When Izabel tried to leave, Cami pulled at her. So Izabel turned her body to face the same direction as Cami, and she let Cami lean back into her. It was a lovely, peaceful moment. One she got to have every morning. She chided herself for spending it, mostly, thinking of what she had to do next.

She pulled herself away. “We don’t want to be late.” She went to the bins of Cami’s clothes and picked out an outfit for the day.

Cami held out the empty bottle.

“Are you done with it?”

Cami nodded, awake now, alert, a little animal.

“Then you know what to do with it. You know where it goes.”

Cami ran out of the room and put the bottle by the kitchen sink.

“What’s next?” Izabel asked, following her.

“Teeth brushing!”

“Good morning,” Kaito said, stepping into the kitchen.

“Daddy!” Cami ran into his arms, and he scooped her up and kissed her twice on the cheek.

“Better go brush your teeth,” he said.

In the bathroom, Izabel put toothpaste on both of their toothbrushes as Cami peed in the toilet.

“Can you wipe yourself? Do you know what to do next?”

“I know!”

Izabel brushed her teeth while she watched Cami. She wiped herself with a nearly normal amount of toilet paper. She flushed the toilet. She washed her hands. She took the toothbrush from the cup.

“Did you wet this?”

“Uh-huh,” Izabel said, toothbrush in her mouth.

And then Cami brushed her teeth and spat. For a minute, you could be convinced that she could take care of herself, that she wouldn’t start crying when she couldn’t get the Velcro on her shoes to line up exactly.

Back in the kitchen, Cami picked up her banana and held it over her head and said it was the moon both ways.

“What do you mean?” Kaito asked.

“Full moon,” she said, turning the sliced face of it at him, perfectly round and dimpled with color like any good asteroid-blemished surface. “And . . .” She turned it so the arc of it was above her. “And . . .”

“Crescent,” he said.

“Crescent moon!” she said.

“Very good,” Izabel said, taking the banana from her, pulling down the peel, and handing it back. “Now you better eat.”

Cami and Kaito looked at each other and Izabel knew it was some sort of acknowledgment that Izabel was the serious one in the house. But she didn’t know if that were true. Yes, she was serious now, with them, but she didn’t know if she would have been, if she wanted to be, if she’d started this way.

When Cami was done with her banana, Izabel took her to get dressed. Cami wanted to pick out her own outfit and Izabel reminded her that every night she asked her if she wanted to put out clothes for the next day.