"Sofia'll be home any minute," Callie said. "We have to get dressed."
Just over two weeks had passed and Callie was officially out of the first trimester. She didn't feel much better, but her body was beginning to change ever so slightly. Currently, her wife's head was resting on her tiny, tiny baby bump as they lay in bed skin on skin. When Callie had clothing on, no one could see this change, but they both knew it was there.
"Shh..." Arizona said. "You've finally got some energy and I'm reaping the benefits for as long as I can."
"I've also got some nausea," Callie said. "Still."
"I know," she replied. "Hopefully it goes away soon."
"Doubtful," she said.
"What do you want for breakfast?" she asked. "I don't even want to move right now, but..."
"Cheese pizza."
"The baby's" love/hate relationship with cheese had continued. One day, Callie couldn't stand it, and the next it was all that she wanted. This was particularly annoying because it was so unpredictable. If she wanted cheese and they didn't have any, it drove her crazy. If she didn't want cheese and they had a ton of it, it bothered her.
"For breakfast?" she asked.
"It's all the fetus' fault," she answered.
There was a knock on the door that they knew was Mark. He was there to drop off Sofia. While they couldn't wait to jump right back into the routine of their busy girl, they had also enjoyed the last two days just the two of them. If they weren't at work, they were in bed or on some romantic date somewhere. Even though she was still nauseous, Callie had been feeling better for the first time in weeks and this was the result.
"I love being a mom," Arizona said aloud. "I really do, but it's very early in the morning and she's going to be ready to go, go, go."
"This co-parenting thing spoils us sometimes," Callie agreed. "But soon we'll have at least one here all the time."
"And we will never sleep again."
"Nope."
Arizona got up and quickly threw on some clothing so that she could go to the door and get Sofia. As predicted, the little lady was all ready to play at six thirty in the morning. In fact, she danced upstairs and into her mothers' bedroom where she and her mommy found that Madre had a new problem.
"Time for some new bras, Madre?" Arizona smiled.
"You think?" she asked. "I knew they were growing, but when did this happen? And I barely have any changes with my belly, but these are huge? How is that?"
"Sof, do you want to go shopping today?" Arizona wondered. "Madre needs to go. Maybe we can go see Santa at the mall!"
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" she replied, doing her best two-year-old Santa Claus.
"He does say that," Callie smiled. "Are you excited? Christmas is in just a few days! Grandma, Grandpa and Abuelo all get here today."
"Yummy!"
"Yummy?" Arizona asked. "You mean 'yay?'"
"Yummy," she insisted.
"You're so crazy!" Callie laughed. "Mama and I have to finish getting ready, then we'll eat and go shopping, 'kay?"
"Daddy said she already ate," Arizona reported.
"What did you eat this morning?" Madre asked.
"Pink," she said.
"Pink? Maybe strawberry yogurt?"
"Yum!"
Even though she wanted cheese pizza, Callie opted for something a little more breakfast-like that morning. However, she definitely needed her pizza for dinner. It was in the oven as they worked on decorating their Christmas tree when her dad and Arizona's parents arrived.
"Isn't it a little late to be doing this?" Arizona's father asked. "All of this work just to take it down in a few days?"
"We didn't have time before now," she told her dad. "We've been busy with work and Sofia. We did have some time while she was at Mark's, but Calliope was feeling better and we didn't want to waste that time decorating. Plus, we wanted Sofia's help."
"Oh!" Sofia said, taking an ornament out of the box.
"We're going to lose a ton of ornaments this year, aren't we?" Callie replied.
"Those are the non-breakable ones," Arizona said. "She's good."
"She'll still attack the tree," she told her.
"Oh, I know."
"You're just exploring, right?" Grandma asked the little girl as she picked her up. "Which one do you have there?"
Sofia held it out.
"Oh, that's an S for Sofia," she smiled. "Is that your letter?"
"No."
"Yes, it is!" Arizona replied. "Say 'S,'"
"S!"
"Good job," Grandpa praised. "Tell Grandma to help you put it on the tree."
"Done," she said instead.
"Oh, you're over decorating?" Callie asked. "Want to come with me while I check on the pizza?"
Grandma put her down and she followed after her madre. She didn't understand that dinner wasn't ready just yet, so she thought for sure that she was going to get some food if she did.
"Ho! Ho! Ho!" she exclaimed as she went.
"Did somebody meet Santa Claus?" Abuelo laughed.
"Today," Arizona answered. "She didn't quite want to sit on his lap, but she did tell him that she'd like Baby for Christmas. We told her she's gonna have to wait on that one."
"Yeah," he agreed. "June's still a ways away."
"Merry Christmas," Mrs. Robbins greeted her daughter-in-law early on Christmas morning.
Sofia wasn't up just yet because they were waiting on Mark and Lexie to arrive first, but all of the adults were sitting in the living room when Callie came down.
"Merry Christmas," she said. "But I'm pretty sure your grandchild hates me."
Arizona smiled sympathetically. "More morning sickness?"
"Yep," she nodded. "Is it June yet?"
"Not quite," she replied. "But I was rubbing your belly this morning and it seems bigger today."
"You're rubbing my stomach in my sleep?" she asked.
"Why not?" she smiled.
As much as Arizona didn't particularly want to carry this baby, she was slightly jealous of the fact that Callie could already feel connected to him or her. She knew she would fall head over heels in love with it later, so she wasn't worried, but she wanted some bonding time now too.
"It's only bigger because of that amazing pie Lexie made yesterday," she said. "I think Baby and I ate half of it."
"And it wasn't even made of cheese."
"Ew," she said.
"Not a cheese day?"
"Definitely not," she shook her head.
They heard Sofia start to talk to herself upstairs. Most of it was nonsensical, but every now and then she threw in a familiar word – "Baby," "Mama," or "Pity" were her picks for today's morning talk it seemed.
"I'll be back," Arizona said, getting up to go get her.
"She's going to love all of this," Carlos said of all of the gifts.
Of course, he was correct. Her big brown eyes basically bulged out of her head when she saw all of the presents that awaited her. They tried to stall her some, but she wasn't having it. Of course, she was only two. Asking her to wait wasn't likely to work anyway. They decided to let her start opening a few gifts before Daddy and Lexie arrived.
"Baby," she said as she opened up a new doll.
"Should we open her up?" Arizona asked.
"Brudder," she corrected.
"Oh, that's a brother baby, not a sister baby?" Callie asked.
"Yeah."
"Which kind is in Madre's belly?" Grandma questioned.
"Umm...pity."
"A boy or a girl?" Arizona wondered.
"Pity!" she insisted.
"Okay, okay!" she laughed. "We don't know what it is, but it's pretty?"
"Yep," she nodded. "Mama."
"It's a girl like Mama?" Callie asked.
"Yep," she said.
"We'll see!"
"Hi," she said as she got up and walked over to another present that she wanted to unwrap.
"You're so polite," Grandpa told her.
"How about we open this one first, though?" Mommy suggested, since that other one was from Mark and he wasn't there just yet.
She kissed the box that Mommy had pointed out.
"Sofia Robbin Sloan, you're so silly," Callie said as she recorded the moment. "Kissin' your Christmas gifts!"
"You love them, right?" Abuelo asked. "Merry Christmas!"
