Close Encounter of the 6 Months Old Kind part 2

“No! Stop that!” Peridot cried as she grabbed the screwdriver from the child’s hand. She shivered slightly in disgust as she felt slobber on the handle from where little Sunni had put it in her mouth. The baby reached out for the tool and whimpered from her seat at the high chair. “No. A lever- I mean screwdriver is not for ingesting!” she chastised. She then set the tool as far away from her and Sunni as possible, and wiped her hands with disinfectant. Connie had explained to her before that babies learn about things by placing them in their mouth, but that didn't stop her from finding the action utterly disgusting. It had been a little over a month since their initial introduction to each other, and while she did not become nearly as affectionate with the infant like Lapis had, she did have a certain fondness for the child…when she wasn’t crying or slobbering on her tools.
So much so that she had offered to look after the infant for her parents while they were busy. Peridot continued to work at her bench when the warp pad sounded. Steven stepped down from the crystal surface, tapping a pink bubble to send it away. “Hey Peri, thanks for-” he began but stopped when he saw her. “Peridot!” he cried walking over to the table, “I thought I told you not to have her at your workbench! Don’t you remember what happened last time?”
“What nearly happened, you mean. And yes I do. That is why she is safely secured inside this containment chair,” she explained.
“Something bad could still happen. What if something caught on fire?” he asked.
“I’m not working with anything exceedingly flammable so I doubt that would have ever been an issue,” she argued, “Besides, she likes to watch me work. Isn’t that right?” Peridot turned to the baby, who was currently chewing on her own fingers. She started grinning when  she noticed Steven and Peridot were staring at her.
“See?” she said with a confident smile as she crossed her arms.
Steven rolled his eyes, but grinned slightly. “She’s a baby, Peridot. I doubt she really understood what you said,” he argued as he started freeing his child from the high chair, “but I guess if she’s alright, I can’t stay mad at you.” He then turned to Sunni in his arms, “I hope you had fun today, but now it’s time to say ‘bye bye’ to Peridot!” he cooed.
Sunni giggled in her father’s arms. “Paw-eee-dah!” she squealed.
Steven’s smile faded and he looked at her in surprise. “D-did she just?…” he started.
“What? What did she do?” Peridot asked in confusion.
Steven started laughing. “She said her first word, Peri! She said her first word!”  he cried ecstatically.
“What did she say?” she asked.
“Didn’t you hear? She said your name, Peridot,” he responded.
“Paw-eee-dahd!” Sunni said again.
“That’s not my name,” Peridot argued furrowing her brow, “At least she isn’t pronouncing it correctly.”
“Well she doesn’t have teeth so that would be kind of hard,” he pointed out. “Come on, Sunni!” he said excitedly, “Let’s go see mommy and tell her about this!”  He began running towards the door.
“I really don’t get why you're so excited,” Peridot said turning back to her work, “I’ve already been teaching her how to read basic words. Speaking would logically be the next step.”
Steven stopped and slowly turned towards Peridot. “I’m sorry...what?” Steven said.
“I’ve taught her how to read basic words,” she repeated, “Granted, her literary vocabulary is very limited.”
“How?!” he questioned, “Show me.”
Peridot pulled out two stacks of five cards. She spread the first one with words out on the table and sat Sunni down in front of them. “Alright Sunni,” she said, holding up a card from the other deck, “What is this?” On the card was a picture of a hammer. After a few seconds of staring at the card, the little girl smacked her hand down on the card in front of her with the word printed on it.  “Good!” Peridot praised, “How about this?” She flipped the card to a picture of a leaf. Once again Sunni stared at it for a little while before smacking her hand down on the corresponding card in front of her. As they went through the rest of the cards, Steven looked on completely baffled.
“This is...amazing!”Steven exclaimed. A smile spread across his face as he did so. “Look at you, you little brainiac!” he cooed, scooping up his daughter and kissing her on the cheek.“Though this does kind of worry me too. What exactly do you get up to when we leave her with you?” he questioned.
“Nothing dangerous, I assure you. I mostly just work on ways to educate her and keep her entertained at the same time,” Peridot waved him off. As much as she tried, she couldn't quite hide the proud smile that had started forming on her face as steven praised her.
“Well it seems to have paid off,” he quipped, “Maybe you could start some kind of business around this.”
Peridot’s face scrunched up. “Absolutely not!” she snapped, “Human infants are disgusting! They drool, they poop, they cry, they stick things in their vocal orifices...there is no way I am dealing with that all day!”
“Unless it’s Sunni?” Steven said with a smirk.
Peridot mirrored the smirk as she looked up at him. “Exactly!”