I don't know if anyone needs this right now, but I sure felt like writing it. Just a little fluff to distract from the garbage fire that is Towen's relationship at the moment.
Teddy
Today was no ordinary day for our household. Today was little Allison's 2nd birthday. Owen and I had made the decision to not have as big of a deal as last year for her 1st birthday. But today was sure to be a day of surprises. It was a Saturday and we both had the day off and were trying to sleep in as much as we could. With two young toddlers however, that proved difficult. It was around 7:30am when we heard the first noises from the kids. Owen rolled over, having been woken up by the noise. "I'll go get them and bring them in here", I told him.
Leo was 3 going on 4 and was now in a "big boy bed" as we like to call it. However, he also likes to get out of bed by himself in the morning at whatever time he pleases. He also figured out that he can go across the hall to his little sister's room and open her door. So when I woke up that morning I heard voices coming from Allison's nursery.
"Awison! It's your birfday today!"
"Yeo!" Allison joyfully shrieked back at her big brother.
I padded down the hall and slowly pushed the door the rest of the way open. Leo was standing up next to Allison's crib, holding on to the bars. Allison was sitting up holding her favorite grey blanket with white polka dots facing Leo. She was in her pair of footie pajamas that were covered in birds, her strawberry blonde hair was all over the place from the night's sleep. As soon as I entered her room, both kids turned to look at me and yell "Mama!" Man these kids know how to melt my heart.
"Hi babies! Happy Birthday Allison! Do you wanna come say good morning to Daddy?"
"Daddy!" Leo shouts, already on the run to our room.
Allison stands up in her crib and reaches for me to help her out excitedly. I lift her little body out of bed put her on the carpet. She then toddles out the door after her brother, still holding her 'blankie'. I laugh and follow them both back to our bedroom.
Owen's now fully awake when both kids make it to the bed. His smile always manages to get bigger whenever he sees his babies. His eyes lit up when he sees Allison.
"Good morning birthday girl! Come say hi!"
Allison runs over to Owen's side of the bed and tries her best to crawl onto the bed before reaches down to lift her up. As soon as she's up on the bed she starts jumping up and down, spinning around. I stand in the doorway smiling and a tear can't help but fall from my eye. It feels like just yesterday she was a tiny little lump in my arms and now she looks so big. She's growing up too fast.
"Alright kids, who wants pancakes for breakfast?" Owen asks grinning widely.
"Me, me!" they both cry.
"Ok, the birthday girl gets a piggyback ride to the kitchen!" Owen sits on the side of the bed so Allison can climb on his back. He gallops to the kitchen with Allison shrieking with delight the whole way.
After a breakfast filled with way too many pancakes, chocolate chips, and whipped cream, we spent the most of the rest of the day playing outside, per Allison's choice. We opened up a new sprinkler and changed the kids into their bathing suits so they could enjoy the water. We also got her a little baby trampoline for the backyard that both kids could bounce on.
After a long day of celebration, laughter, and fun, we were all exhausted. After some post-dinner ice cream and cake we finally tucked the kids in for the night.
Both Owen and I collapsed on the couch, ready to fall asleep. But there was still one thing left to do today.
"Hey, babe?" I say, looking over at him with a smirk.
"Mhm?" he responds with his eyes closed.
"I think I still have one present left for Allie."
Owen opens his eyes, slightly confused. "Well, we can give to her tomorrow I guess." But I'm already up and grabbing it, too impatient to wait much longer, it was hard enough waiting the whole day.
"How about you open it now?" I ask.
"Why would I do that?" He's really confused now.
"Just do it, ok?" I'm full on smiling now and I can't hide it anymore.
"Ok, ok." he sighs and I can tell he knows I'm up to something. He accepts the blue gift bag filled with white tissue paper and starts to unwrap it. He reaches in and grabs the present- a pink t-shirt in Allison's size that reads "Best Big Sister." He pulls it out and flips it so he can read it. His eyes widen with realization and he drops the shirt back in the bag. His eyes fill with tears as he looks up at me. "Are you-" He doesn't even finish his sentence because I'm nodding my head 'yes' like a crazed bobble head. He leans over and pulls me on top of him for a hug. The hug lasts almost a minute until I have to force him to let go. He then takes my face in his hands lovingly and looks into my eyes. "We're having another baby, Teddy?" My eyes well up too as I nod again. We share a sweet, caring kiss before he leans down to lift up my shift, exposing my stomach. "Hi baby," he whispers, "I know you're in there now. This is your dad. I want you to know that I love you very much and I can't wait to meet you." He gives my belly a kiss before lowering my shirt again. "Another baby." He whispers softly, still in awe. I love him so much.
The next big shock came nearly three months later at our second ultrasound.
Two. Two babies. We were going to have four babies four and under. Oh boy. Actually... a boy and a girl. I joked with Owen that he was going to have a vasectomy after this pregnancy to which he turned incredibly pale.
Having two toddlers, a full time job, and being heavily pregnant with twins was just as hard as it sounds. By the time I was seven months pregnant I couldn't do more than one surgery a day without having contractions so Owen convinced me to take my leave early so I could go on bed rest. Luckily, Owen's mother, Evelyn was around a lot to help keep the kids entertained so I could actually get some rest. The best though, was when the whole family snuggled together on Fridays to watch a movie before bedtime. Often times we all ended up crowded around me and the babies in my belly. The kids loved that they could feel the little(sometimes big) kicks on their hands and would spend the majority of the movie with their little fingers pressed on my stomach trying to get a response out of their baby siblings. Owen would sit behind me, with me comfortably fitting between his legs and his arms wrapped around me like a warm blanket. I wish I could bottle up those moments to save forever.
When the time came for the babies to be born, Owen was there the entire time, holding my hand and whispering encouragement into my ear. As much as I wanted to smack him at least 10 ten times during the birthing process, I was grateful to have him there. Our baby boy was born first; Owen cut his umbilical cord and Carina DeLuca, my OB, placed him on my chest for the first time. I had a few minutes of skin to skin time with him before the contractions started up again full strength and the nurse took him away so I could push again. I screamed and I cried as our baby girl was born. She also came out screaming, red in the face with bright red hair. I got more time with her skin to skin while they brought over our new son, all cleaned up and handed him to Owen. Owen took his shirt off, sat down in the rocking chair in the corner of the room, and laid our son against his chest and covered him with a blanket. We switched babies after a while, Owen taking our daughter and snuggled our boy. Turns out he's got blonde hair just like me. Funny how Allison was a mix of us both but these babies were like Owen and I in miniature(except for the fact that our son looked like me and our daughter looked like Owen). After a little bit, I tried tandem breastfeeding the twins which was harder than it sounds. After the nurse was confident they'd both had enough to eat, Owen got them both dressed in the outfits we let Allison and Leo pick out for them for when they got to meet their new brother and sister. Allie has insisted on her baby sister's first outfit being pink, covered in tiny doves and hearts because "mommy loves birds" while Leo picked out a cute green onesie for his brother because it's his favorite color. Owen had called his mother and she was on her way over with the kids.
Evelyn slowly pushed open the door the recovery room and our two kids ran inside very excitedly. She had dressed them in shirts that said 'I'm the Big Brother" and "I'm the Big Sister". I was sitting on the hospital bed and Owen had helped to settle the babies, one in each arm. He picked up Allison so she could get a better view of her brother and sister while Leo crawled onto the end of the bed by himself. Allison reached out to gently touch her baby sister's hand like they'd practiced, and she giggled happily when the baby took her finger in her hand and squeezed.
"Daddy! She sweezed my finger! She sweezed it!" She is soooo cute! I love her." After that, she turned around and hugged Owen, clearly having missed her daddy and already a little bored of the babies. Owen held her and swayed back and forth as she promptly fell asleep on his shoulder.
Leo, however, was still very much intrigued by the new arrivals. "What are their names Mama?" he asked softly not to wake the sleeping babies. I'm still in awe everyday of what a kind and thoughtful boy Leo is.
I exchanged a look with Owen and he gives me a small nod as a go-ahead.
"Well, your little brother's name is Daniel. Daniel Nathan Hunt. And your baby sister's name is Grace Evelyn Hunt." We gave the Allison middle name Eloise for Megan so we figured there was no better name for her middle.
Evelyn, who had been standing next to my bed, admiring her new grandchildren looked at me with tears in her eyes.
"Do you want to hold one?" I ask her, beginning to sit up a little more.
"Oh yes dear, I would like that very much." She says as she carefully grabs lifts Grace from my arms and rocks her softly while walking over to the rocking chair in the corner. I look around the room and smile. I had everything I'd always wanted. Yeah, my family was pretty amazing.
Okay, I'm not really sure where this is going- if this is only one chapter or more. If people want to read more I'd be more than happy to write just because I'm trying to not think about the events of the finale right now(and writing happy people makes me happy).
Also peep the MerDer style pregnancy announcement; I honestly just think it's a cute idea.:)