That first day, Jeff got Mike down for his afternoon nap and was struck with how easy it was to fall into his role, He second guessed himself until he started picking up toys and before he knew it he had a load of laundry going and was thinking about what to prepare for dinner.
The next morning he woke up at 5:30 and disabled his 6am alarm without hesitation, he had some time to himself and didn't want to wake the kid... He got in the shower and tamed his mop of hair, and found a waterproof shaver waiting for him to trim up his beard. After taking it down to stubble he grabbed the razor and cleaned up his neck. Only after stepping out of the shower did he realize that was his first time, and he chuckled to himself.
That and his new black coffee habit were the big surprises for Sunday. As Sunday evening arrived Jeff thought of work and found himself making a meatloaf for his weekly meal prep, showcasing more of the hidden recipes he now has locked away.
The following day was Monday, he knew he had to get Mikey ready off to daycare, and he needed to get to work. Jeff knew this would probably finalize the process of locking away adult Mike and leave his son completely in a toddler mentality (unless there was an emergency). It was still a little weird, maybe even exciting to catch himself thinking of Mike as his son.
As expected, getting into the car and pulling out of the driveway with the daycare in mind put Jeff into an almost autopilot like state where he knew where to go as he got to the turns he needed to make, he even knew ahead of time to get to the right or left side of the road. The same process led him to work and before he knew it he was off to McDonalds to grab himself food before trying to make dinner for his toddler.
That evening after Mike was laid down, Jeff went to the Chronivac to see if he could find out more about his and Mike's life. While he was at it he swapped Mike's genetic makeup, so that he would be Jeff's offspring instead of vice versa. The machine confirmed that Mike was aging day to day but at 11:59 as the day rolled into his birthday, he would revert back from 3.999 years old, to 3.000 years old.
The next thing he looked into was Mike's mother and maternal family, Jeff could remember sex and had a vague recollection of getting his girlfriend pregnant, but beyond that it was a blank. Jeff found that the Chronivac was leaving that section of the past a blank, obviously the Mother wasn't in the picture, and Jeff didn't really want in-laws pushing their way into the picture as Jeff was trying to make a real life for himself, but he was concerned with Mike not having an extended family. Looking back at his side of the family tree, Jeff no longer had his mother's side, she was lost when he aged since she would have had to have been 10 when she got pregnant and he lost his paternal grandparents when he changed his father. So essentially Mike had a dad, no aunts or uncles, and no grandparents or great-grandparents on either side.
Jeff clicked save to apply the changes to Mike's genome and hit the change reality option with only him being aware selected. Jeff felt a sharp lurch as reality shifted beneath him. Jeff looked back at the Chronivac and laughed at how dumb it was to hope even this machine could redefine his and Mike's lineage. He knows he was one of the first genetically modified human embryo experiments and Mike is a clone of him... "Wait what?"
Memories of a childhood being tested, recently being released into the public to test his emotional development, and just a few years back, they tested to see how his modified genome would handle creating offspring. After a couple months of training for the outside world and parenthood, he was released as a single parent, given an apartment and told to get a job.
Jeff then remembered being told at the start of this to attend the community run, single parent meeting group. Jeff didn't know if it was The Facility trying to get in his head or if they were trying to get him to socialize more with standard times to get out of the house... but Jeff knew he needed to go...