The family's baby

Chapter 21

*Grace's P.O.V*

The potty was embarrassing, to say the least. I actually had to ask mommy to turn around and to stop staring in my direction after she refused to leave! She even pulled my pullup and shorts down for me once she put me down in front of the potty, without even asking first. To make matters worse, when I was finally down, she offered to help wipe me clean. I gave her a very firm no and did it myself. The entire time I did it, I kept feeling her eyes on me despite never seeing her looking every time I looked at her to check!

Once done and with everything flushed, I stand and am immediately greeted with mommy pulling my pullup... Jazmin's pullup back up and checking its placement and position. Once satisfied it's correctly on, she then finally pulls my shorts back on before sending me to wash my hands with burning cheeks. Once washed, she rubs them dry for me before picking me back up to sit on her hip.

"Any other thing you want to do to distract me from you know what? If so, can we do them now and get them out of the way so we can finally get you in bed without the back and forth?" She asks and I shake my head no as I hide my burning face in her neck. This wasn't a distraction, mommy... this was to prevent you from changing a wet... from me changing a wet pullup and possibly sheets too! No way I can tell her that though. Just the thought alone has me dying from embarrassment. I never could have guessed I would be taking steps to prevent having an accident in my niece's pullup in my entire life, let alone when I arrived this morning!

"Good. Let's finally get you into bed then." My mommy says and makes very quick work of doing just that. It almost felt like she feared if she wasted even a second more, I would find another reason to delay this. Stupid. Nap!!! I really hate napping! I love accidentally falling asleep, sure, but being told I have to sleep is terrible!! The only bright side is mommy is here in bed with me, holding me close. Her embrace is nice and almost... I said almost... makes this nap acceptable, I guess.

"You know, baby... you haven't called me mommy without it being an accident or you trying to get out of trouble in a long time. Yes... your "papas" and "mommys" are obvious with their goals. It's nice to hear you calling me it without wanting something in return. I'm not going to tell you to continue but I can't not encourage you to continue calling me mommy, baby. I wanted to strangle Zahira and Elena when they embarrassed you out of saying it after you started living here full time. I finally had a daughter saying mommy and it lasted like a whole week after you got here! And to avoid your father giving me hell, yes, he would be over the moon to hear you call him daddy." She tells me and I can't help but bury my face in my pillow out of embarrassment.

"Oh, it isn't that bad, is it? You can just call us mommy and daddy when no one is around. It's not like I'm saying do it all the time or even telling you to do it at all. All I'm saying is I wouldn't be against you doing it..." mom continues before I interrupt her.

"Fine." I mumble into the pillow, feeling myself go even redder.

"Fine? You mean it?" Mom repeats, not doing a very good job hiding her excitement.

"Yes... mommy. BUT... only when no one is here and if anyone finds out, I won't do it anymore. It's too embarrassing and I can already hear the teasing." I tell her, hiding my face back in my pillow. If it really means that much to her and dad, I can set aside a little of my pride for them.

"Really? You really will, baby?" She asks, not able to hide her excitement anymore.

"Yes..." I tell her, rolling my eyes at her excitement level.

"Yes... what?" Mom asks, giddy.

"Yes, I will do it?" I ask in return, not sure what she wants now.

"You will do it for... who?" Mom asks and I blush now in understanding what she wants to hear.

"Yes... mommy... I will do it." I tell her as I get pulled tight into her as she leans over me and starts peppering my face with kisses. It tickles a lot so I can't help but start laughing.

"Mommy... stop... it tickles, mommy. Mommy!!" I say between laughs, finally getting her off me. No longer being tickled, I can finally stop laughing and catch my breath. As I'm doing that, mommy repositions us so I'm her little spoon again.

"Listen, baby... about what you said early. Not how you will continue calling me mommy. It's about me hating you for what you did. I need you to understand that will always be impossible." She tells me before continuing.

"When you become a parent, you figure out really quickly that one of the most important things to learn is mistakes happen. When they do, we should communicate, listen, learn, forgive, and move on. You have to have a very short memory when it comes to that kind of stuff because kids do. I imagine when thinking about it, you remember the punishment over the mistake when looking back." Mom informs me and I find it hard to refute her claim. I do remember some punishments easily and have to think to remember why they happened.

"These steps are important for that very reason. We communicate why the mistake happened. We listen so we can understand and communicate further. We learn from that mistake by communicating and listening so we don't repeat the same mistake. We also learn from the consequences, or as you know them, punishments, why you shouldn't do it in the future. This is the most important part, baby. We then forgive and move on... let me repeat that for you, baby... I forgive you for your actions... you forgive me for punishing said action and forgive yourself for doing it and we move on. Yes, baby, we move on. We forget it ever happened. It's also not always in that exact order but all those steps are very important." Mom continues telling me.

"That is why you forget why you were punished. It's your mind moving past it and discarding it as unimportant. You remember the punishment because it's important to remember how much of a threat it is. So that's why I tell you it's impossible for me to hate you because I've already forgiven you and I've moved past it. It sounds like you on the other hand... haven't. You need to move past it, baby. Accept it happened and forgive yourself because I already have. I understand it's not that simple... and I'm here if you need to talk about it more. Just remember you are forgiven, baby... I forgive you." She says, kissing the top, back of my head.

I don't say anything in return and she just holds me tighter. While we are laying there, she begins humming a lullaby that sounds familiar but I can't place it. The more I concentrate on it, the more sleepy I get, which feels like witchcraft to me. All I want to do is figure out why I know this song! Eventually I can't fight it anymore and fall into a blissful sleep. So blissful, I don't want to get up when mom...my comes and wakes me up from it.