"Harrison." Elizabeth sat on the edge of the bed, running her fingers through his hair. "It's time to wake up. It's the first day of school."
"I'm sleepy, mommy," he mumbled.
"Well," she laughed softly, "that's what happens when you don't go to bed when we tell you to."
"Five more minutes," he groaned. "Please?"
"I'm sorry, bud. You need to get up now so we won't be late. Daddy has breakfast ready. Chocolate chip waffles, so you'd better get up so you can eat them while they're warm."
He sighed, sitting up slowly. "Okay."
She took his hand, walking with him to the kitchen. "What do you want in your lunchbox today?"
"Peanut butter and jelly and applesauce."
She ruffled his hair and nudged him toward the table. "Okay. Eat up. I'll make your lunch."
Jack came in from the backyard, Simba trotting inside behind him. "Well good morning, sleepyhead."
"Hi, daddy." He took a bite of his waffle. "Are you taking me to school?"
"Mommy and I both are. Since it's such a nice day, we thought we'd walk there, so we can bring Simba with us, too."
"Yay!" the little boy cheered.
Jack chuckled. "But that means you need to finish up your breakfast and get dressed since it'll take a little longer to get there."
"You and mommy picking me up, too?"
"I'll be at work when school is over," Elizabeth spoke as she continued packing his lunchbox. "So it'll just be daddy picking you up."
"Oh." His face dropped.
"But I'll be home before dinner. I was thinking of making spaghetti and meatballs."
"Okay." He perked up a bit. "Mommy? Can I have a cookie for lunch?"
She gave him a smile. "I put a couple of Oreos in there."
"Thank you." He grinned, turning his attention back to his breakfast.
Jack stepped up behind Elizabeth, running a hand across her back. "Can I have some Oreos in my lunch, too?" he joked.
"Only if you promise to be a good boy today."
"I'm always a good boy." He gave her a wink before dropping a kiss on her cheek. "I love you."
...
"Do you want one of us to walk you to your classroom?"
Harrison glanced over at the school, then back at his parents. He nodded. "Yes, please."
"One of us will have to stay out here with Simba, so do you want me to walk with you, or mommy?"
Elizabeth reached for Simba's leash. "Why don't you have daddy walk with you, so you can show him your classroom?"
"You won't be sad?"
She laughed softly. "No, my sweet boy." She touched his shoulder. "You have a wonderful day. Remember to be nice and listen to your teachers. I'll see you when I get home from work tonight." She leaned down to kiss the top of his head. "I love you, Harrison."
"Love you, mommy."
"Let's go, bud." Jack held out his hand.
Harrison took Jack's hand, leading his dad into the school. "It's this way." He pointed down one of the hallways. "Come on, daddy!"
Jack let Harrison pull him down the hall and into a classroom. "Okay, show me where you sit, and then it's time to say bye."
Harrison showed him his locker, then excitedly found his desk, showing him where James would be sitting, too.
Jack crouched down, pulling him into a hug. "I'm so proud of you, Harrison. I hope you have the very best first day of kindergarten."
"I will, daddy."
"I love you, Harrison David. You show this school what a great kid you are."
Harrison squeezed him. "I love you, daddy."
"I'll pick you up as soon as school is over."
"Okay. Bye, daddy."
Before he left, Jack stood in the doorway for a few moments, watching Harrison take a seat while the teacher greeted him. A lump formed in his throat when he realized how quickly his little boy was growing up.
He wiped his eyes and hurried away before Harrison caught him.
"Jack." Elizabeth approached him, concerned when she noticed his red-rimmed eyes. "Are you okay?"
He nodded. "I'm fine. I just…he's getting more and more like Olive as he gets older, and then I remember everything that she's missed. Don't get me wrong," he put his hand on her arm, slowly moving his thumb back and forth, "I'm so glad to have you here for all of these milestones now, but—"
"I understand," she assured him. "I can't imagine you not being there for all the big moments in our daughter's life. I'm sure that's how you felt when Olive was pregnant; you couldn't imagine going through all of these big moments without her."
He slid his hand behind her back. "I just thought that it would get easier with time. It's been more than five years. I've moved on. It shouldn't hurt like this anymore."
"Jack, it's okay if it still hurts."
Taking a deep breath, he nodded, wiping his eyes again. "Let's get home. We both need to get ready for work."
She touched his cheek. "Are you okay?"
"I will be." He took Simba's leash from her, then reached over to take her hand as they started back toward their house.
They were quiet for a few minutes, pausing every once in a while when Simba stopped to sniff something in the grass.
"I was just thinking," Jack squeezed her hand, "it won't be long before we're pushing a stroller with us when we walk Harrison to school."
She put her free hand on her belly. "Just about four months to go."
"I can't wait to meet her."
She glanced over at him. "We still need to decide on her name."
"I was actually thinking about that. Why don't we narrow it down to a few names that we both really like, and then ask Harrison which one he likes best? I know he's coming around to the idea of having a sister instead of a brother, but maybe that will really seal the deal for him."
"Okay." She moved closer to him as they walked. "We won't be able to keep the name a secret then, you know."
"True." He chuckled. "Are you okay with that?"
"Yes. I learned a long time ago that anything we tell Harrison won't be staying secret for very long."
...
Jack approached the school, Simba pulling on his leash.
"Fancy seeing you here," Lee said, arms crossed in front of him.
"Hey, man. Is Rosemary home with Michael?"
He nodded. "She wants to wait a while before bringing him out in public, because of what happened when he was born."
"Not a bad idea. I already know I'm going to be paranoid about taking baby girl out of the house."
Lee chuckled. "But you're a pediatrician. You know what to do if she gets sick."
"But also, I'm a pediatrician, so I know what sicknesses are out there. Especially during wintertime when she's due."
"Touché. So," he straightened up, "do we think the boys got in trouble for talking to each other too much today?"
"I hope not. They're both pretty good about following the rules. Plus, I warned Harrison that if they talked too much when they weren't supposed to, the teacher might move them to different seats. He wasn't a fan of that idea."
"Rosie and I had a similar talk with James when we saw Harrison's name on the next desk. Gosh," he shook his head, "I can't believe our boys are in kindergarten already."
"Tell me about it. I got way more emotional than I expected to when we dropped Harrison off this morning."
"And to think, we'll go through this all over again in five or six years with Michael and your daughter."
"Nope." Jack shook his head and laughed. "Don't want to think about that."
"Fine." Lee joined in his laughter. "Changing the subject. Have you and Elizabeth come up with a name for baby girl yet?"
"Not quite. We have a list going, but we're struggling to pick just one. I think we're going to ask Harrison for his input."
"Oh good, so your baby is going to be named after a dinosaur or a Lion King character," he joked.
"Ah yes. I can't wait to introduce everyone to my daughter, Pumbaa Velociraptor." Jack nudged him.
A chorus of "daddy" erupted nearby, and they looked over to see Harrison and James running toward them.
"You brought Simba!" Harrison hugged the dog, giggling when he started licking his face.
"How was your day, boys?"
"Good! We played on the swings together," James explained.
"And we got to sit together at lunch time!" Harrison added.
"Wow, it sounds like it was a great day." Lee put his hand on James's shoulder. "But now, we all should get home. Say 'bye' boys."
Harrison hugged his friend. "Bye."
Jack took his son's hand as they turned toward home. "So you had a good day?"
"Uh huh." He nodded emphatically. "We went to the gym today, but tomorrow we go to art."
"Oh, that'll be fun."
"When will mommy be home?"
"In a couple of hours. Then you can tell her all about how great your day was."
...
"Daddy, we're home!" Harrison ran into the house. "I got Legos!"
"Legos? I don't think those were on the shopping list."
He giggled, clutching the Lego box to his chest. "Mommy said I was a good helper."
"Oh, well then that's okay, I guess." He ruffled his son's hair. "So you helped pick some things for your sister?"
"Yeah. Can I go play with my Legos now?"
"Sure, bud. I'm going to help mommy unload the car."
"Okay, daddy."
Leaving Harrison in the living room, Jack headed outside. "Did you get her entire wardrobe for the first three years of her life?" he asked when he saw the number of bags in the car.
"Ha ha. These aren't all baby things." She handed him a few bags. "I mostly just got a few sets of plain onesies and sleepers, and then the clothes that Harrison picked out."
"It's crazy to think that not that long ago, he wanted nothing to do with his sister."
"I know. Come on, let's get these inside, and I can show you what we got."
A few minutes later, they unloaded the bags of baby clothes in what would become the nursery.
"Dinosaurs?" Jack held up the pack of little blue sleepers that were covered in tiny dinosaurs.
She shrugged. "Girls can wear dinosaur clothes. Besides, I told Harrison to pick whatever he wanted, so are you really surprised he chose dinosaurs? He did pick a few things from the baby girl section, too. But also, look what I found and snuck in the cart without him seeing." She pulled two Lion King sweatshirts from another bag, one infant-sized and one big enough for their little boy.
Jack chuckled when he held one up. "Oh, he'll love that."
"And he can match his sister." She held up the smaller one, showing him that it also had a picture of Simba, Timon, and Pumbaa. "I thought we could give Harrison his for Christmas."
"We'll need to get a picture of them in these, maybe sitting by Simba."
She laughed. "Perfect."
"Gosh," he smiled as he looked through more of the baby clothes, "I see babies at work all the time, but it's still wild how tiny they are when they're first born."
"It's wild that baby girl still has a lot of growing to do just to be a tiny newborn." She folded up a sleeper covered in strawberries. "Hey, do you think now is a good time to talk to Harrison about names?"
"Sure. The sooner we can start calling baby girl by an actual name, the better," he teased, taking her hand and leading her into the living room. He took a seat on the floor by Harrison, who was busy building with his new Legos. "Harrison, mommy and I need your help with something."
He looked up at his dad. "What is it?"
"Well, we can't decide what to name your sister." Elizabeth sat down on the sofa, cradling her stomach. "We thought that maybe you'd like to help us decide."
"We have four names for you to pick from. Do you think you can help?"
"Uh huh." He nodded. "I can."
"Okay. The names are Selah, Rowen, Nora, or Leia."
"Leia from Star Wars?"
"Exactly." Jack grinned, obviously thrilled that Harrison got the reference.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "I'm still not fully on board with that one, by the way."
"Is there one of those names you like more than the others?"
Harrison shrugged. "I don't know which one I like."
"You can think about it and decide later. Remember she won't be born until after Christmas."
"Okay." He held up his Legos. "Look, daddy. It's a shark."
"Very cool, bud. Hey, Harrison?"
"Yeah?" He returned to putting together the Legos.
"I love you."
"Love you, daddy."