Jace Dillon comes in carrying the diaper bag as his wife, Trish De La Rosa, is breastfeeding Gabriela, or "Gaby" as they call her, their 3-month-old infant daughter. Jace grins at her somewhat seductively.
"Have I ever told you that you look sexy as hell while you breastfeed our daughter?"
he asks her.
She snickers ironically.
"Many times, but it never gets old. Should we have sex tonight?"
Jace says,
"Absolutely. There's no one else I'd rather have sex with than my beautiful wife."
Trish lightly rubs Gaby on the back, causing the baby to coo and spit up a little.
"Mami loves you, muñeca. You spit up a lot, but you're my princesa and I love you."
She wipes Gaby's lips with the bib, causing the baby to hiccup a little. Trish throws the bib in the laundry basket in her and Jace's bedroom. She finds Jace putting the diaper bag in the trunk of the blue Toyota highlander, and Gaby coos a little bit, causing Jace to say in a high-pitched voice,
"Hi. Hi, Gaby."
The baby smiles and coos and Jace says to her,
"You're so cute. Daddy loves you."
Jace buckles her into her car seat and she proceeds to make spit bubbles and coos. Trish turns to Jace and smiles somewhat nervously.
"What do you have planned?"
he asks her.
Trish says,
"Um, nothing,"
Her voice gradually gets higher and her nervous smile doesn't leave her face. Jace says to her,
"Trish, I know when you're trying to hide something. You have that look on your face and your voice gets higher. Tell me what it is."
"OK fine, asshole. You called me on my bullshit. I wanna get Gaby's ears pierced at the mall."
Jace looks at her as if she is an alien emanating from another planet.
"You want to do WHAT to her?"
"I wanna get her ears pierced."
"Trish, why the hell do you want to punch holes in our child's ears? That's gonna traumatize her and she's gonna hate us for it."
She says,
"What? I was 2 months when my parents got my ears pierced and I turned out just fine. Also, she's Mexican like her mama. Mexican baby girls get their ears pierced."
He sighs.
"OK, fine. But if she gets an infection, you're going to be the one paying for her treatment."
"Fair enough. But she's due for her TDAP shots in a few months, so that helps too."
Gaby just makes spit bubbles and coos and gurgles in the backseat. After arriving at Mall of Miami, Trish takes out the stroller and the diaper bag from the backseat and then puts the car seat on the stroller, then grabs her Gucci bag. Gaby yawns and falls asleep, with her pacifier in her mouth and her baby blanket at her side. Trish whispers to Jace,
"Look at our little girl, sleeping in her stroller."
Jace says,
"Yeah, she looks peaceful and blissfully ignorant about her mommy wanting to pierce her ears."
Trish playfully slaps him on the shoulder.
"Shut up,"
she snickers and whispers. Jace pipes in.
"Babe, I'm a little hungry. Can we get food before punching a hole in our baby's ears?"
Trish says,
"Sure. I'm down. Where were you thinking?"
"How about BJ's?"
"Sure. Remember when I was pregnant with Gaby and I had an intense craving for the Pizookie?"
"How could I forget? It was also the place you surprised me when you revealed to me you were pregnant with our little girl."
"Now she's 3 months old and she's growing up so fast."
The two are seated and Trish says,
"Jace, go easy on the booze."
"I know, Mom. I drove here and I plan on driving back."
"That's why I told you to go easy on the alcohol. Also, because I love me some wine or tequila, and I can't drink right now because I breastfeed."
"True."
Gaby starts to stir and cry and Trish stands up from her seat, unbuckles the baby out of the car seat, and gently bounces her, checking her diaper, which is surprisingly dry and empty. Trish hands the fussy infant over to Jace, Gaby's crying and fussing subsides and says,
"Jace, why don't you feed Gaby? I have a bottle of pumped breast milk in the diaper bag."
Jace says,
"Sure, I'll feed her."
She hands him Gaby's bottle and bib and Jace says to her,
"You hungry, baby girl? Daddy's going to feed you."
He picks up the bottle, inserts the nipple into Gaby's mouth and Gaby's eyes trail around the restaurant, then she looks at Jace's finger, tapping vigorously on the bottle, and she looks up into Jace's eyes while he feeds her. He says,
"Yeah, there's a lot to see around here, huh, Gaby?"
After Gaby eats, Jace wipes her lips with the napkin and wraps his fingers around her ribs and she tries to suckle from Jace's nipples (covered in a Jackass t-shirt).
Trish just bursts out laughing so hard that tears stream down her face. Jace says to Gaby,
"Sorry, Gaby, but Daddy doesn't have breastmilk in there. Mommy breastfeeds you because Mommy has breastfeeding powers."
After the two are finished eating their food and paying the check, they put Gaby back in the stroller and she looks up at them and they pull up in front of Claire's and Jace looks at Gaby and says,
"Mommy and Daddy love you more than anything despite what we're about to put you through."
The baby just looks around and Jace unbuckles Gaby from her car seat and he lifts her out, holding her on his shoulder, and the two enter the store, filling out the consent form. Jace turns to Trish and asks,
"Who wants to hold her down while she gets pierced?"
Trish says,
"I guess I'll do it."
A lady by name of Alicia with light brown wavy hair with blonde dip-dyed ends tied in a side ponytail smiles and says,
"Hola, I'm Alicia. Who's this adorable little cherub here?"
Jace says,
"This is Gaby."
Alicia smiles while looking at Gaby and Gaby makes spit bubbles and says,
"Aww, look at how adorable you are. Linda bebé."
Jace says to her,
"I couldn't help but notice you had an accent. Where are you from?"
Alicia smiles.
"I'm from Colombia."
She turns to Jace and Trish and asks,
"Por favor, can I have the consent form?"
Jace says,
"Yeah. Here you go, ma'am."
"Thank you. Muchas Gracias."
She shows them a sheet with pictures of stud earrings and the two choose a pair of tiny diamond stud earrings. Trish has one hand on Gaby's head and the other on her belly and waist and watches as the lady marks the area, cleans it, cleans the equipment, and gets the piercing cleaning equipment, and picks up two piercing guns and Trish feels her heart racing and Alicia says,
"Uno, dos, tres!"
She pierces the infant's ears, and predictably, the baby starts to scream and cry. Trish feels tears burn in her eyes and then she starts to laugh a little bit in order to suppress herself from crying. She also gently bounces her a little bit and whispers,
"Shhh, shhh, shhh."
Trish feels her heart start to break a little and she laughs a little. Jace asks,
"Trish, are you laughing?"
Trish wipes a tear from her eye.
"Just to keep from crying. I feel bad for her."
"And whose idea was it to pierce our baby's ears?"
Trish smiles ruefully.
"It was mine."
She wipes her eyes and takes three deep breaths. She watches as Gaby starts to gradually calm down. Alicia steps in and says,
"Here is some cleaning equipment. What you do is clean her ears three or four times a day, every day to prevent infection, and you twist them when you clean them. Leave them in for at least six or seven weeks."
Jace says,
"I'm still kind of learning the whole daughters and girl thing, because I grew up with all brothers, if she gets an infection, should we just take her right to the doctor?"
"Sí. If there is any redness, oozing, or pus, then she has an infection and needs to see a doctor. The manual in the kit tells you everything you need to know. Also, you can go ahead and clean the area."
"OK."
She watches as Jace applies the cleaning solution to a cotton swab and gently twists the earrings and cleans the baby's ears and says,
"There you go, Gaby. So you don't get an infection."
Trish looks at Gaby and says,
"You're probably so pissed off at us right now."
Alicia says,
"But you look so pretty. You're a pretty baby."
Jace says,
"Thank you, ma'am."
Trish takes the pacifier from the car seat, puts the pacifier in the infant's mouth, holds her on her shoulder and she says,
"How about Mommy and Daddy get you a toy? We owe it to you because of the torture and pain we put you through."
The baby just looks at her. Trish says,
"OK,"
while walking with the baby on her shoulder, Jace follows close behind his wife and daughter while pushing the stroller. The baby grabs for a Beanie boo Sloth and a white and gold unicorn and her parents go to the counter and pay for the toys. Trish puts her back in her car seat and Jace asks her,
"Do you forgive us?"
The baby smiles and makes bubbles at her parents. Jace says,
"I knew you would."
Later on that evening, Trish is giving Gaby a bath in the kitchen sink and dries her off, cleans her ears, puts her pajamas on her, and sits beside Jace while she proceeds to breastfeed her.
"She's so beautiful,"
Jace says.
"Yeah, she is. I love her. I love family time with all three of us snuggling up together."