easy so far."

	Marco looked at me and smiled. "Maybe this is what I am supposed to
do. So far a lot of what we have done has been about what I need and my
plans. Maybe it is time for me to be more about giving and not so much
about taking. Can you think of anything I can do right now that is more
important than Sam and Ben?"

	"I love you Marco. Maybe you have found your calling," I told him.

	"Here I am Lord," Marco said. "I can work with Peter part of the
time and paint at home. I can still manage to do what is most important to
me. Sam and Ben are already getting much more comfortable with you. I have
the feeling that this is going to work out for us."

	Marco took a deep breath. "I think I need to get over my obsession
with being financially independent. You can provide us with a steady income
and I can sell enough art to supplement that. These boys have made me
realize that while we are a marriage, they make it a family. My degree can
wait. What I want most is for us to be together, and to be good parents for
these little guys. I think that's enough for right now."

It did work out. The boys soon grew comfortable with both of us although
Marco remained the primary caregiver. I was tempted to refer to him as
their mother but knew that was not right. We were like a pair of dads. They
named us Marky and Arty which we liked very much. We didn't feel like we
needed to be Daddy 1 and Daddy 2. This was sort of a non-standard
arrangement and whatever worked for them was just fine with us.

The church day nursery was a very good thing. It gave Marco time to
continue to work with Peter and his painting continued to improve in
quality. It also gave Ben and Sam some little friends to play with, both
boys and girls. They enjoyed the nursery and looked forward to going there.

The attendants were all female. The lady that ran the nursery was an older
grandmotherly woman and the others were young girls who were very sweet
with all the children. They soon made pets out of the two little Indians
who turned out to play well with the other little ones their age. We
decided that since they had grown up sharing toys and playing with each
other, it was natural for them to play with others. Our love and admiration
for them grew and grew.

We took the boys in to meet Peter one Wednesday afternoon and he was
absolutely enchanted with them. It was a challenge to keep their busy
little hands out of the paints and brushes.

	Peter looked at the boys and told Marco, "You need to be painting
these little ones. They will make wonderful models if you can get them to
hold still," he laughed.

	"The only time they are still is when they sleep," Marco told him.

	"Well then paint them sleeping, or take some photos and work from
those," Peter said. "There is nothing wrong with that. Remember your
buffaloes. You used a photograph for part of that. And the hawks you did
from memory, yes?"

	"That's true," Marco admitted. "And from some pictures I found on
the internet to get the details right."

	Peter laughed. "That's not cheating Marco. We all do that now. Use
the tools that are available to you."

Now Marco began to carry his cell phone with him and took lots of pictures
of the twins as they played, slept and bathed. From these and from his
observations, he began sketching the boys and experimenting with ways to
convert those into interesting arrangements.

Of course he did a lot of that at home since he was with them a good bit of
the time. He showed me several small watercolors in the quick style he had
used so successfully when he first started to paint. The difference that
was apparent to me was in the sureness of the quick drawings. His skill was
improving both from his work with Peter and with practice. His only problem
working at home was that Sam and Ben were fascinated by the paints and
could not keep their busy little fingers to themselves.

	"I think I know what I want to get them for their birthday," he
said. "These guys need to do some painting."

	Their birthday is just a week away," I agreed. "We need to think
about a party or something."

	"Their friends are the other kids at the day care. Maybe we can do
a party for them there." Marco suggested.

	I grinned, "That could be fun, let's do that."

	The next afternoon Marco told me, "I talked to the day nursery lady
and she said that a birthday party is a great idea but we have to bring the
cake and stuff. Want to do this?"

	"Make it so," I agreed.

On July 12 we both took Sam and Ben to the nursery along with a nice
birthday cake and a gallon of vanilla ice cream, party hats and a roll of
paper towels. It was a hoot. At the sight of the cake it was clear that the
celebration was to be the first order of business.

We put the little conical hats on their heads, securing them with the
attached rubber bands. Most of them wore the hats, a few pulled at them
until they were under their chins. We put the cake on a coffee table, lit
the four little candles and tried to lead them in singing the Happy
Birthday song. The older children did pretty well but the younger ones had
to be restrained from grabbing handfuls of cake. The twins were
delighted. The girls cut squares of cake, added a scoop of ice cream, sat
the paper plates on the table and basically stood back and watched as the
carnage ensued. Within minutes the treats had been devoured and the girls
went to work with the paper towels. They were sticky but happy.

We had a few presents for the boys but decided that for the safety of all
we would save those for when we were back home. Marco stood back and took
photos with his cell phone while I tried to help the nursery attendants
maintain some sort of order. It was messy but a lot of fun. After the kids
were restored to some semblance of order we left them to it. Marco stuck
around to help and I went back to work.

By the time I returned home at the end of the day, Marco had the boys
bathed and busy with some toys in the middle of the living room floor.

	"Arty!" they called to me when I walked in. Both boys were still
excited and looking at the small amount of leftover cake that was placed on
a table hopefully out of their reach. I sat down on the floor to receive
their hugs of greeting. They seemed to know that something good was still
forthcoming.

	"OK guys. Let's open your presents," Marco pulled a shopping bag
out of the hall closet and withdrew a stash of boxes covered with brightly
colored wrapping paper.

We managed to get them to sit down and handed them each a package. It took
them roughly a millisecond to figure out that they were to tear off the
paper to see what was inside. Marco stood back to take yet more photographs
while Sam and Ben plundered the packages. For Sam it was a red metal pickup
truck, for Ben a blue tractor. This was the good stuff, durable Tonka toys
with heavy rubber tires. It would take time and effort to destroy these
things.

It was hard to pull them away from the cars but we had several things for
them to open. The next round was a couple nice knit shirts and matching
shorts for them to wear to church. They opened those up, checked them out
quickly and returned to the trucks. They had their priorities straight.

The last present was the same for both boys. We bought them both a set of
brightly colored jars of finger-paints and a large pad of newsprint. Now
they could join Marco when he painted, hopefully staying out of his paints
and using their own. The finger-paints were washable of course and nothing
that would survive a trip through the bathtub. They looked them over and
probably didn't quite understand what a delightful mess they could make
with jars of paint and returned their attention to the trucks.

We pried the new Tonka toys away from them long enough to get them to eat
some supper and another piece of birthday cake, then put them to bed. Marco
read them a story while they held onto their new treasures then slept with
them all night.

We stood at the door of their room looking at two small boys sleeping with
their heads together and their new toys held to their chests. We reckoned
it had been a nice birthday. When the summer ended they would be ready to
be enrolled in pre-school. The great adventure was just beginning.

Marco and I took a nice long shower then curled up together in our bed and
made sweet love.

The game was afoot.


TO BE CONTINUED – AT A LATER TIME.

-----------------------------

If encouraged, the adventures of Marco, Marty and the twins will resume as
a new series after the author takes a short break. Please let me know if
you are interested in a continuation of this story.

As this becomes somewhat less an erotic story and more the tale of a gay
couple raising a pair of rambunctious toddlers I am concerned that it will
continue to be of interest here.

Marco and Marty will continue to love each other, and to make love when the
opportunity presents itself. Inquisitive small children do present a
special challenge to the sexual activity of their parents. The twins will
discover themselves as all little boys do, and with all the possibilities
that will suggest, but there will not be any sexual play between adults and
children. It will continue or not depending on your response. Thank you for
reading and I hope to hear from you, especially if you have had the
experience of raising a family.


Thank you for reading. Nick
Please send your comments to y2kslacker@mail.com

I wish to thank Matr Dontelli who patiently edits this story.

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