Erin POV

"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Lucy," I sing quietly as I sit on the side of her bed, running my fingers through her messy messy red hair laid haphazardly across her pale blue pillow case. Today is my daughter's fifth birthday and her first birthday since she's come into our lives. A lot has changed in the last six months. Jay and I made the call that my apartment wasn't going to be big enough for much longer, so we made the move to a townhouse. It was good for her, we had moved to a better school district for when she starts kindergarten in the fall and we had a backyard that she could run around in.

"Good morning Mama," She responds with a sleepy smile as she blinks her big hazel eyes open.

"How's my favorite five year old on this beautiful day?" I say before dropping a kiss on her forehead. I want to make sure that her day is amazing. It's her first birthday with us and I want to make sure that she remembers it.

"She's really good," She tell me with a grin, bigger this time.

"You ready to get up?" I ask. "Daddy is making some birthday pancakes as we speak,"

"With chocolate chips?" She questions.

"Is there any other way to make them?" I say with a laugh as she hops out of her bed, her blanket and me left abandoned as she races to see her dad.

I giggle as I follow her down the stairs, who knew that my life would turn out like this? If you would have told me nine months ago that I'd have a five year old daughter and be living with the love of my life, I would have smacked you upside the head and called you crazy. But we're in the now. And the now is wonderful.

"Well there's the birthday girl!" I hear Jay say as I round the corner from the stairs to the kitchen. 'How old are you now? Sixteen? Are we getting you a driver's license today?" He jokes.

"No Daddy," She giggles. "I'm only five!"

"Oh that's right," He says playing along. Ever since the day we got her, Jay has been wrapped around her little finger and it's only gotten worse since then.

"Are the pancakes ready yet?" She asks impatiently, her elbows resting on the white granite countertops.

"Just about," He says as he flips the last one onto a plate. The two of us make our way over to the kitchen table as Jay follows us with the plates of pancakes, Lucy's favorite syrup already waiting for us.

"So you excited for your party at Grandpa's later?" I ask as we all begin to eat our breakfast. Lucy had gotten so close to Voight over the past half year and I think it was doing a lot of good for the both of them, especially him after Olive left with Daniel. The day she asked if she could call him Grandpa, I don't think I've ever seen him smile wider.

"Yes!" She exclaims, "all my friends are coming right?"

"All of your friends and your aunts and uncles will be there," Jay tells her, referring to the unit that has gathered around us in giving her a family.

"What time is it at?" She asks for what feels like the millionth time this week.

"12:30, the same time it was yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that," I answer for what feels like the millionth time.

"But we can go over there early right?" She asks. Lucy Claire, forever the most anxious child.

"Yes darling, we can go ever there early,:" Jay responds. "But we got to do the morning stuff first okay?"

"Okay," She agrees eagerly as she refocuses her attention back onto her pancakes. We finish our breakfast about half an hour later, taking the time to really talk to Lucy, something we too often find ourselves too rushed to do. It's her birthday and today will be all about her.

Jay and I got ready before she got up so we wouldn't have to spend a single second focusing on anything other than her. Jay gets her dressed into a simple denim romper, something that had quickly become her favorite article of clothing this summer and I plait her bright auburn hair into two long french braids falling down her back.

"Alright what do you want to do?" I ask as I fasten the hair tie around the second braid.

"Do we have time to go to the park?" She asks, referring to Millennium Park. I think back to one of the first days we had her, I took her to Millennium Park. That was the first day she called me Mommy. That was a really good day. I still find it a little weird that she loves it so much, it's not like it's a park with swings and a slide like most kids her age like, but it's the one place that she always asks to go to.

"Yeah babe," I say smiling at the memories, "anything for the birthday girl right?" I say as I tickle her little stomach. She shrieks in response as I grab her up and place a little kiss on her cheek.

"I love you Mama," She says unexpectedly as I hold her in my arms.

"I love you too Luce," I say as I look her in the eyes, hers mirroring mine. "Alright now let's get a move on, it's already 10:15 and we've got to be at your grandpa's by 12 but I think we can swing it,"

"Then let's go!" She yells as she scampers out of her room and down the stairs. I swear she's always like ten steps ahead of me, mentally and literally

"Erin we're going to the park?" Jay yells upstairs, the confusion obvious in his voice.

"Wishes of the birthday girl," I say with a chuckle as I make my way down the darkly stained wood stairs.

"Do we have time?" He questions.

"We've got an hour and fourty five minutes until we've got to be at Hank's so I think we'll be okay, we can just leave from the park and drive straight there," I tell him as we meet in the entry hallway.

"Alright I'm going to make sure she ends up with some shoes on her feet and you grab her swimsuit for the party," He says as I turn around and head right back up the stairs. I grab Lucy swimsuit and throw it into a white and navy striped canvas bag with her red flip flops and we're off to the races.

"Do you remember the very first time we took you to that park?" I ask as we drive away from Millennium, all of us soaked in sweat. It's not like we were doing anything strenuous and all of us had shorts and shorts sleeves on, but hot and humid Chicago summers will do that to you.

"Of course I do," She responds with a smile from her car seat. I look back at her and give her a little grin via the mirrors. "You took me to the Bean and the fountain with the column thingies,"

"That was a great day," Jay says with a small smile as he looks over at me.

"It was wasn't it," I say reminiscing happily. "Can you believe that was nine whole months ago Luce? That's almost a year!"

"That's a long time," She agrees.

"Yet it seems like it was only yesterday," Jay says as he gives my free hand a squeeze. The rest of the ride to Voight's is filled with Lucy excited chatter, she's been talking about this party for months. He volunteered to host it as he has a bigger backyard so he'll be able to host more people. He wanted to provide everything, he told us just to show up a little early to help him set up.

We pull up to Voight's and Luce has already scrambled out of her seatbelt and is running up the front walk before I can even blink.

"Grandpa Hank!" She screams as he swings the front door open.

"There's the birthday girl!" He rasps as he embraces her tiny frame in his arms. "Head on back, your Aunt Kim and Uncle Adam are putting up decorations in the backyard," He says as he sends her on her way.

"Hey Hank, thank you so much for hosting," I say as I take Lucy on the front stoop.

"Anything for you and the kid," He says as he pulls me in for a quick hug.

"Jay," He says as Jay approaches me.

"Hank," He responds. They've gotten better, but I can tell that it's still a little weird for both of them.

"Alright then," I say as I clap my hands together in an attempt to defuse the silence, "I am going to go find the child and you two do whatever you're going to do," I say as I leave them to their own devices.

I make my way back to the backyard, Hank really did go all since we took her to California and showed her the beach, she's been obsessed. So low and behold that's the theme she requested and everywhere I look there is a paper flip flop taped to the wall or a blow up palm tree standing in the corner. I'm sure a lot of this was Kim who lives for things like this, but still it was out of character for him and it was nice to see that soft side of him once in awhile. Especially when it comes to Lucy.

"Erin you're here!" Kim exclaims as she runs in from the backyard to greet me.

"Hey!" I say as I wrap my arms around her.

"Oh, sorry super sweaty," She says as she rejects my hug.

"Sorry," I cringe as I back away.

"Don't worry about it," She responds with that always cheery smile of hers.

"Thank you so much for helping with this," I say.

"My pleasure," She responds happily, "I love doing stuff like this,"

"I know," I say with a laugh, "but still it was such a big help,"

"Erin, seriously don't worry about it, it was a lot of fun, plus it'll be good practice for when Adam and I have kids," She says with a giggle.

"Have you guys picked a date yet?" I ask, eying the ring comfortably resting on her left hand.

"Not yet," She responds, "I mean we've only been engaged for month so we haven't really had the time to sit down and talk about it," She responds.

"Yeah no don't sweat it, you guys will figure it out," I say with a wave of the hand.

"Speaking of which," She says with a miuchesveous smirk, "are there any wedding bells on the horizon for you and Jay?"

"Kim we've only been together less than a year, I don't see a wedding happening anytime soon," I say with a laugh.

"Seriously?" She says, looking disappointed.

"What?" I exclaimed playfully.

"You're live together and you're raising a kid, you're like the most married you can be, you just have to make it official,"

"I don't see any reason to do it right now, so you might have to wait a little while," I say with a laugh as she puts on a pouty face.

"What's going on in here?" Jay questions as he walks into the kitchen.

"Nothing," I say trying to hide my smile.

"Alright," He says with a scoff, not believing me at all. "I'm going to go finish setting up out there with Adam and Luce, you want to join?"

"We'll be out in a sec," I say as I look to Kim. I wait until he's out of hearing distance before I look at her seriously.

"Kim, seriously don't say anything. I don't want to freak him out," I tell her.

"Oh please," She says shaking off my comment, "that boy has wanted to marry you since the moment you met,"

"Kim," I say firmly.

"Fine," She complains, "I won't say anything,"

"Thank you,"

So here we go! Thanks to all of you who came over her from Lucy and I hope you like this sequel as much as you liked Lucy! I know the ending for this chapter was a little weird, but I really could not figure out how to end it! I very honestly have no clue where I plan on taking this, so if you want to see something specific please let me know and I will try to work it in. Please review!

-Addison