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"And can we have a piñata?" Sofia asked.
Now that Faith was doing better, her big sister seemed to only have one thing on her mind these days. She wanted to have their "best party ever." Every day she had a new suggestion for it. They had added purple cupcakes, sparkly dresses, confetti, and goodie bags to the fireworks and dancing that she had originally wanted. Apparently she thought a piñata would be a nice touch as well now.
"A piñata, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Can you go get dressed, please?"
Today would be Arizona's third day back to work and they had yet to be able to be on time for the other two. Even though Faith was staying home with Emily, they still got her up, dressed and fed before the nanny came. They felt that this routine worked best for the family, especially since they often worked long days. If they didn't have quality time together in the mornings, they might miss out on it altogether. They hated this, but they made the best of the situation. However, they still had to get back into this routine now that Arizona had to get herself ready for the day again, too.
"I think it's pajama day at school," she replied.
"Nice try," Callie smiled. "Clothes, Sof."
"If I get dressed, could we get a piñata at the party?" she wondered as she got up off of the bed where she had been watching Callie get ready in her moms' room. "Please?"
"We'll talk about it," Callie said. "Get dressed, Sofia."
Faith picked up a make-up brush as her sister left the room and started brushing it over her face. There wasn't much make-up left on it at all, but she still felt like a special big girl. Madre could tell by the giant grin that had taken over her face.
"Are you beautiful, Faith?" she asked.
"Pity," she nodded.
"You are," she nodded. "Who do you look just like?"
"Wub?" she asked.
"Like your love?" she laughed. "You don't look like Hershey!" she told her as she heard Arizona answer her phone in the other room. "You look gorgeous just like your mama."
"Yep," she agreed.
"What would you like at the party?" she asked.
"Mama," she answered.
"Oh, we'll all be there," she told her. "Do you want anything fun there? Sister wants lots of stuff and all you ask for his Mommy?"
"Yeah," she said. "Faith mama."
"You're so easy," she told her as Arizona walked into the room.
"Faith? Easy?" the blonde smiled. "Who would have ever thought we'd say that?"
"Sofia's quite the little party planner," Callie explained. "Now she needs a piñata."
Arizona cringed. She tried not to be an over-protective mom too often, but she just couldn't hold back sometimes."I'm not sure how I feel about giving kids a big stick and letting them smack something."
"It'll be fine," she asked. "Who was on the phone?"
"Emily," she said. "She's having car trouble and she's going to be late. She'll be here eventually, though."
"So in the meantime, we what? Take Faith to work?"
"I guess," she shrugged.
"Yeah!" Faith smiled.
"Faith Evelyn, are you going to be a doctor someday?" Arizona asked.
"Yep," she nodded.
"Like Mommy and Madre and lots of our friends?"
"Yeah, mama," she said.
"What do doctors do?" Callie asked. "They make people...?"
"Yuckies," she said.
Clearly, Callie was looking for the word "better." However, Faith didn't exactly understand this yet. To her, doctors meant medicine and surgery. Those made her better, but she didn't exactly make that connection in her two-year-old mind yet.
"They make people take yucky medicine?" Arizona asked. "Does that medicine help?"
"Yeah."
"Are you going to become a doctor and save babies from H.L.H.S.?" Callie wondered.
Of course, they would support their daughters in whatever it was they wished to do. However, this was a frequently mentioned career suggestion for their little lady.
"Huh?"
"That's what made your other heart not work," Arizona explained.
"Oh," she asked, brushing the make-up brush over her face again.
"Does that sound like a plan?" Callie asked. "Do you want to be the doctor who learns how to prevent broken hearts?"
"Be Faith," she said.
"You just want to be Faith forever?" Mommy asked. "You got it, Kid. You'll be Faith Evelyn Torres for your whole life. And you look so beautiful with your pretty make-up!"
"Yeah," she agreed.
"Mawk!" Faith called out, still not completely able to pronounce her sister's dad's name.
Luckily, the nurses and other doctors at the hospital had been helping them keep an eye on Faith as they worked. Callie moved a few things around in her schedule so that she could buy them some time until Emily came to pick Faith up.
The tiny girl loved getting to see everyone. Mark was talking to a patient who he had just met with when she spotted him. Callie had to talk to him anyway, but Faith seemed to want to do it right away, without paying any mind to the other person who had Mark's attention at the moment.
"Mawk!"
"Shh, we need to let Mark talk to that man," Callie explained. "Mark's working."
"Mawk work?" she asked.
"Mark's working," she nodded. "We're going to wait for him to finish talking with that man and then we're going to tell him that Sister's going to his house tomorrow night. That's what she said she'd like to do."
"Ohh...!"
A nurse asked Callie a question about a patient and – in the few seconds that it took her to answer – Faith had run off. She was just about to head into a patient's room when Callie noticed and stopped her.
"You can't go in, Baby," she told her.
"Big," she corrected.
"Big girl?" she asked, picking her up. "Yep. You're big now, right?"
"What are you doin' here, Faith?" Mark, who had just finished speaking with the patient wondered as he walked up to them. "Is your heart okay?"
"Yep," Callie smiled. "Emily's running late. Mommy's in surgery, so I'm in charge of keeping this one from destroying the place."
"Hey, you used to wish for the day that she'd have this much energy," Mark said.
"Oh, I know," she agreed. "But I'm also trying to work."
"Why don't you ask the daycare to take her? If some other kid is off sick, they might have a spot. They usually don't do that, but you're stuck. She's doing so much better, too."
"True," she replied. "Good idea."
"I'm full of 'em," he smiled. "So, Robbins texted me saying that Sof wants to come to my place?"
"Yeah."
"Okay," he nodded. "Sounds good."
"Good?" Faith asked.
"Good," Mark nodded. "Max'll be happy. He's been asking when Sofia's going to be home."
"Why didn't you ask for her then?" Callie wondered.
They had very flexible custody arrangements. If Sofia requested to be at one of the houses, she was almost always able to go. The same thing typically happened if the parents had a particular request. They didn't really have set days or anything like that.
"You guys finally get normal, happy family time," he said. "It's not like I don't see her at all or something. I just picked her up from school yesterday. I just happened to drop her off at your place."
"True," she said. "Still. Tomorrow she and all of her party planning ideas are all yours."
"What now?" he laughed.
"A piñata," she said. "Though, it might be nice to beat a giant heart. It would take out a lot of the built up aggression Arizona and I have had thanks to H.L.H.S."
"Piñatas are fun, right?" Mark asked Faith. "Of course Sof wants one and her very late birthday and your..."
"Organ transplant party?" Callie replied. "Yeah. I know. Great combo."
"Yeah," Faith agreed.
"Yeah?" Callie asked, giving her girl a kiss. "Do you want to go see if the daycare people will let you play while you wait for Emily?"
"Pay toys?"
"Play with toys," she nodded. "And other new friends."
"Faith wub 'em."
"You love friends?" she asked. "They're pretty fun, right?"
"Yep."
After some begging on Callie's part, the daycare staff did agree to take Faith for the hour or so before Emily could get there. Still, this didn't help her madre get any work done. At first, Faith had protested, not sure what this whole "daycare" experience was. However, once that was over, Callie stood there watching her play in the doll center with a few other little girls who had embraced her like she had always been in their little group. Callie couldn't bring herself to leave.
"Why did you page -?" Arizona, who had just gotten out of the O.R. asked as she walked up.
"Look," she said.
Arizona smiled. When they had first found out about Faith's hypoplastic left heart syndrome diagnosis, it was tough to imagine this day. Faith truly had come such a long way. There was really no way that anyone would be able to tell that anything had been wrong with their baby. While she would never be in the clear as far as cardiac problems were concerned, they would take this.
"She's just...playing," Callie told her. "We went from having her on a transplant list to this? What?!"
"Awesome," Arizona replied.
Faith noticed that her moms were watching her. At first, Callie paniced. Would this only cause her to get emotional again? She didn't want to have to settle her once more. Also, she really would have to get back to working at some point, no matter how much she wanted to delay it and watch the wonder that was her little one being nothing but ordinary.
"Hi, Big Girl!" Arizona decided to say. "Did you make some friends?"
Maybe if she sounded happy enough, Faith would be okay and carry on playing. She didn't know if it would work, but she tried. Luckily, a smile spread across her little lady's face.
"Yeah," she nodded.
"Cool!"
One of the teachers – who had also been a teacher there when Sofia had been in daycare – came to the door.
"She's having so much fun," she smiled.
"It's nice to see her playing with other kids," Callie agreed. "We take her to the park and stuff, but she doesn't get the same interaction with other toddlers as Sofia did at her age."
"Unless you count sick kids on the Peds. ward," Arizona added. "Which isn't really the same."
"We have a spot available here," the teacher, Gianna, mentioned. "If you'd feel comfortable with her coming, we'd be happy to have her."
"Thanks, but –" Arizona started to say.
"We'll think about it," Callie interjected.
"We're thinking about it?" Arizona asked that night, as the conversation came up again during a potty training session.
"Arizona, she won't stop talking about those little girls. Our kid made friends all by herself today. She wants that. She's ready."
"She's always been intellectually ready," Arizona said. "But physically?"
"Physically, she's still recovering. Yes, I do realize this. But she's still so much better off than she was. She's doing much, much better than she was when we hired Emily."
"Emily's been great," Arizona said. "What? We just let her go because Faith spent an hour playing with some little girls?"
"Pay a baby," Faith said. "Fun, Mama! Fun, baby!"
"You and your friends had fun with the babies?" Callie wondered. "Tell Mommy that you'll be fine now. You're doing better now. Your meds. aren't as complicated either. The daycare teachers could give them to you, I think."
"Yuck," she replied.
"You're considering this?" Mommy asked.
"Arizona, we've wanted normal for years. We've wanted to be able to plan. It's here. Take it."
Arizona took a deep breath. Maybe Callie was right. Even though today wasn't a full day, Faith had loved it, with the exception of being dropped off. They also couldn't keep her in a bubble forever. One day, they would have to make this choice. She knew that.
"What about preschool?" she asked, agreeing to plan.
"What about it?"
"What if we put this off just a little longer?" she questioned. "Hear me out."
"What?"
"Sof started preschool when she was three. If we start sending Faith around then, I think that would be good."
"Yeah," Callie agreed.
"So why put her in daycare right now? Why have her make two transitions so close together? If we just wait, she could make one transition and we could work with the preschool to make sure they're ready for her before we send her. I could feel better about it, you could feel better about it, and Faith would get to go still. Plus, it would give time for Emily to find a new job. I know that shouldn't be a part of our consideration, but she's taken care of our children. That's not something I take lightly. We owe her."
"I know."
"Okay?"
"Deal," Callie said. "Faith you get to go to preschool when you're three!"
"Pee!" she exclaimed as she peed, for the first time ever, in her potty.
"You're just full of big girl things today, huh?" Arizona asked. "We watch you make friends, we decide preschool sounds right for you, and you pee!"
"Faith went pee?" Sofia asked, coming into the bathroom.
She was supposed to be doing some colouring for homework, but all of the exciting developments had distracted her. Since Faith was her second younger sibling, she knew all about how big of a deal potty training was. She had been waiting to make a big deal out of this for her sister.
"She did," Callie smiled. "And we decided something?"
"That I get a piñata?" she wondered. "At our party?"
"No, that Faith gets to go to preschool one day."
"After our party or before?" she asked.
"After, Sof," Arizona said. "And yes, you can have a piñata."
"Yay!"
Callie looked at her wife. She loved the fact that they could now see far enough into the future to make some actual plans for Faith. She loved that their second miracle baby would get to be a "normal" preschooler. Was her wife really happy with all of the planning, though?
"What?" Arizona asked.
"You know I wouldn't even consider it if she wasn't going to do just fine, right?" she asked.
"A piñata?" Sofia asked.
"No, Faith's school."
"Faith's smart," she said. "For a little kid."
"She is," Arizona agreed. "And I'm going to be the insane mom who asks a million questions before we choose a preschool. Maybe the one Sof went to isn't the one for Faith."
"Okay," Callie nodded.
"But this is exciting," Arizona said.
"Faith pee!" Faith cheered.
"We know!" Arizona laughed. "We're so proud!"
"Good?"
"It's really good," Callie said.
