Squeals of delight came from Faith's room three weeks later. It was party day today and her parents and grandparents were trying to make every part of it extra special. While the girls were asleep last night, they had filled their rooms with multi-coloured balloons to surprise them when they awoke. As usual, Sofia was up to discover this long before her sister. She had already enjoyed them, but now she lit up as she realized that she would get to experience her sister's happiness as well.

By the time that everyone made it up the stairs to her bedroom, Faith had slid out of the foot of the bed – avoiding her safety railing at the side– and made it into the hallway.

"Fun is dare!" she told her family. "Pity stuff!" she added, pointing to the room. "Yay!"

"Fun is in there?" Arizona asked. "Balloons?"

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Do you want to go play with the balloons?" Callie asked. "You can go play with them."

"Pease?" she asked.

"They're for you!" Grandma told her. "Go ahead!"

Faith began playing with her surprise. On a typical morning, she certainly wasn't full of energy but today was the exception. She was loving all of the excitement of this morning as she watched the balloons float up and down as they kicked and tossed them into the air together.

"How did these get here, Baby?" Arizona asked.

"No know," she answered.

"You don't know?" Grandpa replied. "Is it fun, though?"

She laughed as a balloon came down and gently bounced off of her head. It was amazing how much joy could come from such a simple surprise. The toddler was loving this. Sofia had too, but there was something extra perfect about Faith's reaction.

"If you're having this much fun now, wait until the party," Abuelo smiled. "You'll love that, right?"

"Fo' Faith?" she asked.

"It's a party for both of us, Faith," Sofia explained. "'Member because I never got a good birthday party and you got a new heart?"

"Oh."

"Now we need a party, right?" Arizona asked, giving Faith a kiss. "We've been through a lot. We need to celebrate our special babies."

"I'm not a baby," Sofia said.

"Are we your moms?" Callie asked.

"Yeah."

"Then we get to call you our babies as long as we want."

"Not when I go to second grade," Sofia said. "In second grade, we do hard work. We have to study for our spelling tests. Our teacher doesn't help us."

"So that makes you not our baby?" she laughed.

"Babies don't do hard work. Faith does 'what colour is this one?' That's easy."

"It's easy for you," Grandpa explained. "Faith's younger."

"It's easy for Faith, too," she said. "She does good at that."

"You're both so smart, huh?" Callie smiled.

Faith put a little too much effort into kicking a balloon into the air and landed on her bottom. Her diaper padded the fall, so she just began giggling.

"Oops!" Arizona replied.

Faith laid back and let the rest of the airborne balloons land on her.

"Uh oh!" Abuelo exclaimed. "Where'd Faith go?" he asked, pretending that she was buried in them.

She popped up. "Hi!"

All of the party excitement began to backfire a little later on that day. It was lunchtime – just before the party – and Faith was refusing to touch her lunch. They had "hidden" vegetables inside of her homemade macaroni and cheese dish, and she had discovered them. Instead, she kept asking for some of the snack foods that they were putting out for the party.

"Did you eat your macaroni yet?" Arizona asked.

"No," she replied.

"Then you may not have snacks," she replied. "Please try it, Faith. Sister ate it."

"I picked out the vegetables," Sofia said.

"Yeah, well at least you ate," Callie explained. "You should have tried the vegetables, but you will next time, right?"

"Next time I'll be at Daddy's," she said. "At his house, we don't have veggies in the mac 'n' cheese."

"They make it healthier for Faith," Arizona explained. "In theory. When she eats."

"Oh."

"When you and your brother were younger, we didn't force you to eat. You ate if you were hungry, and if not, you survived until the next meal. She'll eat when she's hungry enough," Grandpa said.

"If only it was that simple," Arizona replied.

She did agree with her father's logic. Faith wasn't going to starve herself. If she was hungry enough, she would try the food. However, with the medications she was on, she needed to have food in her stomach shortly after taking them. Therefore, waiting for her to decide to eat wasn't really a choice. Sure, they could let her eat the snacks, but they also had to make sure to enforce healthy eating with her. She would need to eat well for the rest of her life if she wanted her donor heart to stay healthy.

"It's not like we need her to clean her plate," Callie said. "We need her to eat some of it. I wouldn't say we're forcing her to eat. I mean, its macaroni. It's pretty kid friendly."

They went about their party prep again, trying to ignore Faith's requests to be finished and to have snacks. They didn't want to pay too much attention to her refusal to eat, since it wasn't something they encouraged.

Abuelo started feeding her. Of course, they were happy that she was finally taking a few bites, but they didn't love the fact that she wasn't feeding herself at two-and-a-half. Sometimes people – and even themselves if they were honest – tended to give in to Faith more often because of all that she had been through.

"Dad, she's two-and-a-half," Callie said. "We're not spoon-feeding our two-and-a-half year old."

"Yep," Faith grinned.

"No," she told her. "You're big now. Eat at least two bites, please. Then we can get your party dress on."

"Pity?" she asked.

"I'm sure you'll look so pretty," Grandma told her.

"Faith Evelyn, come stand next to Sofia, please," Arizona said with her camera in hand.

When they went to pick out party dresses, Faith had attached herself to a miniature version of the one that her sister had selected. Typically, Sofia wouldn't allow this and they would simply talk Faith into choosing something else. By the time they left, the toddler was usually satisfied all over again. For now, it was fairly easy to convince her that something else was even more gorgeous. However, this time Sofia decided that it was okay because Faith was so happy.

Faith walked over to a box of dress up clothing. She pulled out a green tutu. Clearly, she wanted to add it to her attire for the party.

"Pease?" she asked, handing it to Callie.

"How about we pick a pink one that matches your dress?" she asked.

Personally, she thought the tutu was a bit much when paired with the sparkly dress and the sparkly shoes, but the party was for her daughters and Faith wanted to wear it. She wasn't going to discourage this choice completely.

"She has the white one with the pink hearts," Sofia suggested.

Callie got it out and put it on Faith. She practically squealed with excitement as she looked down at it.

"Is it perfect for the party?" Grandpa asked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Come take a picture, Baby," Arizona encouraged. "I want a picture of our gorgeous girls."

"Pity gils," she said, mispronouncing it as she stood beside her sister.

"How did we get such a great family?" Arizona asked as she took the picture.

"Ummm...Faith."

"Because we got Faith?" Callie asked. "You're right! Our family wouldn't be the same without Faith!"

"And 'cause I'm bigger so I teach her stuff," Sofia added.

"Yep!"

The kids were having so much fun at the party. They had already played various games and had a little dance party. Now everyone was excited as they tried to break open the piñata. Of course, because most of them were Sofia's little friends, they didn't exactly have very much strength. The piñata wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, but as long as it was still fun, that was okay.

"Can Faith have a turn?" Callie asked Sofia.

The little sister had been pretty content just to watch, but they wanted to give her a chance to get in on the action, too. The idea for this party may have originally been to make up for the fact that they didn't give Sofia a proper birthday bash, but it had also become about celebrating Faith's successful transplant, too. They didn't want to leave her out.

"She doesn't know how," Sofia said.

"A two-year-old hitting something?" Mark laughed. "Somehow I think she'll catch on."

Sofia handed Callie one of the pink sticks that they had been using to take turns hitting the piñata and Callie boosted Faith up a tad so that she would be able to reach it. She handed her the stick.

"Hit that, Faith," Sofia told her. "Hit it!"

When Faith swung at it twice and it still wasn't any closer to breaking, Sofia gave up. She and her friends just wanted the candy already.

"Piñata's are boring," she complained.

Lexie laughed. "Sofia, this is all we've been hearing about."

"Do you want us to just break it?" Arizona asked.

"Yeah," she nodded.

Mark took the piñata down, opened it up, and spilled its sugary contents out. All of the children went diving into the pile of candy, in a rush to collect as much as they could. However, one child wasn't so pleased with this development. When Callie had put her down, Faith had gone to get some candy as well, but she hadn't managed to grab any yet. All of the other children – even Maxwell – were so much bigger and faster than she was. She went over to Carlos with tears in her eyes.

"We'll get you some," he promised as he picked her up. "All of the big kids got it first, huh?"

"Yeah."

"It's okay," he said. "Abuelo'll get some just for you."

Sofia noticed that her sister was upset as the pile of candy started to dwindle down. She came over and handed Faith a handful of treats.

"Here, Faith," she said. "Don't cry at our party, okay?"

Sofia's sisterly generosity never ceased to amaze her parents. Sure, just like any child, she wasn't always the most caring, but she did have a very generous, loving side to her as well.

"Thanks, Sof," Callie said.

"We have more in the house," she said. "But Faith wants this candy."

"You're so mature," Grandma praised.

"What's that?"

"Kind of like big," Lexie explained.

"Oh."

Maxwell came over and handed his buddy a lollipop. It turned out to be a flavour that he was far from fond of, but it was still a nice gesture.

"Oh, Max shared too," Arizona smiled. "What do you say to Sister and Max?"

"Tanks," Faith smiled. "Faith yummy."

"Now you have yummy stuff?" Abuelo asked. "Are you happy now?"

"Yeah."

"Good," Daniel replied.

"Do you girls want presents now?" Arizona asked.

Sofia had obviously already opened birthday presents since her actual birthday was months ago. However, they didn't want to have a party for the girls without getting them gifts. Therefore, each girl was getting something today as well.

"We get presents?" Sofia asked. "Really?"

"What kind of party would it be without presents?" Callie asked. "Of course you get presents!"

Most of the party guests had gone home hours ago, but now that it was dark they were letting Sofia enjoy the "fireworks" that she had requested. They weren't actually allowed to set fireworks off in their area, so she had to settle for a few sparklers, but she was still pretty happy with this.

Arizona passed a sleeping Faith over to her wife. The little lady had cupcake icing all over her face and she was still clutching the pretend spatula that had come with her new kitchen set in her hand.

"Why aren't we just putting her to bed?" Callie whispered.

"I tried that. She woke up as soon as I walked into the house and insisted that she go back outside to see Sof's 'fiwes'"

"I guess that was supposed to be 'fires?'" she smiled.

"I think so," she laughed.

"Max, Max, Max!" Lexie exclaimed as her son attempted to help himself to one of the sparklers.

While the sticks were long and he probably could keep his little fingers away from the spark part, they still didn't think he actually would. He didn't like following rules, so they had to tell him that this wasn't allowed for his own safety. Mark had helped him to hold one, which had only given him the idea that he could do it all by himself.

"No!" he complained as she took it from him.

"Do you know how to be safe with this?" she asked. "Sofia's being safe. She's seven and the thought of her holding something on fire still isn't my favourite, but she's safe with it. You are not, since you didn't even ask first. If you want one, somebody has to help you hold it."

"Too bad Faith's sleepin'," Sofia said. "She'd like this."

"She's way too little, Sof," Callie said. "She wouldn't get one."

"When she's bigger, she needs to."

"You've decided, huh?" Mark smiled.

"It's really fun," she smiled.

"Was this a good party?" Arizona wondered.

"I loved it."

"Good."

"Did Faith?"

"I think so," Callie said. "She's just sleepy."

"Because she got a new heart," she said. "And because she's little."

"Right."

"But I like when Faith has fun because she doesn't get to have fun sometimes."

"Hopefully now that she has a new heart, she'll have a lot more fun days," Grandma said.

"I hope so," Arizona agreed.

Faith woke up again.

"Well, hi," Callie smiled, giving her a kiss. "You're really trying not to miss this, huh?"

She nodded.

"We'll head inside soon," Arizona said. "We'll put jammies on and read a book."

"Do I gotta read Faith's potty book again?" Sofia asked.

Now that she was working on potty training, a toddler-friendly book all about it had become a favourite of hers. Unfortunately, she always wanted Sofia to read it to her and the big sister was less than thrilled by it.

"You can pick a new one," Callie said, assuming Faith would fall back asleep before the book was read anyway.

"Good," she said. "'Cause it's about going pee."

Maxwell giggled.