"Listen to her," Arizona smiled.
They could hear now eighteen-month-old Audrey laughing across the hall in Uncle Mark's apartment. It was a warm, and even sunny, Seattle day in July. Meredith and Derek were at work, but Mark had taken the busy toddler to the park earlier. She was still all full of energy.
"Focus, Arizona," Callie said, even though she loved hearing the happy sounds too.
She opened the bag of various items they had just purchased. Each one was to be used to somehow baby-proof their apartment. They had just completed the adoption classes that they were required to take, and now they had to get ready for the in-home interview sessions that were part of the homestudy. Even though they didn't have a baby yet, their house had to be baby-proofed by the time they began.
"I am," she said. "I know. The faster we do this, the sooner we can finish all of this and have a profile out there."
"Exactly."
Over the next two hours, Callie and Arizona put away items that were not child-safe, installed various types of safety locks, and tried their best to be sure that every inch of the apartment was fit for a child.
They were just finishing up when there was a tiny knock on the door. Callie smiled and went to open it, knowing that Mark had told Audrey to knock.
"Yes, Miss Audrey?" she asked.
"Hi," she said softly.
"Hi!"
"Mommy and Daddy are at the hospital and I just got paged. Auntie Lexie's gonna be here in like an hour and she'll take her. Just until then, can you…?" Mark wondered.
"Sure," she said. "C'mon in, Audrey."
Mark handed Callie the diaper bag. "Pacies, books, toys, diapers…it's all in there."
"Any special instructions?"
"Well, nap should've been about forty-five minutes ago," Mark said. "But clearly, that's not happening."
They watched as Little Audrey ran over to Arizona. She wasn't the least bit tired today.
"That's okay!" Arizona laughed. "It's a fun day with Uncle Mark, right?"
She nodded.
"You can be our tester!" Arizona told her. "Is all this safe in our apartment?"
"What?" Mark asked.
"We're baby-proofing," Callie explained.
"You realize you don't have the kid yet, right?" he asked. "I know you've been waiting, but…"
"We have to do it in advance," she explained.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
Mark's pager went off again. "I'm coming!" he said, as if whoever was paging could hear.
"Say 'buh bye, Uncle Mark!'" Arizona told Audrey, waving so that she would mimic her.
Audrey started crying. She was pretty used to being babysat by Uncle Mark, but not by Callie and Arizona. She knew them, but she wasn't close to them. Realizing that Mark was leaving was certainly not something she was comfortable with.
"Auntie Lexie'll be here soon," he promised. "And then Mommy and Daddy'll get home after that." He bent over and kissed her little lips. "I'm sorry, but I gotta go. They're fun, though. Yep!"
Mark left and the eighteen-month-old went over to the now closed door and started banging on it with her open fist. "Ba'!" she said, trying to say "Back!"
"Uncle Mark has to work," Callie said, picking her up and wiping away a few tiny tears. "But let's have fun."
"No."
"You don't wanna have fun?" Arizona asked. "Really?"
"Do you wanna read books? Uncle Mark said you have a few in your bag," Callie told her.
"No."
"Do you wanna go outside again? We can go for a walk."
"No."
"Do you wanna….?"
"You have to suggest something," Arizona said after her wife's pause.
"I'm working on it," Callie said. "Do you wanna put on some music and dance?"
"No."
"You don't wanna dance?"
"No."
"Do you wanna do anything?"
"No."
"Let's just get her toys out and she'll start playing," Arizona said. "Suggesting things to a toddler isn't always the best plan."
That worked for about five minutes. After that, Audrey was back to the door, wanting to see if anybody would come to get her.
"Do you want…cookies?" Callie asked. "We have cookies."
Arizona laughed. "We can't even watch a kid for a few minutes without resorting to food," she said. "Apparently we have a lot to work on."
"Hey, our place doesn't have a whole bunch of toddler stuff. If she had more toys and things to do, she'd be happier."
"I know."
"Let's get Audrey a cookie," Callie said.
"Yeah," Audrey nodded.
"Can you say 'please?'" Arizona asked.
"No."
"No, huh?" she smiled.
Callie got Audrey a cookie and the little girl took off with it. She was smushing it in her little hands, and therefore making a mess of their otherwise clean apartment.
"We're not getting you to sit somewhere with that, are we?" Callie asked.
"I'm gonna go with no," Arizona said. "Oh well!"
"How are we doing so far, Audrey?" Callie asked. "Are we gonna make good moms?"
Audrey held out her handful of smushed cookie. "Eat it," Arizona said. "Put it in your mouth."
"Hey, Baby!" Lexie smiled when she came to pick Audrey up. "Did you have fun?"
"She got cookie all over the outfit she was wearing," Arizona said, handing over the diaper bag. "So we had to change her. We would've washed it, but there wasn't enough time. It's in there."
"Okay."
Audrey came over and Lexie picked her up. "Say 'bye' to Callie and Arizona," she told her.
"'Air," she said, touching the top of Lexie's head.
"What?"
"Hair," Callie explained. "We taught her what her mouth is called and she wanted to know what everything else was called."
"That is my hair," Lexie told the little one. "Yep. What did you do today? Uncle Mark said he was taking you to the park, huh?"
"'Air!" she repeated, this time with much more excitement in her voice.
"Eighteen-months-old and all you wanna talk about is hair," Lexie smiled. "You're your daddy's girl, aren't you?"
"Dada?" she asked.
"You'll see him soon."
"Oh."
"Bye, Audrey," Callie smiled.
"Have fun with Auntie Lexie, okay?" Arizona added.
"Wave," Lexie told her niece. "Wave buh-bye. Say 'thanks for watchin' me!'"
Audrey waved and she and Lexie left. "That was fun," Callie said. "There might be cookie on the couch, and the floor, and…everything else, but she left happy. Success."
Arizona kissed her. "It was fun," Arizona said. "One day, that'll be our full-time job."
"I know!"