maxielforlife

[maxielforlife]

They’ve gone back to a regular sleeping schedule. In bed before 8:30 pm, teeth brushed, story read, she gets to pick it, either in English or Dutch, Daniel reads it, always, because he makes up better voices for characters than Max. She corrects him on his awful pronunciation. Then Max sings the song, because Daniel can’t sing. She will only allow him to sing when Max isn’t there for bedtime. In a week it will be that, Max going back to night school, from Monday through Thursday. 

“Goodnight Princess,” Daniel says as he kisses her soft cheek. 

“Noooo,” she wines and holds on to him. 

“What do you mean no?” Max asks. 

“I don’t want to.”

She’s never been fussy about sleep, maybe only when she’s sick. Neither of them like this at all. 

“I don’t want to go to school tomorrow,” She whines again. 

“Why?” Maw asks, concerned. 

“I wanna stay with you and Dada.” 

“But sweetheart, it’s gonna be great. You’re gonna make new friends, and learns lots of new things.” Daniel says, in this sweet voice he only uses for her, he strokes her hair, while Max kneels down to stroke her back. 

“Baby girl, it will be okay. I know it’s scary, but it will be okay.” 

They confort her, until she falls asleep, way past her bed time. It took an hour, of reassurance and gentle comfort for her to finally close her eyes. 

Dinner has gone cold, their heart feels a little heavier, not knowing where this came from. She’s been wanting to do big girl stuff for ages, copingVictoria’s  every move, borrowing her grandmother’s bag and walking around with it like she was a grown up too. She’s been saying she couldn’t wait to finally go to the big girl’s school. It always made Max a little emotional when she said this, and now that the day is almost here, she’s panicking about it. 

Daniel kisses Max temple and tells him it’s gonna be fine. He’s taken a day off work for this very special day. He’s never expected to be so worked up about school, let alone kindergarten, but he is. Max is an even bigger mess, he already knows he’ll cry when they’ll drop her off. 

They re-heat dinner and finally sit at the table Max had set hours earlier. The TV is playing in the background, quietly, it’s still on the cartoon channel, they don’t even pay attention to it. They’ve barely touched their food when Bella’s little head pokes out of the hallway, her eyes adjusting to the light, she holds her kangaroo close to her chest and stays there.

“Are you okay baby girl?”

“I can’t sleep.” 

Daniel goes to pick her up, she rest her head on his shoulder and holds her hand to his beard. She loves to play with it. He’s been forbidden to trim it too much, there was once a thirty minute tantrum because he shaved. He’s at the mercy of a 3 years old now. He doesn’t mind it. 

Max takes her when he’s done with his plate, and suddenly he get a flash back to a couple of years ago, when Daniel did the same. She’s half falling asleep on his lap, while he rocking her back and fourth. He puts her to bed, once again. She doesn’t wake up when he close the bedroom door. 

She cries when they’ve just settled into bed, Daniel between Max’s leg, telling him tomorrow would be fine. She cries for him, her Dada. He sighs and goes to check on her. It’s almost eleven, she’s never been up this late. 

“You need some sleep princess. I promise tomorrow will be okay.” He whispers into her ear. 

“I wanna sleep in your bed.” She cries. 

He shakes his head but gives in. Max doesn’t protest when Daniel lay her between them two. She’s has restless sleep, kicking them both, unintentionally. He feet get tucked under Max’s arm, kangaroo has slipped under a pillow and her head rest on Daniel’s chest. She’s taking up so much room Max is nearly falling off the bed. 

Daniel chuckles when he sees this, this is as much rest as they will get. Max would flip him off if he wasn’t so scared she will wake up and never go back to sleep. 

She wears the special outfit they’ve picked for her. Daniel does her hair, and all the stress is gone. She eat breakfast without a fuss, and doesn’t mind the million pictures they take of her. Max has put tag with her name on every of her belonging. She’s got a frozen backpack. 

She holds their hand on their way to school. She isn’t scared anymore, and almost goes in without goodbyes. Daniel laughs about it, but Max insists on give her a kiss. 

“You have a good day, and once school is over, Dada and I will come and pick you up, and we’ll go have icea cream at the park, okay?” Max chokes on his words. 

“Strawberry one?” She asks in return, wrapping her tiny arms around his neck. 

“All the flavor you want baby girl.” He kisses her. “I love you.”

She squeezes his neck, tight. She doesn’t feel comfortable saying it in front of strangers, but he knows she means it. 

She goes to Daniel next, he hugs her quickly, and says he loves her but doesn’t hold her back when she runs inside. 

Max cries as she walks confidently towards her teacher. His baby is all grown up, and he must admit, he isn’t sure he doesn’t like it. He can feel Daniel chuckle when he say this. Max sniff on the way back home. Daniel still holds his hand, stroke the back of it gently. He avoids Max’s eyes at all cost. 

As soon as the door is closed, Daniel shed tears. 

“How is she old enough to go to school??” He asks Max. “I remember when she fit into my arms.” Max bits back his smile and hugs him. “My baby is gone to school.”

“I know.”

“Should we call the school to know how she’s doing?” 

“They have our contact in case something goes wrong, but I’m sure she’s fine babe.”

Daniel nods. 

“Come on.” Max says, leading him in the bedroom. 

They catch up on sleep, and chores before they get to pick her up, hours later. 

She runs into their arms, a piece of paper dangling from her hand. She shows her drawing, very proudly. She attempted to write her name. She can’t stop talking about day, the friends she made. Her icecream almost melt because she talks too much.

Max and Daniel exchange a knowing smile, while she goes on about the swin set in the playground.

[maxielforlife]

The news is sinking in, they are finally going to be parents. It’s been weeks since their last call with Jade, they get news of her and the baby regularly, and Daniel promises he’ll take Max to the US to feel the baby kick. 

He lays on the soft carpet, pretending to be a snow angel. He wants to help Max, but apparently Max does it better than Daniel, so he’s been only tasked with handing tapes pieces to him. Max is more meticulous than Daniel. He has the patience to carefully protect everything. 

“What if the baby doesn’t like the colour we picked?” Max says once he’s fully covered the crib that has been siting in this room for years. 

“Mijn Liefje, the baby will not give two shit!” 

“Maybe the other colour is better.” 

Daniel sits up straight, he can hear the worry in Max’s voice, he hates it. He wants to know how to tell Max that it’s gonna be fine, that he’s gonna a great dad. He says it, a lot, but sometimes all the efforts come crumbling down, for the slightest little hiccup.

The white walls is all they’ve been seeing for years while hoping, and sometimes resorting to praying for this baby. It’s burnt into their eyes as the colour of sadness and defeat. It makes the room look steril and cold. They once picked a bright colour, right after they moved and thought the process would be easy, but so much has changed that it doesn’t feel right. 

They’ve picked a nicer colour, neutral and warm. 

Daniel gets up and grabs a brush. Even this simple action seems to scare Max, he doesn’t seem to trust Daniel with a paint brush. 

“Here,” He gives one to Max. “Let’s see. We test both and see which one is best okay?”

Max nods, unsure, insecure, wanting to protest, but finding this solution to be the best. He hates this feeling, this overwhelmness that comes in waves, and still, Daniel is there, patient, loving and unbothered, offering all the love he has to offer that Max sometimes think he doesn’t deserve. 

There’s two square of paint on the wall, drying. Daniel has wrapped his arms around Max, tiptoeing to be taller than him. He kisses his forehead, and lets him snuggles close to him. He can feel it, all the love Max holds inside of him, all the love he never got from his dad. All the loves he’ll get to give to their baby. So he never worries about it, if their new born will know he’s loved, even if Max doesn’t say it everyday, he’ll feel it, in his dad gentle touch, his care for details, in his voice, it always changes when Max talks about him. 

Max turns around to look at the paint. Daniel’s arms still wrapped around his shoulders. He doesn’t know, he doesn’t know what’s the right choice. He can’t even chose a paint colour, what it gonna be when the baby is here and he’ll need to make the right decision for him.

“I don’t know,” He says, sounding defeated. 

“Do you want to wait until tomorrow?” Daniel asks. 

“But there is still so much to do. We need to do this right now.” Again the panic is talking. Daniel places himself in front of him and cups his cheeks.

“My love, I know you’re stressing out, and that you want to do it all by ourselves, and I love you for that. But we have time, okay?” He strokes his cheeks.”And if we don’t like it, we can paint over it.”

“Yeah?!” He voice is small, and Daniel laughs foundly at that. 

“Yeah.” He kisses him, full of love. “There is also no wrong choice, whatever we chose, we picked with love, for him or her. You know he won’t care much about it.”

They wait, staring at the wall. The light green turns lighter with each passing minutes while the blue remains blue. The dog barks at someone passing by, one of the cats comes to them. They sit down to stroke him. And then again, Daniel see it, the unconditional love that Max has for everyone, even animals. And he can’t wait, he can’t wait for their family life to start. 

“Max?” Daniel calls. 

“Yeah.” He looks up and Sassy holds her paw out, he stopped cuddling her. 

“You do know that I would have never wanted to start a family if I wasn’t sure, right?” Max nods, perplex.”I was sure before, but it’s even more clear now that you’re going to be the best at this” 

Max’s lip quiver, and Daniel kisses him, again, lovingly. 

“Our baby won’t give two shit about paint, he’ll never care about it, because he’ll be to busy making memories with us. And mijn liefje, I know you’re scared, and I am too. But I would have never wanted this if it wasn’t with you.”

[maxielforlife]

You don't understand my love for this photo. They are glowing, I'm obsessed.

[maxielforlife]

To my dear Stacy, 🙄🙄🙄

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Here's a birthday present for you, my incredible friend. I try to think about ways to say thank you for all your support. An edit, a gif set, a simple ficelet in your DM didn't seem enough.

I keep saying that a thousand words wouldn't be enough to say thank you, so I hope the thousand more I had will show at least half of my love and affection for you. 🥰🥰🥰

So here's my present to you, a thank you for all the support, love and laugh you've been briging into my life for the past couple of months. I've said before, and I will say it again, you've been such a tremendous friend. You've helped me through a lot, especially when work was shit and I complained about it. Thank you for being there. For being such a Maxiel enthousiast and an awesome friend.

Я тебя люблю ❤️❤️

[maxielforlife]

MAX VERSTAPPEN

Spanish GP 2022

[maxielforlife]

Where is GP? He ran off?

[maxielforlife]

Daniel Ricciardo - The Taste of Victory ♡

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah (28-04-2022)

[maxielforlife]

Only good part in that trailer was Max's eyes 🥰 Like a lion stalking it's prey..

[maxielforlife]

I love them so much🥺 [x]

[maxielforlife]

Max Verstappen © ‘Whatever It Takes’ Documentary

[maxielforlife]

Daniel Ricciardo for Men’s Health Netherlands