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The Anniversary Evolution
Year Four
They were on the oatmeal container that Valentine's morning, every bit of its label covered in yellow Post-It notes.
"I love you more than the rabbit loved the moon."
"I love you more than Mark loved Earth."
"I love you more than Gatsby loved Daisy."
"I love you more than Hector loved Clara."
"I love you more than Charles Wallace loved Meg."
"I love you a thousand times more than those people in The Notebook."
The last one made her chuckle. It also made her heart ache with love, that Sheldon knew her so well. But time was ticking by, and they were already behind schedule because she had stayed too long in bed, leaving most of Ada's morning dressing to Sheldon. Even her rushed shower hadn't made up enough time. Amy gently removed the notes before setting them aside to make breakfast. At the stove, her back to the great room, she heard them coming first.
"Dadadadadadada," went Ada's morning song.
Amy turned to say good morning and then raised her eyebrows. Instead of her upright normal carriage, Ada was tucked sideways under Sheldon's arm, her shoes in his other hand. Not that she seemed to mind.
"Sheldon?"
"I going to put her socks and shoes on in here. The high chair will contain her. Do you have any idea how hard it is too dress her lately?"
"Not a clue. Because I'm not her mother or anything."
If Sheldon got the sarcasm, he ignored it as he strapped Ada into the chair. "She won't stand still. She wants to walk along the edges of the room, touching everything, holding on to everything. Today she almost walked right out into the hallway!"
"Well, genius, shut the door."
Sheldon glanced over at her, just before he bent down to put on Ada's socks. "I don't understand why she just won't let go. She can obviously walk. She's just afraid to let go, even though she's using only holding on by a fingertip. Why is she so afraid of change? She doesn't need to be afraid. Everything will be fine if she'd just be brave and let go. It will be even better."
"Maybe she gets it from you . . . " Amy murmured, not unkindly.
This time Sheldon looked at her for a second before a smile spread across his face. "Wellllll, maybe. But now I'm an expert at adapting to change."
Amy smiled back before turning to stir the oatmeal and put it in bowls. "Will you get the blueberries out?" The two bigger bowels went on the island before Amy sat the small one in front of Ada. She shifted her chair so that she could feed Ada between her own bites.
"Mama," Ada said
"Yes, good morning, sweetheart. Did you sleep well?" Amy asked, leaning down to kiss her head.
"Mama eat?"
Amy started. "Ada, what did you say? Can you say it again?"
Her daughter looked at her and then pointed down to her bowl. "Mama eat."
"Sheldon! Did you hear that? I'm positive Ada just expressed her first prevalent relationship using speech. That's almost six months ahead of the average shift in semantic development, even for females!"
Sheldon stood up straight, from where he was doing something with the blueberries at the island. "Why today of all days?" he moaned.
"What? I thought you'd be thrilled. You're always so worried about whether or not her cognitive development is ahead of schedule."
"I am thrilled. I'm thrilled for you that it happened to you. But," he tipped her bowl forward so she could see an almost completed heart made out of blueberries, "how can I compete with that?"
Returning from their anniversary dinner out, Ada was sound asleep by the time they parked the car, and, in the deep sleep known only by small children, she barely stirred as Sheldon unhooked her carseat and carried her to the elevator and up to their home.
"Do you think we should wake her for a bath?" he whispered when they shut the door behind them.
"No, let her sleep. She's probably exhausted. Bernadette said she chased Jacob around the house all evening," Amy replied, slipping Ada's jacket off her arms. "Besides, Bernadette put her sleeper on her already, anyway."
"Two children running after each other for hours? I'm sorry I missed it. And isn't it funny how she went immediately into running?" Sheldon asked.
"Well, she'd really been walking while barely holding on to something for a couple of weeks. As for the children running, you'll get to experience in Saturday evening. We're babysitting Jacob."
"What? Why?"
"Hush. I told you, we traded with the Wolowitz's so they chould go to Howard's cousin's wedding. It will be fine. Jacob can build Duplos with you, and Ada can't yet, and you like that," Amy warned, hanging up her jacket and Ada's.
"You're right," Sheldon sighed deeply. "I know it's my turn, but do you mind putting her to bed? I'll do it tomorrow."
Amy raised her eyebrows as this schedule deviation, but she nodded and took her sleeping daughter from Sheldon.
"My, what a big girl you're getting to be!" she murmured into the top of Ada's head as she took her down the hallway to her room. She decided that since Ada was already asleep, there was no reason to read a book, which was a bittersweet realization. But, tonight of all nights, she was pleased to have more time with Sheldon.
By the time she returned to the great room, Sheldon was sitting in his spot, a present sitting on the coffee table in front of him. He had removed his jacket and loosened his tie, and, with his dress shirt sleeves rolled up, he was at his most attractive. Maybe we should just skip the gifts and go to bed . . .
She smiled at him and walked across the room to their partners desk, reaching into the knee hole on her side to remove a moderately large, flat gift.
"Who should go first?" she asked as she sat down next to him.
"Is your gift to me involved?" he asked in reply. "It's very big."
"Involved? I'm not sure what you mean by that, so I don't know," she said, furrowing her brow.
"I mean, is it put together already? Or will it take time after I open it?"
"That's a very strange question. Yes, it's put together already. Why?"
"Well . . . I suspect my gift may involve some time. So I was going to propose that you open it last, so there is time for you to . . . enjoy it, hopefully." He shrugged.
She smirked. "Is it another bowtie?"
"No." Sheldon gave her an embarrassed look.
"More's the pity," Amy whispered. "Okay, I agree to your terms. Happy anniversary!"
He took the gift from her hands, and she waited eagerly for him to open it. He lifted it out of the box. "Oh. It's a canvas. I presume it's meant to be hung on a wall as artwork."
"Yes, it's artwork. I gave Stuart the picture, and he painted it for us. I'm sorry, you don't like it, art is not your thing." Amy's heart sank, watching Sheldon just stare at the painting. Sheldon loved Halloween so much, and he had put so much effort into their costumes this year, eagerly adopting the concept of a family costume even though he had always seemed to barely tolerate her ideas for a couples costume. "We don't have to hang it. I just thought it would be fun in the hallway or somewhere just for us to enjoy."
"I love it," he whispered. He looked up at her, finally, and she could see in his eyes that he really did love it. "I love the background, the way he painted the bridge of the Enterprise behind us."
Amy smiled at him, and they looked down at the painting together: Sheldon dressed as Spock, she was dressed as Nurse Chapel, and Ada was dressed as a not-to-scale Tribble.
Gently, Sheldon sat the painting aside. He cleared his throat. "It seems great minds think alike. Somewhat."
He handed her a smaller but equally flat package. Even before it was fully open, she said, "It's a book." Taking the last of the paper off, she looked down at the cover. It was pure white, and all it said on the front was Year Four.
"Year Four?" She looked up at Sheldon in confusion.
"It's our fourth anniversary," he said, stating the obvious. "Open it, you'll understand."
Carefully turning the first page, Amy was met with a single photograph in the middle of a shiny white page. "Oh," it was her turn to say it. She didn't know which was more touching, the photograph itself or that Sheldon had it printed, given that he didn't want it taken.
"Did I make a mistake starting there? Oh, I knew I'd make the wrong decision! I debated for so long about what date I should pick as the starting point. It's just that so much has happened to us in February, but it seemed that if this was for our anniversary, then February twentieth was the logical starting point and -"
"Oh, Sheldon, I love it!" She threw herself at him, catching the surprised look on his face just before she sank her face into the crook of his neck. "It's perfect."
His palm rubbed her back. "You haven't even looked at the rest of it yet." A pause. "Here," he said, pulling away from her and relaxing back into his spot, "let's look at it together."
Amy nodded and turned to lean back into the crook of his arm. She looked down at the first page again. She loved that photo. Mary Cooper had insisted on taking it despite Sheldon's protests, and Amy had always been grateful to her. It was the morning of their anniversary a year prior, both of them sitting on the sofa, Sheldon holding Ada who really just looked like a blanket wrapped package, Amy leaning against him, holding the supermarket bouquet of sunflowers. They were smiling, even Sheldon.
"Our first family photo," she sighed. She corrected herself. "The first only you'll allow to be shown, that is."
She flipped the pages, commenting on them all, one photo on every page. "I think that was the same night, when you fell asleep rocking her." "Look how small she is here." There were a lot of photos that first month, mostly taken by Amy's mother-in-law. Not only because she was the least sleep challenged, but because Sheldon had long ago learned not to fight her too much. Sheldon with Ada sleeping in her carrier against his chest while he worked at his white board, Amy holding her and reading to her, and a photo of both of them looking tense. Sheldon had a wet baby clutched to his chest and Amy was in front of him with a towel.
Amy laughed. "Her first bath after her belly button fell off. Remember how many ways we tried to get that towel around her? You were so afraid to loosen your grip on her!"
"She was so small and slippery! I was terrified of dropping her!" Sheldon protested.
"Yes, it was scary, wasn't it? My heart was pounding." Amy leaned in a little closer. "Aww, but look at the tiny baby bottom!"
Sheldon squeezed her shoulder as she turned another page. There a photo without Ada, just Sheldon and Amy looking at each other and smiling.
"Where did this one come from?" she asked.
"It was the first time we had everyone over after she was born. Remember, Raj was taking all those pictures of Ada and everyone holding her? He took this one of us," Sheldon explained. He lowered his voice. "I sent out an email, asking anyone who had pictures of us to donate them."
"But Ada's not in it."
"Oh." Sheldon shifted slightly and she turned her head so she could look him. "Is that a mistake? I thought this book should be about us, that one of us should be in every picture. I thought we could make another one about Ada together. There are lots of pictures of just her." He sighed. "I'm sorry. I'm not good at sentimental. I guess I thought that since it's for our anniversary it should be a celebration of our love for each other. We'll make a new one with all the pictures and get rid of this one."
"No!" Amy dropped her end of the book and put her hand on Sheldon's chest. "You're right. I love it. I love that you let your picture be taken so much this year. I love that you asked our fiends for pictures. I love that you made this for me. It's perfect."
"Really? You're not just saying that?" Sheldon asked.
Amy gently shut the book and leaned in closer to him. "When have I ever said something untrue to you to make you feel better? Never. I'm always painfully blunt, and you love it."
He leaned over and kissed her softly. "Maybe."
Amy sank into his warm, soft lips. And then she encouraged him to kiss her deeper.
But Sheldon pulled away. "We need to look at the rest of the book."
"How about we put it by the bed and look at it during intermission?"
"Intermission?" Sheldon raised his eyebrows.
"Yes." Amy stood, holding the book in one hand, while she put her other out for Sheldon. He took it and followed.
Before intermission, he brushed her skin and whispered, "You are more beautiful than the universe naked."
At intermission, they reminisced and giggled and got a little teary eyed over the book and even dozed a bit.
After intermission, she brushed his skin and whispered, "You are handsome and lanky and brilliant."
AN: Thank you in advance for your reviews!