AN: These are flashback stories. In reality, Katie is still five, but here Riley is reminiscing about when she was littler. As you obviously know, Katie, Taylor, and Bethany are the only characters of my own creation, and I don't own National Treasure or any other media mentioned in my stories.
Katie's Second Birthday
"Riley, do you have Toys 'R' Us in that car?" Taylor asked as I pulled into their driveway for Katie's second birthday. The trunk of my car was overflowing with gifts.
"Nothing's too good for my little tiger," I said.
"What'd you get her? The Mars rover?!"
I laughed. "No way, that thing's too busy proving to the world that aliens actually exist. They said I was crazy, but I'll prove them all wrong!!!"
Taylor stared at me. "Riley, you would," he remarked. I smiled as we walked into the house.
I entered the kitchen, and there were Bethany and Katie. Bethany was putting the finishing touches on Katie's birthday cake (chocolate with light pink frosting), and Katie was sitting in a booster seat, waving around a white mixing spoon.
"Hey, Riley," Bethany said.
"Beth, you wouldn't believe how many gifts my baby brother brought," Taylor said. "He must have bought the entire toy store or something."
Bethany looked at me. "You really do love your niece, Riley," she said.
"I sure do, Beth," I told her, and sat down on the floor at Katie's eye level. "Hey, tiger," I said to Katie.
Katie looked at me and broke into an enormous grin. "Riley tiger," she said very clearly. "Katie Riley tiger."
"Katie is Riley's tiger," I repeated. "You are! You are my tiger, Katie." She giggled.
Taylor smiled. "The first sentence Katie learned to say was 'Katie Riley tiger.' Now she says it constantly."
Bethany nodded. "We can even hear her saying it through the baby monitor after we put her to bed," she said.
That made me smile. "Katie is my tiger," I said, putting her on my lap. She beamed up at me. "'Tar war," she babbled.
"Star Wars? OK," I said. I held her up in the air and began to hum the Star Wars theme song, and flew her all around the kitchen and living room as Taylor and Bethany watched happily. After a few minutes, I finally sat down in a kitchen chair and put Katie on my knee. "You like that, tiger?" I asked her. Then I tickled her toes, and she giggled.
"Why don't you go get Katie's gifts," Taylor said.
It took three trips, but I managed to get all the gifts into the house. Katie's eyes got wider and wider with every armload of stuff I carried in for her. When everything was in, I gave her her first present.
"She may need a bit of help opening it," Bethany said with a smile.
But she didn't. She tore off the paper and revealed a little toy music-box thing shaped like a TV. When you wound it up, it played "It's a Small World." Taylor and Bethany looked at the gift in Katie's hands, then gave me a look that plainly said, "You're trying to kill us, aren't you?"
I shrugged. "It's her favorite song," I said sheepishly.
Next up was a little book called So Happy. I had no way of knowing how much she would grow to adore that book. Then came one of those noisy storybooks - this one was Winnie the Pooh - that garnered another why-must-you-torture-us look from my brother and his wife. Then a pair of pink Converse for toddlers, a framed Calvin & Hobbes strip, and a stuffed tiger that she automatically named Riley. You name it, I had gotten it for her.
Later, Katie started a new birthday tradition - a frosting fight. After caking herself, she smeared frosting on my own, Taylor's, and Bethany's faces. Pretty soon, the four of us had pink frosting covering our faces. Now, it's never officially Katie's birthday without at least one frosting fight. Afterward, the three adults (well, two adults and one big kid) chased Katie all around the house and tickled her till she dissolved in hysterics.
Katie's second birthday was one of the first times that she and I really connected. Without the events of my little tiger's second birthday, all the other amazing times we've had probably wouldn't be quite as amazing.
AN: Please review!