'Up up up! Whee!'

Alexis lifted Petra above her head, making cooing noises and grinning wide. Petra loved this game, it made her smile even wider. 'Oh, you're such a pretty girl,' she told her daughter, 'you sure are!'

'Are we doing our exercises before dinner?' Shane came into the living room, grinding his teeth a little that Perlmutter had stuck him with yet another night-shift. He was so glad he'd put in his application for the day-shift deputy position.

'We sure are, because someone decided naptime was over early today,' Alexis replied, blowing a raspberry on Petra's cheek which made her squeal in delight so she did it again. 'Yes they did.'

'What do you ladies have planned tonight?'

'Lanie, Adam and Zane are coming over, we have to do some planning for Adam's new partner.'

'Oh yeah, so the rumours are true? Watkins is pregnant?'

'Yep, she sure is,' Alexis smiled at Petra, who'd taken to sucking all four of her fingers, so she sat up and turned to see Shane taking out containers of leftover Chinese. 'Lindsay told me the whole thing when we went grocery shopping yesterday. Apparently, Evie and her wife-'

'Evie?'

'Evie, it's what Lindsay calls her,' she laughed, putting Petra on her play-mat for tummy time, 'Evie and her wife Brie have decided they want to start a family and because Evie is older, she wants to carry the first baby.'

'Makes sense,' Shane agreed, 'but she's not old.'

'It's a girl thing,' was all Alexis said, and Shane shrugged it off as he turned on the pot to steam-warm the noodles; his bride had become twitchy about using the microwave ever since learning she was pregnant. 'So Adam is coming over to help put together something for her birthday that is all about her because Evie is scared that her friends and family are going to forget about her birthday in the wake of the baby announcement.'

'How...' Shane trailed off, not really wanting to think about how a woman in a same-sex relationship would get pregnant.

'How did she get pregnant?'

'You know me so well.'

'Well it's a logical question. Lindsay said that she and Brie agreed on a donor, a friend of Brie's from her bistro who went through a bad divorce because he wants kids and she didn't.'

Shane shook his head, snagged an egg roll from the box. 'How does it always wind up being that restaurants are so full of soap opera drama?'

'Because chefs are passionate creative people, and they work long hours so it tends to be a love-the-one-you're-with type of environment.'

'So, bottom line is that this is a long-time friend of Brie's and he's agreed to provide the daddy half of the genes for their children? That's one way to go.'

'Adoption is still harder for same-sex couples than those who raise their own children. You've seen what Body and Faisal have been going through the last three years,' Alexis pointed out. 'And this way, there is the bonding of a family unit in a much more...'

She went quiet so suddenly that Shane turned around, saw her sitting stock-still. 'Lex?'

'Oh my god!'

'What is it?'

'Petra rolled over all on her own!' Alexis flapped her fingers at Shane in excitement. 'Grab the camera! Or the laptop, to show your parents!'

'On it!' Shane raced to their bedroom to get the camera, saw Alexis put Petra on her back once more. He watched with bated breath as Petra wriggled around, then with what seemed to be a sudden moment of clarity she twisted herself around to her belly, her little head bobbing around. 'Oh wow, Petra! Look at you go sweetheart! She's doing that awfully quick and...what's she doing?'

Alexis watched her daughter, saw her scrunching up her legs and putting her little butt in the air. Curious she gave her bottom a squeezing test, then snickered. 'It would appear she needs a diaper change.'

'I got this one,' Shane offered. 'Let me bond with my baby before dumping all the night-time duties on you.'

'Consider this.' Alexis picked up Petra, got to her feet to pass the baby to her papa. 'If you go to work tonight, you have something to talk to your daughter about. Then when you get home, we can have pancakes or waffles, maybe some omelettes.'

'Ooh, that sounds good now,' Shane commented, then took Petra out of Alexis' arms. 'Maybe a little ice cream and whipped cream to go with it?'

'No it- oh. I think I know where your mind is going now,' she teased him.

'Yeah you do.'

'And now you have a reason to work extra hard so you get your treat when you're finished.' Alexis planted a sultry kiss on his lips before she went to the kitchen to finish dealing with the Chinese food.

Shane waited until he'd gone into the nursery before murmuring to Petra, 'If you could, sweetie pie, maybe sleep in a little tomorrow so that Mumum and I can have a little alone time.'

'Blb!'

'What kind of alone time? The kind that made you, but you're not getting a sibling already, sweetie,' Shane told her. 'That's in another year or two, when you're a little bigger.'

'Blb!'

'A little brother? Well if you want one of those, talk to Auntie Jojo and ask her how much fun it is. Better, ask Tessi. She''s got two of them.' Shane finished the task at hand, picked out a fresh onsie for his precious gem. 'What do you thin, sweetheart? Muppets or music notes?'

'Blb!'

'Muppets it is.' Shane was fond of that set of jammies - all the little Muppet Babies characters were curled up and sleeping on clouds with the words we make our dreams come true on her sleeve. 'Now, you be good for Mumum and in the morning you and I will have some fun just us okay?'

'Blb!'

'You got it my little gem.'