Last week the twins turned three and although Spence and Cat had already had a small birthday party with the toddlers in their play date circle and an even smaller one at home with their parents and brother their grandmothers and abuela insisted they come back to Springfield for another birthday party. Ava and Ashlee were hoping that the kids wouldn't come to expect three parties every year but with their parents it wasn't looking good. School would be closed for Good Friday and last week Ava opened an email from her mother titled "B There" that contained only a reservation for five first class tickets to Springfield. Although they lived almost eight hundred miles away the Wolf Peralta's had returned home for a long weekend each of the thirteen months they had lived in New York. Life with Ava had taught Ashlee that Olivia was both a woman of few words and one not used to taking no for an answer and Olivia wanted to see her grandchildren as often as possible and had no trouble financing the trips. Air travel with three toddlers was anything but easy and the only benefit was they were very used to the routine and rarely cried or whined. The real ordeal was the logistics of three baby seats on top of all the luggage required. Taking a deep breath before entering the tornado that was also known as her home Ashlee pulled back the front door and braced herself. The content and timing might vary a bit with each day but generally the actual events remained the same. Immediately Spence screeched at the top of his lungs and tore through the living room before launching himself towards her and bear hugging her legs. His sister, the calmer of the two, shoved her brother aside and laid claim to a leg herself. Amy barely contained her excitement at being relieved but tried her best to act as if she hadn't been watching the clock for the past half hour. Not that the three were hard to handle but as the clock approached five thirty her thoughts returned to her life outside the brownstone's walls. Ambling towards the closest table Ashlee tried to walk without toppling onto the two thirty-five pound weights on her ankles. By the time she put her papers down and assured Amy that she could indeed flee Stino was walking down the stairs, hair tasseled and face lined with sleep from his nap and hung himself limply at her waist.
Soon as Ashlee was able to detach her limpets she took a broad overview of inspecting for any glaring bruises or scrapes on their faces, arms, and legs. As usual Spence had a red spot that looked suspiciously similar to a hand on his face and when Cat looked away guiltily Ashlee knew the culprit. Well aware of Spence's bad habit she thanked God they had not gotten the white carpet that Ava wanted and hoped that Amy had been able to get out most of the stains. The other two showed no sign of damage. It would be at least another two hours before Ava came home and dinner still needed to be prepared. For everyone concerned it was best that Ashlee came home first because if she and the children had to depend on Ava for sustenance they would have died horribly and painfully long ago of food poisoning. Her wife had come a long way since their dating days. Now she actually bought things other than wine, trail mix, and ice cream when she went grocery shopping and did it in an actual grocery store instead of at the gas station while she filled up the car. But as far as cooking was concerned her talents were limited to instant rice and frozen vegetables. There was a visibly post written rule against Ava ever cooking their children any meat. A raw hamburger incased in charcoal was what Ashlee saved the children from the first time a faculty meeting ran late. As Ashlee gathered the ingredients she quizzed Stino on his spelling and math and the twins parroted back what he said. While the food was cooking she and Stino fed the twins their special meals as they all sang the latest numbers from the Disney Channel on Sirius .
"Where are my monsters!"
Taking a fast look at the clock Ashlee hastily moved the food from the twins trays as they kicked and yelled demanding freedom from the high chair to greet their momma. Stino had already bolted when he heard the door opening. Trying her best to clean their faces while they insisted that if they didn't instantly get into the living room Ava might magically disappear was a loosing battle but she liked the shirt Ava wore today and didn't want to see it ruined with green and yellow smiley and fingerprints. Giving up she lowered them to the floor and said "Go go to your mother jeez" as they ran away wildly. By the time she reached them Ava was underneath a pile of blonde and brunette hair.
"You're home early"
"That's because I quit" Ava laughed as Stino and Spence each sat on her arm as their sister sat on her waist tickling her stomach.
"You informed your mother of that?"
Holding her head up and facing her wife Ava suck out her tongue and shot back "I do what I want woman"
Seeing that no one was in immediate danger Ashlee turned back towards the kitchen throwing "I'll remember to tell Olivia that over dinner Thursday" over her shoulder. Bending over to pull the chicken out of the stove moist lips found her neck and warm hands snaked up cupping her breasts. "If I drop this you're having raisin bran for dinner"
"Fiber is good for you" Ava interrupted.
"every night until we get to my mom's" Ashlee finished turning around to see Ava running back towards the living room with the children following behind. Normally after Ashlee and Stino fed the twins she let the three play on the floor as she checked over her oldest's homework. Ava would have made it home by then and after the four of them played Ashlee and Ava would alternate who had to wash the twins. The other parent would use that time to listen to whatever Stino wanted to talk about. The five year old was a better big brother than they could have ever expected. He was gentle and caring and enjoyed helping his parents take care of his younger brother and sister so Ava and Ashlee tried their best to give him quality one on one time each day. Almost an hour later Ashlee looked up and saw her wife making her way from the bathroom still soaking wet with a worrisome twinkling in her eyes. "What did you do?" She hadn't heard anything but the usual bumps and shouts from the floor above as the twins were bathed and put to bed. Nothing that might cause Ava to sport that shit eating grin.
"Why do you think I did something? Can't I smile at my beautiful wife and son?"
Narrowing her eyes Ashlee stood up and handed Stino to his mother and accepted Ava's kiss as she walked past towards the twins' room. "He still needs to eat." Spence and Cat were clean and tucked into their separate beds without any new marks. No blood or any other bodily fluids were in the tub or on the floor. The tub was relatively clean and so was the sink and she had seen the floors much wetter but as she was backing away a little voice whispered toilet.
"Momma are you in trouble?" Stino asked after Ava placed his food and a glass of milk in front of him on the table.
"Momma is always in trouble baby." Ava winked while trying to keep an eye out for her wife. Maybe Ash would surprise her and wouldn't get upset? Just as she was finishing that thought Ava saw her wife stalk down the stairs. Guess not.
"Just like Spence" Stino reasoned as he started on his dinner.
"Sweetheart" Ava tried to start but shut up quickly when she saw Ashlee's compressed lips and her index finger indicating silence and was glad that she had taken the extra step and prepared Ashlee's plate and drink. With more consideration Ava decided to go back to the kitchen and returned with a glass of Ashlee's favorite wine. Stino was leaving the table and was about to get ready for his bath when Ashlee called after him "Baby if you have to use the restroom go in our room and you're going to take your bath in there too. Isn't that right momma?"
"But why mommy?"
"Because your momma"
"Just get your things together Stino and I'll be right up to help you okay" Coming down an hour later and not seeing her wife Ava peeked her head slowly in Ashlee's office after a quick stop to her cache of Hallmark cards. Holding the blue envelope in her outstretched hands Ava slid it onto the Macbook's screen. "I tried my best to find something appropriate but"
"I'm shocked that there isn't a market for letting your children fill the toilet with your wife's makeup?"
"I told you that we needed a bigger bathroom but you insisted on high ceiling. Like all that space above are heads is actually useful"
"Is that a part of the apology? Because if it is I can tell you it's not working for me"
Leaning down Ava whined "but baby" and began to place kisses on Ashlee's neck and shoulders while her hands took up the position massaging her wife's breasts. Having three toddlers and used to the distractions of thirty to forty students was the only way Ashlee was able to focus on grading the next to the last paper. However when Ava wife pulled the chair out and crawled underneath the desk and placed her head between Ashlee's legs saying "well let's see how this works for you". Then Ashlee thought it best to save the last paper until the next tomorrow.
