Thanks for the reviews! I'm glad to hear you guys like it. I am absolutely amazed at how many reviews and followers I've received with only having released one chapter so far.

It's almost sad how much childhood development research I've had to do to be able to write this chapter, and I'm sure it will be no different with all the chapters to come.

I can only picture what I'll be like as a mother. "Wait. Why is my nine-year-old already able to walk?"

Or to my newborn: "Speak. Say 'mama'. Come on. You can do it!"

Just to emphasize how little I know about childhood development, I had to look some stuff up to be able to write both those jokes.

May 6, 2005

7:52 A.M.

Chandler headed downstairs, Jack in his right arm and Erica in his left. Jack wore a sky-blue shirt with slightly darker blue shorts, and Erica wore a matching outfit of a light pink shirt with darker pink shorts. Their baby-blue eyes hadn't changed in hue one bit, still leaving the twins impossibly with Monica's gorgeous eyes. Chandler was thankful for that. He was also thankful for the fact that the small amount of hair they had each grown was dark. Erica had several lengthy strands of black, but her brother had barely grown any at all. It was just enough for Jack's hair color to be determined to be a dark brown, but so little that from a distance it looked as if he were still bald as the day he was born.

The biological father of the twins must have had dark hair like their adoptive parents. Thank God for dominant and recessive traits, Chandler thought. Not that he knew much on the subject, considering he had failed biology in high school. All he knew was that if a dark-haired individual had a kid with a light-haired individual, the kid would most likely have dark hair.

"Well, hey there, sleepy heads," Monica called from the kitchen as she watched her husband and children approach.

"Mama!" Jack shouted. It was about the only word he could fluently say at this age, and Monica loved hearing it.

She chuckled as Chandler handed her their son. "Hey, handsome boy." She ruffled his few strands of hair and smiled. "Happy birthday."

Looking down at Erica in his arms, Chandler gave her a happy birthday message as well. Then, speaking to Monica, he asked, "When are the others planning to get here?" He knew that since she was Monica, she had already planned the whole day out. He was partially thankful for not having to do any of the work in that department, though it still would have been nice to at least have been able to plan some of his son and daughter's first birthday party.

"Ross and Rachel are planning to bring Emma and Ben around eight-thirty," she replied, going through the list in her head. "Phoebe and Mike are coming at nine, and Joey said he'll arrive at about nine, nine-fifteen."

"Ah, Joe. Always the late one," Chandler remarked.

"I'm actually surprised he plans to get up so early."

Chandler laughed. Hearing their father laugh made Jack and Erica giggle. "Oh, you guys are just so cute!" Chandler said in his typical parent-speaking-to-baby voice as he played gently with a strand of Erica's dark hair.

Monica watched, amused, as her husband played with their now one-year-old twins. She loved their cute matching outfits. It sure was fun having boy-girl twins. Not only did everything they owned match, but they were also clearly divided between them by their pink or blue coloring, and there was something so adorable and precious about that. Monica knew they wouldn't stay looking exactly the same for long. They already had different hair lengths and even slightly different hair color. Soon, those differences would become clearer and more prominent. Eventually, Jack and Erica would be old enough to dress themselves or pick out their own clothing at the store, and it would no longer be all blue for the boy and all pink for the girl—but Monica was fine with that. For now, she would enjoy their twin similarities. However, she would soon learn to appreciate their differences and accept the fact that they were two different people.

She could even see major appearance differences between Phoebe and her identical twin sister Ursula. The two women were definitely, without a doubt, two different people. Phoebe was their friend. She was nice and crazy and fun. Ursula, on the other hand . . .

May 6, 2005

8:36 A.M.

It wasn't long before the tune of the doorbell ringing sounded throughout the home. Chandler was in the kitchen, feeding the twins breakfast. Monica went to get the door. Ross—who was holding his daughter of nearly two years, Emma—Rachel, and a now eight-year-old Ben were greeted by Monica's warm and welcoming smile. "Come on in." She waved them inside.

"Aunt Monica!" Ben exclaimed, running toward her and hugging her around the waist—which was as far up as he could reach with his short, little, eight-year-old arms. It seemed like just yesterday, however, Ben had been able to reach only up to her leg and clasp on. Time sure did fly by when it came to Monica and children. She could not believe her twins were already an entire year old.

"Hey, Ben," she greeted, smiling down at him. "You sure are growing tall. Soon, you'll be taller than your dad." She ruffled his short blond hair, causing him to immediately pull out of the hug and smooth his hair back. Monica chuckled. She was thankful for her brother getting Ben from Carol and Susan this weekend so that he could come to the party. She loved her little nephew. He had been the closest to her own child Monica had had before adopting Jack and Erica. Now, he was sort of like a glimpse into the future of Monica's parenthood. When he would become a teenager, the twins would only be half his age, giving Monica plenty of preparation time. She was glad about that. She had heard plenty of horror stories in her lifetime about the troubles of being the parent of a teen. She had always figured that it had more to do with the parents of these teens being caught off guard by what that period of parenthood entailed them than it did with actually being the parent of a teenager that made it seem so difficult.

"I made some pancakes, if you guys haven't had breakfast yet," Monica offered, gesturing toward the kitchen with her hand.

Ben's face lit up with a grin. "Thanks, Aunt Monica!" He ran into the kitchen and found a seat at the table.

Ross chuckled. "He sure loves pancakes."

"He gets it from Joey," Monica remarked, basking in the glory of the angry glare she received.

They all made their way to the kitchen, Ross and Rachel sitting on either side of Ben. Chandler was across from the eight-year-old, where he was feeding the twins. He stood up and walked over to Monica. She didn't notice because she was now too busy watching Ross and Rachel. The couple was giving the twins baby talk and playing peek-a-boo. Monica looked on briefly in amusement until she felt Chandler's arms wrap around her waist. He pulled her to the other end of the room and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"Let's get ourselves a couple more of those guys."

Monica spun around in his embrace to face him. "More Rosses and Rachels?" she joked. "No, thank you. The original two are enough to handle by themselves at the moment." She smirked mischievously.

"You stop it!" he ordered. "I'm the funny one." Monica laughed. "But seriously, Mon. I want more kids."

Her eyes lit up. "How many more?"

"Well, it sure is fun having twins," he hinted.

"More twins?" Monica asked, a quiver of excitement in her voice.

"Yeah," Chandler replied with one of his signature smiles. "Hopefully, they'll be a boy and a girl again. You know, so we can have tug-of-war battles and evenly distribute the boys against the girls."

Monica chuckled. "Are your fantasies of the future always so detailed?" she asked, having a sudden flashback to something he had said years ago. She and Chandler had been planning their wedding, and Chandler had been explaining why he hadn't initially wanted to spend all his money on the ceremony. He had gone into such detail on what he saw their future together to be. Monica remembered him saying he wanted two boys and two girls, though in a very different order than they were turning out now.

"Yeah, they are," Chandler said softly, once again flashing her a cute, loving smile.

Monica wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. "I love it," she whispered. "I love having twins, I would love to have more, and, above all, I love you."

"I love you, too, Mon."

Monica was amazed that, after years of marriage, those three special words still carried so much meaning. They kissed, with Chandler pulling away when he noticed Ross glaring at him from across the kitchen. "What? So I can't even kiss my wife now?"

"Not around me, no," Ross said sternly, with a look of slight disgust on his face.

"Oh, come on, Ross," Chandler argued. "That kiss was romantic. It's not like we were groping each other." Ben looked up at Ross in confusion. Ross glared at Chandler, expecting him to say something. "You'll find out soon enough, Ben." Ben gave his father—and now Chandler as well—another look of confusion before going back to his pancakes.

May 6, 2005

9:12 A.M.

The group was still enjoying their slow breakfast and making small talk when the sound of the doorbell filled the house. Chandler went to get the door, Monica following not far behind. Chandler threw open the front door and smiled when he saw not only Phoebe and Mike, but Joey, too.

"Hey, Chan," Joey said with a huge grin as he threw his arms around his old buddy and embraced him in a hug. He quickly pulled away, leaving it at a "man hug" and nothing more. "Long time, so see, man."

"Yeah," Chandler agreed. "I missed you, buddy."

"Hello?" Phoebe asked. "Anybody notice Phoebe and Mike just standing over here with nobody talking to them?"

"Oh, sorry, Pheebs," Chandler apologized. "It's just been a long time for us."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Phoebe dismissed. "You love each other. Blah, blah, blah."

Chandler laughed sarcastically. "Ha, ha—no." His eyebrows rose suddenly into a serious expression.

Phoebe laughed. "Okay. Whatever you say," she mused with sure sarcasm in her tone.

"Anyway," Monica interrupted. "There're some pancakes in the kitchen if you guys want breakfast."

"Awesome!" Joey said quickly before taking off toward the kitchen. Phoebe and Mike soon followed, in a much slower walk, of course.

"Oh, look at that. We're all alone," Chandler pointed out. He smiled and gave Monica a quick kiss on the lips.

She chuckled and gave him a slight shove. "Come on. Let's go be with the others."

"Oh, fine," he pouted. "But, just between you and me, I don't really like any of them. I only really like you."

"What about your children?"

"Meh," Chandler joked, shrugging his shoulders.

Monica playfully smacked his arm. "Come on. We have a party to run."

"No. You have a party to run," Chandler corrected. "I, however, have a party to enjoy."

"I enjoy running," Monica retorted.

"Well, that's just your opinion."

"Come on. Let's go," Monica said, grabbing hold of Chandler's hand and pulling him toward the kitchen.

"Or, instead, we could talk about this whole 'getting more kids' idea."

Monica turned to face him. "What about it?"

"Is it official? Are we adopting twins?"

Monica smiled. "Yeah. Yeah, it is."

"Maybe this time, we can specify that we're looking for boy-girl twins," Chandler offered. "I mean, it might take a little longer to find someone, but they'll have to be fairly far-along in their pregnancy to know that they're having both a boy and girl, so it still won't be too long of a wait before we get our babies."

Monica's grin grew so that it now stretched from ear to ear. She loved hearing him say the word "babies" and loved seeing him so excited to have more children. She once again pulled him into a kiss. When they parted, Monica gazed lovingly into her husband's deep blue eyes and gave him a small smile. "Now, can we go celebrate our children's birthday?"

May 6, 2005

1:47 P.M.

"Goodbye! We really had fun," Rachel said with a smile as she, Ross, Emma, and Ben headed toward the front door to leave. Monica held Erica in her arms, Chandler doing the same with Jack. "Happy birthday, little guys," she added before stepping outside and closing the door behind her.

"I've got to go, too," Joey announced. "I have this audition tomorrow that I can't miss. It's for this really cool-sounding movie about . . . something involving science. Anyway, see you guys soon, I hope. I really missed you guys."

"Missed you, too, Joe," Chandler reciprocated.

"Man hug?" Joey suggested with an awkward expression on his face that Monica couldn't help but find slightly amusing.

"Man hug," Chandler confirmed, wrapping his arms around Joey, who willingly hugged back. "I'll miss you, man."

"I hope I can visit you guys more often," Joey said before turning to leave. Phoebe and Mike had already left about half an hour ago, leaving the little four-person family all alone once again.

May 6, 2005

8:56 P.M.

That night, after Monica had finally managed to put Jack and Erica down for a nap, Chandler and Monica looked into various adoption agencies.

They were hesitant to go back to the one they had relied on last time when adopting Jack and Erica. After the agency had mixed up the Bings' file with another couple's, Monica and Chandler were a bit unsure of how trust-worthy they were. The mix-up had almost cost them their babies. Of course, that incident had been mostly Monica's fault due to her insisting to Chandler that they lie.

She knew better now than to do something stupid like that again. This time, they would choose a new adoption agency, and the files would not get mixed up, and they would not need to lie. Monica and Chandler would be getting their children fair and square. They would be the chosen couple—not some other couple that would get mistaken for the Bings.

They would do it right this time.