Second Chance - Chapter 3 - Tasty Motivation

Michelangelo fell flat on his plastron for at least the tenth time in five minutes. Splinter had been trying to get him to crawl, but the poor little turtle hadn't quite mastered it yet.

The infant fussed at his failure.

“It is alright, Michelangelo,” Splinter lifted him up onto his hands and knees again, “you will get it.”

Mikey tried to move one of his knees forward, but again, he lost his balance and went down on his stomach.

“You almost had it.” Splinter set him up again and Mikey held himself in the position for several seconds before he subtly moved forward, and made it two paces before he collapsed again.

Splinter made an exaggerated gasp to encourage the little one. “Look at you! You crawled a little bit there.”

Mikey smiled and tried to lift himself back up, but found it too difficult and proceeded to lie on the floor and roll over onto his shell and suck on his fingers contentedly.

Splinter smiled and shook his head. “Very well. You may have your leisure time to suck your fingers and roll around.” He hovered over the little one and tickled his tummy. “I will get you to crawl though!”

Mikey burst into a fit of belly laughs, which grew louder when his father began to blow raspberries on his stomach.

“Waaah!”

Splinter's moment of play was interrupted by the sound of one of his older toddlers screaming at the top of his lungs. He scooped up Mikey and ran to the sound of the cry.

He followed the sound to his dojo and found Raphael sitting in the middle of the floor screaming and crying. Carefully, he set Mikey down on the floor and scooped up Raphael, cradling him and bouncing him in consolation.

“There, there, Raphael,” he hushed. “It's okay. It's okay.”

He checked the fussy toddler over for injuries, but could not find a single one.

“What is the matter, my sweet?”

Raphael, said nothing, still yet to say his first word, but looked to his father with fear in his big green eyes.

“Did something frighten you?”

Raph pouted and stared at the floor.

Splinter looked to see what had his attention and saw something tiny and brown crawling across the floor; it was a cockroach and a crawling Mikey was slowly on the pursuit of it.

Splinter gasped. “Michelangelo, you are crawling.”

Mikey's determined face stayed focused on the unsuspecting roach. Once he got close enough, he reached for it, pinching it between his chubby index finger and thumb.

“No!” Raph screamed at him. “No-o-o!”

Splinter set Raph down on the floor and scooped up Mikey in one swift movement, taking his hand to stop him from ingesting the insect.

“No, no, no, Michelangelo,” he scolded. “You cannot eat the bug.”

Mikey fussed, protesting being denied his rightfully earned snack.

Splinter could not bring himself to deny his son the thing that motivated him to crawl on his own, so he gave in and allowed the infant to eat the roach. They ate worms and algae regularly anyway, so how bad could it possibly hurt him?

A mortified Raph once again burst into tears. “No!” he cried.

This was when Splinter finally noticed. “Raphael, did you just speak?”

He set the now highly content Mikey on the floor once again and knelt down by Raph. “Did you say 'no'?” he asked. “What is the matter? 'No' to what?”

Raph screamed and pointed at his little brother. “No! No-o-o!”

Splinter cocked his head. “No to Mikey?” He looked at Mikey and saw he was still slowly chewing the roach. “Did the bug scare you?”

Raph responded only by continuing to pout and stare at Mikey.

“It is okay, honey, the bug is gone. Mikey ate it,” Splinter responded, gesturing toward his youngest who had finished his snack and was now lying on his stomach again.

This seemed to upset Raph further. “No-o-o!”

Splinter chuckled and gathered him into his arms and then Mikey as well.

“It is okay, Raphael. Michelangelo is fine. The bug will not hurt him. He made the bug go away,” Splinter explained. He looked to Michelangelo and tickled his chin. “It was yummy, wasn't it?”

Mikey grabbed onto his finger and stuck it into his mouth.

Seeing that Mikey was giggling and okay seemed to settle Raph down.

“There you go,” Splinter cooed. “See? The bugs can't hurt you.”

Leonardo crawled into the dojo and up to his father. He grabbed onto his robe for support and pulled himself to his feet. In the passing weeks, he had become strong enough to stand up on his two feet, but only with the support of something to hold onto.

His curious blue eyes looked up and scanned his father and little brothers. “'..s'at?”

Splinter chuckled. Leo had also picked up on several more words and phrases, including 'what's that?' and his brothers' names.

“It was nothing, my son. Raphie just got scared by a bug, but Mikey ate it.”

Leo giggled. “'ikey...”

Splinter grinned. “Mikey's silly, isn't he?”

Leo nodded.

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

Splinter decided he would use food as a motivation to get little Mikey to crawl on his own, so he got out his dish full of live worms and sat across from the little tot lying on his stomach on the living room floor.

Right away, Mikey recognized the dish and knew that was where the deliciousness came from. He tried to climb into his father's lap, but Splinter carefully set him back on the floor.

“Do you want some worms?” he asked.

Mikey responded by reaching for the dish.

Splinter got up and placed one worm about two feet in front of Mikey, just out of his reach.

“There you go,” he said. “You have to go get it.”

Mikey stared at the worm for several seconds and then averted his gaze to Splinter, his blue baby blues pleading.

“You have to go get the worm,” Splinter urged gently.

Mikey tried to climb into Splinter's lap again and this time reached for the whole dish of worms in his hand, but Splinter pulled it away.

“No, no,” he scolded and then set the dish beside the lone worm so that Mikey would have to crawl to that too. Splinter sat behind the dish and worm and held out his arms. “Come on.”

Mikey looked to him and then the worm. Splinter watched as his face morphed into a determined expression.

“You can do it,” he whispered. “Come on, Michelangelo.”

Mikey shakily lifted his tiny upper half with his chubby arms.

“There you go. Just a little more.”

He put one hand in front of him and propped up one of his knees.

“Good boy,” Splinter cooed. “Come on, you're almost up.”

He shakily propped up his other knee and was balanced on his hands and knees. Carefully, he placed his right hand in front of him and then moved his left knee forward, and then repeated vice versa.

“Come on, you're almost there.”

Within a few paces of shaky crawling, Mikey reached the worm and picked it up and put it in his mouth.

Splinter scooped him up out of pure glee and hugged him close. “You did it! Oh, I am so proud of you, Michelangelo.”

Mikey grinned with a mouthful of chewed-up worm.

After several more trials, Mikey had nearly mastered crawling on his own.

Leo crawled up to his father, having abandoned his play session with Donnie and Raph, and propped himself up against his legs again.

“F-food?” he reached for the dish of worms in Splinter's hands.

“Leonardo, you must see what Michelangelo can do now,” he said and got down on his knees a few feet from Mikey. He held out his hands. “Come on, Mikey,” he cooed.

Mikey grinned and eagerly crawled to his father and into his arms.

“See, Leonardo? Mikey can crawl now!”

Leo clapped his hands. “'ikey go!”

“Yes,” Splinter responded. “Now, are you hungry?”

“Food!” Leo chirped.