𝐋𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐄𝐃

𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲 • 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗲𝗻𝗱*

𝗣𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗵

two years 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿:

"Hey, Roro."

Bright brown eyes blinked at me, the purest smile spreading as he sat up in the twin-sized bed. Kairo Keiz wiggled himself out of the Blaze cartoon covers, pushing his curls back as his feet hit the rug under this bed. I crossed over his side of the bedroom, with his twin to my right.

"Ma Ma...Lani?" Ms. Kalani removed her pacifier at the sound of her name. The only one out of them that still depends on the soothing effect.

"Yeah, Roro." Kairo ignored his sister's tone, while I shuffled my laugh. I'm not sure why, but it seems in the last month — Kalani's remarks were becoming more snappy.

Kairo maneuvered from the low-slate bed to his sister. The two of them looked at each other before he came to find me in the bathroom.

"You sleep okay, baby?" Nodding, Roro rubbed his eyes while I wet a facial towel to clean him up with. As always, I kneeled, becoming at eye level. The gesture allowed him to snuggle up with me as I finished the task. And like always by the time it was over, Roro smiling and watching my every move — while Lani came into their bathroom with toys in hand.

Kalani got her pick between a few favorites. Her Bearington Bears or the two Honey Girls Blush Bears by the Build-A-Bear company. Then Roro was off to get either his Blaze Monster truck or the Camden Murphy Dragonoid truck.

"You..truck?"

"Yep. Me, Lani."

"I wanna play, Ma Ma."

Before we could leave the room, I decided to straighten up the Blaze-inspired half. When Kalani woke up about two hours ago, it was easy to let her maneuver around quietly while tidying up her space. However, now that both of them were awake — I needed to get this room as clean as possible before they started to tackle the day.

"Kalani...that's Kairo's and you just said that it is his. So, why do you think you can take it from him?" I put his pillows back into place and made sure to straighten the fuzzy rug, throw blanket, and align his monster truck bean bags.

The two cartoons, Blaze and Princess Tiana became the split decision in making their nursery into a toddler bedroom. It was still fresh in the scheme of things. The nursery lasted for the first year. However, it was the second day after their first birthday, December 26th, that Kalani climbed out of bed. But instead of coming to our room like usual, we found the little one downstairs. Thankfully Sunshine didn't let her out his sight.

Two kids....

"But...I..."

"No, Lani." Kairo said and just like that, on queue, Kalani dropped her bears in hopes of taking the truck from him. Shaking my head I scooped up the teddies and the little pigtail-wearing girl. Her chunky twist bounced as I put her on my hip with a simple kiss on the cheek.

"Let's go downstairs, Roro. That's all you want for now?"

"Yes, Ma Ma."

Leading the way, Kairo played with the trucks as we took the stairs. Kalani sang off beat to Gracie's Corner and the second we hit the bottom floor, I put her down.

"Mimi, see!" Kairo held up the toys, waving them excitedly for Milan. As if he didn't play with them every day. Then something, or better yet, someone caught his attention. "Me-Maw!" That show-n-tell moment was cut short the second Dakota and Ka'Dafii walked inside from the downstairs balcony of our Johns Creek home.