Neither could stay home with their daughter until she was old enough for school, both had taken eight months off to be with her for the first year and a bit and both were itching to get back to work. So Gail and Holly talked and agreed that they'd rather put their daughter into a daycare/preschool, than get a nanny of some sort. Yes there were benefits to a nanny, like more flexible hours and stuff. But they liked the idea of Callie getting the social time with kids of all ages, they liked that it'd get them all on school time schedule and they liked that it was also a preschool so she'd be constantly learning.
They did the research, well Holly narrowed it down to three, and they scoped them out together. Checked out the building and met the caretakers, asked questions about the curriculum and how a typical day went. Callie was almost a year and a half so her day would be different from one of the preschoolers so there were more specific questions about that too. And they ended up picking the one Traci and Steve had put Ella into the year prior.
"Why does she need all these things? She's not even a toddler yet, it's not like she's attending school." Gail asked for the umpteenth time since walking into the store.
"Gail, she is going to a preschool. They won't be treating her as a student but they will be teaching her stuff. These things are needed, even at her age." Holly replied, again, while going over the list.
Gail started grumbling under her breath, earning her an adoring smile from her wife. To which she stuck her tongue out when Callie wasn't looking, Gail had already gotten a stern talking to about using that gesture in front of the girl.
"What's first on the list, Lunchbox?" Holly walked ahead of the cart, enough to guid the distracted blonde, "first is a backpack."
Gail wasn't listening anymore, she was watching Callie's beautiful green eyes light up as she looked over the new page of her book. It was the girls favourite book, one she'd studied, one Gail could could describe in full detail. But her eyes still glanced over the pages in total awe and it reminded Gail of Holly. How the brunette would read over her favourite books time and time again, how her eyes lit up with each new medical journal.
"Gail" Holly drug out the name to try and get her attention. Looking up she smiled at the crooked grin and loving eyes.
"Yeah?"
"This one?" Holly held up a Little Einstein backpack, aka Callie's favourite show. "This one?" She changed hands, the other one being Belle aka Callie's favourite Princess. "Or this one?" She held up a green bag with a giant lady bug on it. Gail had to smile at that one, it was perfect for the girl.
"Should we really be choosing her bag? I mean Bug is the one who has to wear it everyday."
"Alright then." Holly walked around the cart and stood behinds Gail to face their daughter. She snuck a kiss just under the blonde hair line and smirked when she felt Gail shiver under her body. Then Holly laid out the three options for Callie to decide.
"Ladybug" Gail called to get the girls eyes to peal away from her book. Once they had Callie's attention Gail asked the question. "Which backpack?"
Callie glance between the three choices and looked up to her mothers' faces, back down to the bags and smiled that lopsided grin. Then she pointed to the ladybug and shouted "Dah".
"Looks like we have a winner." Gail declared and grabbed the other two out of Holly's grasp, tossing them into the mess that was the bag aisle.
"Yes we do." Holly hummed into Gail's ear.
She picked up on the double meaning and nodded proudly at their daughter. "She is pretty awesome." Gail agreed.
After a beat longer of staring at the rosie cheeked baby Holly tapped on the back of Gail's leg, indicating for her to put her feet onto the bar. Once Gail obliged she raced them to the next needed item, smiling uncontrollably at her families gleeful laughter, not a care in the world about the -many- stares they got.
Next on the list was indoor and outdoor shoes. Which meant only indoor, because Callie had many shoes she wore outside and Gail wasn't buying a specific pair for daycare.
Holly picked up the green eyed and held her on her hip as they browsed the aisle of little shoes. It was one thing she'd never get over, how tiny the shoes were, it always tightened her chest with an explosion of cute.
So Gail reminded Holly -again- that she had to ask permission before shoe shopping for the baby.
It took seven test try's for Callie to start fussing. It started with wiggling, then kicking and not walking when put down to do the real testing and before anyone knew it she was done. Callie was done with the fuss, done with the restraints, done with their attempts at entertainment and absolutely done with shopping.
It took ten minutes of trying to calm the girl, trying to distract or soothe. But nothing was working and neither Gail nor Holly could really complain, they weren't thinking about what time it was they decided to go shopping, but boy did Callie. It was lunch time and the rosie cheeked baby was certainly a Peck when it came to food. So Holly volunteered to take Callie out to the car to feed her and see if she could possibly swing a nap in too, while Gail picked up the last few things on the list.
Next was crayons, and Holly needed new pens and highlighters. And lastly was a lunchbox, Gail had chuckled at the brunettes capitalization of the word and smiled fondly at the paper before realizing how crazy she looked.
Whizzing through the store, one foot on the bar holding her up, the other pushing the weight of of cart. Holly always prevented her from doing that while they were out together, something about it not being fair for her to have to chase Gail the entire time, and how 'it keeps the spark alive' isn't an acceptable answer. So Gail relished in the odd time she was out alone.
She spent all of two minutes on the lunchbox hunt. It was down to a batman one and a dinosaur one, until she spotted one from the corner of her eye. There sat a little blue box, handle on the top the same strap Holly's had, and on the front read 'Little Lunchbox' in an adorable print.
Gail was just around the corner of the kitchen, Callie snuggled into her neck as she did every time she woke, when she heard Holly practically shout 'oh my god' in her I can't believe it voice. Gail sped up to see what the commotion at such an hour was about.
Rounding the corner she found a gaping mouthed Holly, blue lunchbox in hand. Gail instantly beamed, equaling the brunettes excitement and nodded to prove it was real.
Holly looked between the box and her wife. "How in the world did you find this?"
"I'm amazing Hols, what can I say" Gail stated smugly and brushed by her wife to pull down her 'DAD' mug to make her morning coffee.
"We have to get Will one too, you know that right?" Holly asked, seemingly calming from her high.
"Hols, I said I'm amazing, I of course got one for Will. And maybe a few others.." She practically whispered the last part behind her mug, took a sip and walked away before Holly could react.