On Tour

Chapter 49

"I'll start dinner." Tyler says, following Jenna into the kitchenette. I nod and set down the car seat on the hotel couch. "Where's the baby bag?" I ask Josh, he clenches his teeth and starts looking around the room, "There," he says pointing beside the bed. I walk over and grab the bag and bring it over to the couch. I unzip it and I hear Amara start to fuss, "Hey Josh, can you get her while I lay out a few things." I yell over my shoulder. He walks over, putting a hand on my lower back, he kisses my cheek, and then bends down in front of Amara. "Hi little girl, lets get you out of here!" He says and she stays fussy. He starts unbuckling her as I pull out of few things from the baby bag. He picks her up and bounces her as he walks away. I sit on the floor and lay out a large fluffy blanket and flatten it out. I then lay out a bunch of her toys, ones that rattle, plush ones, bright ones, everything. She's already so spoiled and she's only a month old. "Ok, you can bring her over now." I say and put my hands in the air, reaching for my baby. I sway myself back and forth, "Gimme, Gimme," I say and josh laughs, handing me Amara. I bounce her a few times and then lie her on her back on the blanket. "The doctor said we should lie her on her stomach to teach her to crawl, remember?" Josh says, sitting down criss-cross next to me. I look at him and roll my eyes, already so protective I guess. "Ok, but only until she starts getting mad." I say, grabbing her, and gently setting her down on her stomach. At first, she tries figuring it out and starts pushing her arms on the ground. And then when she fails to push herself up, that's when she starts getting frustrated, and she starts to grunt. I go to roll her over but, she does it by herself before I can reach her. I look at Josh, my mouth resembling a small o. We both look at her and cheer, clapping, "Good girl!" "Way to go!" She babbles and grabs her foot, putting it in her mouth. I slap Josh's arm, "She's so fricken cute!" I yell and he laughs looking back at Amara, who can't decide which parent to look at, "I guess someone discovered she has feet," he says reaching over, tickling her little feet. She laughs and babbles at the same time and a sudden thought bursts into my head, "We need to salt dough her hands and feet before she gets any older!" I yell at Josh who starts to look at me laughing, "She won't get much old-" "You don't understand, we need to do this now!" I say and him, still laughing says this, "I'll go pick some flour up now and we can do it after dinner, ok?" "Ok." I say calmer, these pregnancy hormones still got me efed up. He kisses me and waves to the baby, "Bye, bye." He says in a kiddish voice, walking away. I watch him walk away and then I look back to Amara, I grab her bright pink rattle and shake it, she goes cross eyed looking at it and reaches for it from my hands. I give the toy to her, and she examines it, skeptical. Then, she gives it a few shakes, she babbles, and then it's followed by a bunch of vigorous shakes and laughing. I laugh at her and she keeps looking at me, then the rattle, shake, and then laugh. Such a pure little mind.
        "Dinners ready!" Josh yells from the kitchen. I look towards the kitchenette, then back at Amara. I stand up and then I bend down and grab her, tossing her into one of my arms. She looks around, still becoming aware of her temporary surroundings. I grab a bottle in my other hand and we walk to the kitchen, "Awe, you already got her high-chair set up?" I say looking at the cushioned seat with a large backboard and small wooden table attached. "Sure do." Tyler says walking over to me, reaching out for Amara. "I'll put her in, you go get the formula ready or something." He says, grabbing Amara and starts strapping her in to her chair. I walk over to the counter and Josh says, "I bought some baby food, I don't think she knows how to eat it on her own yet, but we can put it in front of her so she can play with it while we eat. I can give her the bottle after dinner." He says, pointing to a filled, blue and white Walmart bag. I open the bag and start to take things out, "Good, becuase between you and me, I was fretting about whether I was going to be able to eat or not." He puts his hand on my back and laughs, then he walks away to set the table. "Lets see what we got here," I mutter looking at each small container. Apple, peas, carrots, turkey dinner, plums, pears..... I feel like I should go for apple first, once she tastes the sugar in the apple, it should keep her busy, right? I reach for a small dark blue plastic plate, and crack open the apple baby food container. I dip my finger in it and bring it up to my mouth, tasting it. Just like apple sauce, she'll love this! I say and I pour the container onto the plate. It makes gulping noises, and then, I know she won't know what this is or how to use it, but I grab a small rubber blue fork and slosh it into the apple food. I throw away the empty container and then I walk over to Amara, she's all strapped in, I set down in front of her the plate. Josh walks behind the seat and starts to put a bib on her, while she eyes the plate down, "I'll give you a bottle when we're done eating." I say and she looks up at me, down at her food, and then she starts grabbing her bib. She'll eventually test it, no need to wait around. I walk over to the sink and wash my hands. I dry them off and then grab a coke out of the cooler, the cold can, freezing my hand. I make my way over to the table and everyone is sat down. I sit next Josh and across from Jenna, who is sitting next to Tyler. Amara is at the end of the table and I look over at her. Her hands and face are full of baby food and I'm not quite sure how much she actually got into her mouth, I laugh and look back at everyone, "Good food, good lord, good meat, lets eat!" I say and everyone laughs, digging into the grilled burgers and fries.
"It's ready bring her over!" Josh yells, from in the kitchenette. I finish washing Amara's little feet and hands and start drying them off. While drying them off I walk into the lit up kitchen. I hand the towel off to Tyler and I steady Amara's foot, I stick my tongue out, trust me, it helps me focus. I slowly lower her foot into the grey paste, that is in a oval shaped mold. I hold it there for 30 seconds and she starts to get fussy. "Here," Tyler says, walking over with the towel, I pull her baby foot out of the paste and let Tyler clean it off. He talks to her while me and Josh grab one of her hands, she looks confused and continues to fuss, "Don't worry, you'll be glad we did this when we did babe." Josh says bopping her nose and smiling, she calms down, every time he bops her on the nose she calms, they're already so close and it makes me happy. Tyler holds her legs, and I hold her upper body. We lower her down and Josh steadies her hand into the salt dough. He holds it there for 30 seconds, then when we're done I hand her over to Tyler and Jenna, "We can go give her a bath if you'd like, we'll return her before night," Tyler starts, Jenna looks at him, and then at me and Josh, "I imagine you two are exhausted so please, let us give you two hours," Jenna finishes holding Amara, while Tyler cleans her hand. This won't be her first bath, we were lucky enough to give her, her first bath back at the hospital around 1 1/2 weeks in a small yellow tub. I look at Josh and inhale deeply, I wrap my arm around his waist and groggily blink, "That sounds good," I say looking up at Josh, "Agreed," he says, holding my shoulder. Jenna smiles and starts walking off with Amara, bouncing her on her shoulder, she's babbling when they walk out he door. Tyler smiles, "Here," Josh says, he swipes up Amara's full bottle of formula, throwing it to Tyler, "You'll need this bud." He says and Tyler catches the bottle, he solutes us with the bottle and says, "Two hours," before winking and strutting towards the door. He leaves and Josh, he goes to lock the door. He spins around and starting heading towards the bedroom, "Imma go wash up, you coming?" He says, "Give me a minute," I say and he shrugs his shoulders, and walks off into the other room. I spin around to the table and trace the mold of the salt dough, this is something we're gonna want to hang on something. I take my pinky finger and bury a little hole near the top, making sure to get it all the way through. "There," I say, tracing my baby's little foot and hand. It takes over night to completely dry. I walk over to the sink and let the cold water wash my hands. I shiver and start to walk towards the bedroom. I hit the lights on my way out, I walk into the bedroom and Josh walks out with just a towel on. Frick post pregnancy hormones. A new wave a feelings hit me like a tsunami, "Hey have you seen my-" I end his sentence by storming over to him and crash my lips on his. He kisses back intensely and I rub my hands on his wash-board abs, he pushes me back as we're walking over to the bed and says, "We're doing this now?" Both of us out of breath, and craving more, I say, "Two hours," I say, quickening our speed to the bed, he laughs and bites his lip, "Two hours." We both collapse onto the bed and continue our intense kissing, then....