Moving Forward

There's Two of Them

"Mommy I think we should take her back."  Ava walks away from Kassie sighing "She's too noisy and I can't sleep and it's making me crazy."

"Making you crazy?" Brad laughs at her "What about me and mommy?  We have to be up with her all night."

"Yeah, but she cries and you hold her." Her lips start to quiver as she holds back tears "Not me.  I want you to hold me."

"Aw, honey come here." I reach out for her "We have to hold her sometimes because she's a baby.  We still hold you when we can, but we know that you're a big girl and you don't need as much help."

"You're so good at doing things yourself that we want you to learn even more." Brad says, putting Kassie in her bassinet and walking over to us "We still like to hold you and play with you, but Kassie's little so she needs more help."

"Okay, I just want you to play more." She looks up at Brad and I, batting her eyelashes "Because she's sleeping."

"Go get your toys honey, we can play."

She jumps out of my lap, running over to her play room as fast as she can, grabbing every toy she can fit in her little arms and bringing them back.  We each get assigned the one we're supposed to play with, and she takes charge.

My stuffed lion is supposed to eat Brad's stuffed mouse, who looks way too much like a real mouse for comfort, while her cat tries to stop me so she can eat the mouse.  Her and I fight a little over who gets to eat it, while Brad tries to make the mouse run away from both of us.

"You'll never get me!" He laughs eviley as he runs "I'm too fast!"

"I'll catch you!" She runs after him, surprisingly fast "I need breakfast!"

I sit back, knowing I should be chasing them, but laugh at their "fighting" once she catches him.

"Mommy come on!" She turns around "Lion hungry too!"

I run up to them, doing my best lion impression and jumping on the cat to stop her from getting the mouse.

Just as I finally win, Kassie wakes up screaming at the top of her lungs. 

"I'll get her." I say quickly, but Ava beats me over, holding her little hand to calm her down.

I gently pick Kassie up, walking over to the couch to hopefully get her back to sleep.  She pulls on my shirt, letting me know she is hungry, so I feed her while Brad and Ava go back to playing.

"Your daddy and sister are crazy." I lean down, whispering to her as she looks up at me with her huge, beautiful eyes "But we probably are too."

She stops eating after a while, so I lean back on the couch with her tiny body curled up on mine to finally rest.

"Hey, how is everything?" My dad and Sherry walk in "It sounds like a zoo in here."

"Well, recently it feels like one too." I hand Kassidy to Sherry as she sits down "I feel like I'm that lion... constantly yelling."

"You know they won't take you seriously if you aren't yelling." She gently rocks her "But it's a cute zoo."

"Not too cute." My dad moves away from the toys after getting yelled at by Ava "This one is mean."

Brad makes her give up one of the animals for my dad to play with and Sherry and I continue to get Kassie back asleep. 

"Do you have anything exciting coming up?" Sherry asks as we walk to Kassie's room "Anything to get you out of the house for a little?"

"I have an event that Jane and I are going to the week you guys are away, but not anything right now." I sit in the rocker as Sherry changes her to help me "I'm actually okay with being inside more this time.  I think with Ava it was making me crazy because I was hardly home before because of Friends.  It's a nice little break."

"And you get to spend it with 2 really cute people." She lays Kassie down "I can't believe how much they look like you and Brad.  There's no trace of anyone else at all."

"They're lucky they're so cute." I walk over, standing at the crib to watch Kassie sleep "Especially her, with the whole only sleeping 5 hours at night bullshit."

We go back downstairs to see that Ava is sitting on the couch looking pissed, and my dad and Brad are in the kitchen with beers.

"Why is she in there?"  I walk over, taking Brad's from him for a drink "She looks pissed."

"She got mad and started throwing toys."  My dad says "Then when we told her she needs to pick up the toys because we're done, she got mad and threw even more."

"So, now she's on the couch until she decides to get up and put them away.   Then it's bedtime." Brad adds.

I look into the living room at her, watching her kick the toys around while making sure she stays on the couch.

"Honey why are you throwing things?" I sit next to her "You need to be nice.  That's not something you can do.  You know that."

"Because they not play." She pouts, trying to get out of trouble "They weren't nice."

"They weren't nice?  It wasn't you at all?" I stare at her, noticing a small grin start to form "Pick up the toys now."

She hesitates at first, but after a few seconds finally gets up, reaching for the toys.

"Good job." I sit there, watching until she finally finishes putting them all away.  She isn't too happy with me either, but I don't care very much right now.

My parents walk in a few minutes later, giving us hugs before going home.

"Well, that was easier than I thought." Brad follows me into our bedroom after putting Ava to bed.

"I know."  I laugh, getting in bed "There's two of them now, Brad."