I do not own any of the characters in this story.
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"mamaaaaaa!" Shelby sighed at the loud voice of a crying Santana coming from the play room. Taking a deep breath she shut the dishwasher and rubbed her temples before making her way upstairs to see what her girls were up to this time.
"If I come in there and you guys are fighting again your little butts are gonna be sorry" she warned as she pushed open the already cracked door to the playroom.
She was met with Santana sobbing and holding the back of her head whilst clutching the leg of her trusty teddy Mr Fluffs, and Quinn holding the rest of its body with a guilty look on her face. Brittany meanwhile, was looking back and forth between her mama and her sisters, wondering what was going to happen next.
"Mama owieee!" Shelby crouched down in front of Santana and took the sobbing girl into her arms. "What happened Sanny?" she cooed, she was mad at her girls for fighting for the countless time that day but she could see Santana was hurt, which of course came first. She gently pulled Santana's hand away from the back of her head and parted her hair to look at her injury, redness and a slight bump seemed to be the brunt of the fall. The girl simply sat on the floor and cried harder, dropping the teddys leg and reaching up her arms to her mama and making grabbing motions to show that she wanted to be picked up. Shelby placed her hands under her arms and picked Santana up and held her close to her body, she gently bounced her up and down on her hip, cradling the back of her head with her hand and cooing to the distraught baby.
"Mama it was an accident-" Shelby held up her hand to stop Quinn's attempt at talking herself out of trouble.
"I don't want to hear it Quinn, let me calm down Santana and then you can explain" she told the girl sternly. She had a pretty good idea of what had happened, the 5 year old had recently gotten into the habit of snatching whatever toy Santana or Brittany was playing with at the time away from them. Shelby didn't know why or where this had come from because her girls had always shared toys before but she knew she needed to get to the bottom of it.
She tucked a piece of dark brown hair behind Santana's ear and watched as she lifted her head to look at her mama, her face red from all the crying. "Oh honey, it's okay. Let's get your face cleaned up" Shelby said as she tried to set Santana down to grab a baby wipe to clean off the girls snot and tear covered face. "Noooo!" Santana screamed, the tears starting again as she gripped to her mama not wanting to be put down yet.
"Sanny bear, mama needs to wipe your pretty face" she tried to reason, but Santana was having none of it. She was tired, her head hurt and she just wanted her Mama to hold her!
"Okay, okay" Shelby sighed as she began bouncing her again and softly patting the diaper covered bottom. She looked down as she felt a tug on the bottom of her shirt and heard a quiet "mama" to see Brittany holding up a baby wipe to her with a shy smile on her face.
"Oh baby thank you!" Shelby praised the 3 year old, "you're such a helpful girl for mama aren't you?" Brittany ducked her head and blushed at the praise before toddling back over to her toys in the corner.
Quinn scowled, Brittany was such a butt kisser! And Santana always got all the attention from their mama because she was just a stupid baby. She crossed her arms over her chest and sunk to the floor, waiting nervously for her mama to finish cleaning off Santana's face, she was sure to get a spanking, especially after all the warnings and time outs she'd had that day so far and it wasn't even lunchtime.
Eventually, after Shelby giving her a pacifier, Santana fell asleep in her mama's arms, small hands clutching to Shelby's shirt. She waited a few minutes to make sure the girl was deeply sleeping before standing and carrying Santana into her nursery. Shelby gently tugged off the baby's pants leaving her in just her shirt and diaper, just how Santana liked to be for her nap.
She lowered her into her crib and gently pulled her hands off the top of her shirt. Shelby placed a kiss to the tan forehead before pulling shut the curtains and turning on the ladybug shaped nightlight and heading back to the playroom to deal with Quinn.
After checking Brittany was immersed in her toys, Shelby called Quinn over to her.
"Honey, come to mama" Quinn looked up with a pout but dragged her feet over to her. Shelby placed her hands on her girls hips and pulled her to stand between her legs before hooking a finger under her chin, "look at me darling" she whispered gently. Green eyes fogged over with tears as she saw the disappointed look in her mama's eyes.
"I'm sorry Mommy" Quinn whimpered, sniffling as Shelby wiped away the rogue tear falling down her cheek.
"I know you are, but why do you keep taking Sanny's toys away from her? You've been doing it all day and you know it makes her sad baby" Shelby said gently, normally her girls would be over her knee in no time for being so naughty, but she could sense there was a reason for Quinns acting out so decided to handle the situation more carefully. All she received was a slight shrug of the shoulders, "you can tell Mama anything Quinnie, you know that. What's upsetting Mama's big girl so much huh?" This time Quinn's bottom lip trembled before she launched herself into Shelby's arms.
"Y-you don't love m-me as much as S-sanny and B-britty!" she said brokenly between sobs. Shelby gathered her close in her arms, her heart broke to think that Quinn felt unloved and all thoughts of punishment instantly left her head.
"Quinn that is not true at all, Mommy loves all her babies the same. What makes you think I don't love you?" Quinn whimpered before tucking her head safely in Shelby's neck, "You always give them more addention and they get more c-cuggles!" If the situation wasn't so heartbreaking for the mother, Shelby would have found the 5 year olds pronunciation of "attention" and "cuddles" adorable but right now she was focussed on making her baby feel better.
"Babygirl, look at mama" Shelby cooed softly, waiting for sad green eyes to meet hers before continuing, "Sanny and Britty are little, they need help from Mama with things that you can already do. You're my big girl, you can go potty alone, you can get dressed and feed yourself. Britty is only three and she can't use the potty by herself yet, she has accidents sometimes, she gets messy and finds it hard to do things herself. And Sanny is just a baby, she's only one, she can't walk by herself yet, she needs Mommy's milk, sometimes she needs me to hold her for a nap and let's not even mention those stinky diapers!" Shelby added, earning a small giggle from the girl on her lap.
"So baby, just because mama gives them a little more help than I give you, that doesn't mean I love you any less okay? I love you heaps because you're my big girl and Mama is so proud of you for all the things you can do" she finished, adding a kiss to Quinn's tear stained cheek.
"But Mama I want cuggles when I sleep too!" Shelby smiled, "Well I think that can be arranged sweetheart! I promise to make some time every week for just Quinnie and Mama time and later we can take a nap together, sound good babygirl?" She asked, hoping to cheer her up with the idea of spending time just those two. "Yeah!" Quinn yelled before putting her hand over her mouth at the loudness of her voice, "Oops" Shelby couldn't help but laugh at her reaction, "You're a goofball Quinnie" she said with a wink before shifting the girl to stand between her legs again.
"But Mommy still needs to talk to you about your behaviour". Quinn pouted at this and looked down, dang it! She thought she'd gotten out of a punishment!
"Gonna spank my butt Mama?" she asked quietly, "No princess, not this time. But I want you to promise to play nicely with Sanny and stop taking her toys away from her. She's just a baby and she needs her big sissy to look out for her". Quinn nodded before finally meeting Shelby's eyes "I pwomise Mommy! I look after Sanny and Britty!" she said happily, seemingly excited at the idea of protecting her sisters. "That's my good girl" Shelby praised gently brushing blonde hair away from Quinn's face before turning and calling Brittany over to them.
"Hi honey" she said as the girl toddled over. "Hi Mama!" Brittany squealed, "Do you wanna go pick a movie with Quinnie for us to watch whilst Sanny is asleep?" Shelby questioned laughing as the two girls cheered and walked as fast as they could out of the playroom without technically running. Shelby smiled to herself hearing Quinn tell Brittany "Hold my hand on the stairs Britty! I look after you!" before putting away the discarded toys into the toy boxes and looking up at the framed photo on the wall, it was Quinn and Brittany sitting next to each other laughing their heads off and looking down at Santana who was laying across their laps pulling on the ends of Brittanys hair.
Shelby wiped a tear from her cheek, smiling softly at the memories she had made with her girls in the few short months they had been doing this. Sure it was hard looking after three young and trouble making girls, but she loved them more than anything and wouldn't change a minute for the world.
"Mommy stop being a slow poke!" Quinns voice floated up the stairs breaking Shelby out of the moment, followed by Brittanys lispy, "Yeah swow poke!" obviously bored of waiting for their Mama to come watch the movie they picked out.
Shelby laughed before quickly checking on a still snoozing Santana, thankful that the girls yells didn't wake her up before grabbing the baby monitor and the ripped teddy to fix before Santana woke up and headed downstairs.
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