She could feel him watching her from the moment she opened her eyes and she smiled against him, wondering how long he'd been up. She snuggled slightly closer and glanced over at the clock, seeing that it was far from time to get out of bed. His arms tightened around her, one hand splayed against the small of her back while the other twisted her hair around his finger. She wanted to say something, just so she could hear his voice in response, but she also didn't want to break the silence. Sighing softly, she closed her eyes again, concentrating on the sound of them breathing together and the feel of his skin against hers. He was warmth and strength and he felt like home. He smelled so good, the perfect combination of sleep and body wash and a little something else that was just him. She traced her fingers over his stomach, not teasing or exploring, just sleepily touching while his lips came down on the top of her head. She readjusted and leaned up a little, their lips meeting halfway and both of them sighing as if they had been waiting years for this. Tongues dueled for a brief moment before she broke the kiss and settled back against his chest, content with just that for now.

"How long have you been awake?"

"'Bout fifteen minutes."

"How long you been starin' at me?"

"'Bout fourteen and a half minutes."

She smiled against him while he reached over and took her hand, bringing it to his lips and kissing each of her fingers. She sighed and stretched up to press a line of kisses along his jaw.

"What were you thinkin' about?"

"You."

"Don't you ever get tired of that?"

"No. Besides, last night gave me a lot to think about," he said with a wink.

She blushed and chuckled, running her lips across his collarbone.

"I love the way you look when you sleep," he said, playing with her hand, sliding his fingers in and out of hers. "You're all peaceful and young and you always have this little smile on your face."

"I do?"

He nodded.

"I love the way that you sometimes roll over away from me, but you always roll back after a minute. I love how you hum for a few seconds right before you wake up. I love that even after you've gotten out of bed in the morning, you always come back for just a second to kiss me. I love how your hair is always kind of messy when you wake up and how your eyes are all clear and bright."

"Adam…"

"Wait, I was thinkin' for fourteen and a half minutes, I got more."

She giggled and shook her head a little.

"I love that when one of my jokes falls flat at work or something I always think "Lindsay would have got it." I love how cute your toes are. I love that you're always excited to tell me things just because I'm your best friend and you can't stand me not knowing everything. I love how you dance, in the kitchen when you're cooking or when you're trying to get the boys to sleep or sometimes when you're just happy and you just look so free and innocent. I love that when I come to bed after you, you mumble things at me and I have no idea what you're telling me and you don't seem to mind that I don't answer. I love that after you shower you walk around in just your bra and jeans and bare feet. I love how you know where everything in this house is, no matter how obscure the item is. I love how you whine about feeling all bloated and gross but you still believe me when I tell you you're beautiful. I love how we can speak in inside jokes and no one else knows what we're talking about. I love that you have your struggles but you're honest and you handle them with such grace and humility and you're not afraid to admit them anymore. I love how you're excited to see me when I get home. I love how sometimes you only blink one eye when you're tired. I love the way you say my name and I love the sound of your voice and the sound of your laugh. I love that you are the most wonderful woman in the world and you chose me and you let me know that you didn't pick someone beneath you and you think I'm just as amazing as I think you are."

"Well," she said softly after a moment. "You're going to give me a big ego if you keep waking up fifteen minutes early."

He chuckled and kissed her forehead.

"I'll compile a list for you as soon as I stop swooning," she said, her voice wavering just a little. He leaned down and kissed her and she melted against him, squeezing his hand and wondering how it was possible to fall so deeply in love every single day. It wasn't just how he made her feel either, so much of it was the man he was, how he was always trying to be better, to grow and stretch himself and never just settle for comfort if it wasn't best for them. She was as proud of him as she was in love with him.

"Mama!" Colton called, knocking on the door. "I can come in?"

"Uh, just a second," she said, leaning over the side of the bed and grabbing the pajamas that had been discarded the night before and sliding into them while tossing Adam's boxers to him.

"What's this for?"

"Saturday. You have to make breakfast and we're not newlyweds anymore so you can't cook naked."

"Hey, once we're empty nesters can I do that again?"

"We'll talk."

He chuckled as she got out of bed and opened the door for Colton, who hugged her legs before she picked him up.

"Can we eat now? I want breakfast."

"You'll have to ask daddy."

"Daddy, I'm starvin' like Marvin. Pancakes?"

"We'll have to see if we've got everything for pancakes, but I think that's okay."

"Mama you sure gots a big smile this mornin'."

"Do I not usually have big smile?"

"I don't know," he shrugged, grinning and hugging her neck. "You go get Ben?"

"Yeah, he's probably awake now huh?"

Colton nodded and they detoured into the bedroom before joining Adam in the kitchen. Ben was just waking up, his eyes glassy and his face screwed up in confusion as he stood in the crib and held onto the side, waiting to be rescued, for he was too tired to climb out on his own.

"Mama," he said, reaching a grubby hand out for her. She leaned down and picked him up, adjusting him on her other hip and vaguely recalling when she was younger and would see a woman carrying two children and thinking she could never do that.

"Mama hold us at the both time!" Colton giggled. Ben laughed and leaned against her shoulder as she made her way out to the kitchen. Adam was already hard at work on breakfast, but turned around when they entered, smiling and crossing the room to wrap all three of them in a hug. They stood there together for a moment before Colton wiggled down to check on the pancakes.

"Daddy, it's burnin'."

"I always burn the first one."

"Why?"

"Because it's my test pancake. Let's me know if the griddle is too hot."

"Like a 'speriment? Like at work?"

"Yeah, kind of."

"Oh. What we gonna do today?"

"You'd better ask mama that. I don't want to be the bearer of bad news."

"Bad news bears? Mama?"

She looked up from the paper and grinned at his expression, one of trepidation as he considered the possibilities of what they were going to do today.

"I just thought maybe you would like to go to the park today."

"Yay, the park, the park! When? Now?"

"Later this afternoon. First we have to clean this place up."

"Aw, mama, I don't wanna clean up!" he said, his head tipping to the side and a nice whine hanging onto his words. "It not fun."

"We'll make it fun."

"Scrubbin' ain't fun," he sighed, climbing up into his chair and stealing the comics from her. "Garfield not cleanin' today."

"That's because Garfield is a lazy bum."

"I wanna be a bum today. Like a jammie day, can we have a jammie day?"

"No, we've really got to get stuff cleaned up around here honey. I promise, it won't take all day and all you have to do is clean up your toys, okay? Then you can watch a movie while you wait for me and daddy to be done. Deal?"

"Okay, we make a deal on that. But I not puttin' Ben's toys away. They gots slobber on them."

Lindsay chuckled and looked down at Ben who was chewing on the financial section.

"You're going to have an inky mouth, baby," she muttered, taking the paper from him. He grimaced, then slapped his hands down on the table, hollering and kicking his legs in such a display of attention getting they were almost startled. He was always such a quiet kid that to see him like this was really weird.

"Mama, Ben need some drums."

"I'll get right on that."

"Babe, how did we accumulate so much stuff?" Adam asked, shutting the DVD cabinet as Lindsay climbed onto the couch and pulled a throw pillow under her head.

"Because we're both materialistic jerks."

"We have three copies of The Goonies."

"How is this a problem?"

"I don't know, I was just commenting."

She grinned and yawned, stretching as her muscles protested the sudden lack of movement. They'd been working for hours, cleaned the place from top to bottom, found four boxes of clothes and toys for donation and had thrown out two whole bags of junk. The boys had been napping for a few hours and would be up soon but Lindsay wanted to get a few minutes of rest before they woke.

"Hey," Adam whispered, crawling over to the couch and resting his face just a few inches from hers.

"Hey what?"

"You're pretty."

She smiled and ran her fingers through his hair.

"What's gotten into you today?"

"Hey, if this isn't normal then something's wrong."

She chuckled and maneuvered so she could kiss him. She grabbed onto his shirt and tugged a little so he would know she wanted him up on the couch with her. He obliged with a smile, settling himself over her and brushing her hair back from her face. She slid her hands under his shirt, loving how fast simple words could carry them away. He had just started to play with the buttons on her shirt when the phone rang.

"Ignore it," she grumped as his lips moved away from her throat.

"It's for you."

"How do you know?"

"It's Austin," he said, showing her the caller ID on the back of the phone. "Plus she always keeps calling back when we ignore it just to bug us."

"Guess you're right," she sighed, taking the phone. "H'llo?"

"Hey Linds. What's up?"

"You're interrupting a really good make-out session," she reported, causing Adam to wrinkle his nose and blush.

"You guys are gross."

"Yeah. How are you going to make this up to me?"

"I can't even think of an answer for that one."

"Rendered you speechless. I can now die happy."

"Please don't."

"So what's up? This had better be good."

"How would you feel about a dog?"

"What about a dog?"

"Having one."

"I'm sorry what are you talking about?"

"We're at the animal shelter," Austin started. "And Isa saw this dog and she's begging me to take it home and give it to you because you're all so sad about Fluffy and apparently another pooping animal will ease the pain."

"I see."

"So I told her I would ask you."

"Well… what kind of dog is it?"

"It's a mutt. The guy here says it's a chihuahua pug mix. He's 8 months old and he's fixed and he was owned by a little old lady so he's house trained. And I know you don't like chihuahua's but this one is super cute, I swear. And he's sitting here all sad and alone and we can't have another dog and Isa is just going to cry and cry if we have to leave him here."

"Just a second," Lindsay chuckled, wanting to say yes but knowing she had to ask Adam first.

"What are you two planning?" Adam mumbled, still resting against her.

"Do we want a dog?"

"I don't know, do we?"

"It's little and house trained."

"Yeah, okay."

"Really?"

"No reason to say no."

She grinned and kissed the top of his head before uncovering the phone.

"Okay, bring it on over."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"You guys are awesome."

"We try."

"We'll be over in about an hour."

"Okay, we'll put newspaper down."

"Very funny."

"We'll see you in a little while."

She hung up the phone and turned back to Adam, smiling at how comfortable he seemed.

"You wanna pick up where we left off or have you lost interest?"

"Colt!" Isa hollered as she came through the door, the puppy in her arms but in danger of falling to the floor. "We brunged a puppy!"

"What?" Colton shouted back, coming out of his bedroom. "What puppy?"

"This one! We brunged it for you to have," she said proudly, shoving the dog at him. He looked at it for a second, then up at Lindsay who smiled.

"Mama, what this mean?"

"Isa brought you a puppy to have," she clarified, crouching down and patting the dog gently. "Do you want to hold it?"

"I don't know."

"I show you Colt. Jus' like a baby, 'cept like this," Isa said, moving his arms so he was holding the dog just right. "There, see? Hims happy."

Colton looked down at the dog and the dog looked at him and Lindsay suddenly worried that he would know this was a replacement for Fluffy and would hate it.

"Mama, we could name him Waligi?"

"Luigi you mean?"

"Yeah, Waligi."

"We'll see."

He nodded and stood there for a second.

"Now what?"

"Why don't you kids take him into the kitchen and play with him for a little while?"

"Okay. Come on, Isa. You teach me doggy games like with Elbis."

"Okay. Sarah, you come helpin' please."

Sarah smiled at being included and they all went into the kitchen.

"It's a boy right?" Lindsay asked, checking out the pink collar and leash and bowl that Austin had brought.

"Isa insisted on pink. Have you ever tried to say no to that face when she's really serious?"

"Usually I tell her to go ask you."

"Thanks Linds."

They smiled together and watched the kids play for a moment, all of them squealing in delight as the dog jumped on them.

"So where's Adam? Is he indifferent to a dog, or prepping Chewbacca for having a canine in the house?"

"No, he's in the other room. Ben's not feeling very good."

"Him coughin'," Colton offered. "And snottin'."

"Sounds lovely."

"Adam says it's genetics and I should be ashamed that I passed summer colds onto my children."

"Yes, but he passed along an addiction to Mt. Dew and I think that's far more damaging."

"Thanks for always being on my side."

"No problem. We should go. Gotta pick Danny up from work and then we're meeting his parents and my mom for dinner."

"Late birthday?"

"I guess something like that."

"Well have fun."

"We'll see. Come on girls. Time to go."

"Oh, but I could stay for longer?" Isa asked, pressing her hands together and making her eyes big as Sarah obediently headed for the door.

"No, we have to go."

Isa's shoulders fell and she sighed, looking over at Colton.

"I gotta go now. She bein' mean and sayin' no."

"Isabeth…"

"Bye Colt."

"Bye Isa. I love you, okay?"

"Okay."

Austin rolled her eyes at Lindsay and herded the kids out the door.

"Now what we do mama?"

"Well maybe we should play with him."

"What do doggies do?"

"They can do lots of things. Why don't we give him something to eat and drink and then maybe we'll take him for a walk."

"Okay," he agreed, watching the dog carefully, still not sure what to make of it. If it had been a big dog like Elvis, or Tim's dog Skywalker, he would have been totally in his element. But a dog the size of a cat? He was having a hard time figuring that one out.

He watched as Lindsay set the food dish on the opposite side of the kitchen from the cat food, then filled it from the small bag of kibble Sarah had brought inside.

"I could pet him?"

"No, not when he's eating. Just leave him alone for a little while and then you can play with him again."

"What are we callin' him?"

"I don't know. Let's ask daddy, he's got good names."

"He does?"

"He picked your name and Ben's name."

"I think daddy would pick Waligi."

"Well he might pick Luigi but I doubt he'd pick Waligi."

"I don't know what you sayin' mama."

"Oh well."

He shook his head and stood up, dusting his hands off on his pants.

"Hurry up and eat, dog so we can go outside."

The dog looked up at him, then went back to his food and Colton stood there monitoring the whole situation until the dog was done.

"Okay mama, now let's go outside."

"Go tell daddy where we're going."

He skipped off into the other room while she put the collar and leash on the small dog, taking a minute to really look at him and see if he hand an obvious injuries or signs of disease. He seemed to be just fine and she scratched his ears, then moved out of the way so he couldn't lick her face.

"I telled daddy, let's go now," Colton said, reaching down to Velcro his shoe.

He kept his hand in hers as they made their way downstairs, then skipped along the sidewalk to the park. She watched him with a smile staying close to him while he played on the slide but making sure the dog did his business too. She briefly wondered how she was going to juggle a preschooler, an infant, and a new dog, but she figured she'd done worse. It was all a part of this family life, the life she had wanted for so long, the life she and Adam worked every day to make as perfect as they could. No turning back now.