All familiar characters belong to Janet. The mistakes are mine alone.
"Gunny/Mo! Olive!" Julie shouted, when she realized that our entire family was picking her up here at her school, which Rachel and Ron were nice enough to sign off on.
"I see where we fall on the priority-list," Steph said to me, though it was really said for Julie's benefit.
"I'd be worried that I hurt your feelings," Julie said, quickly getting within hugging range, "but you and Dad know how much I love you guys."
"We do," my wife said. "Now give us a each a squeeze before I let the baby and your Dad lets the hounds loose and you get simultaneously covered in drool."
That caused my daughter to pause.
"Don't worry," I told Julie, "Steph travels with a bag full of drool-removers ... bibs, tissues, antiseptic wipes ..."
My wife shifted Olive to her other hip so she could push me into silence. "Your Dad thinks he's being funny ... he isn't."
"I was being truthful, not funny, Babe."
With a sigh of defeat, Steph rooted around in the diaper/dog bag slung over her shoulder. Her eyes screamed victory as her hand reemerged clutching a clean 'Happy Day!' bib.
"Here, Olive, give this to your sister ... she's going to need it," Steph told our baby, once she got Olivia somewhat upright again. "How about we hold off on gymnastics for a few more years. I swear you have as much core strength as your Dad does."
Our daughter had doubled over almost in half over Steph's arm in an effort to get to Julie and the dogs that haven't stopped saying hello to her big sister, supplying heads and bellies for scratching purposes.
By that time, we had moved to a quieter section of the picturesque greens shading the student pick-up lot so no one would get snagged by the two leashes even though I kept them close to my family.
"Jeez, Olive," Julie said to her sister once Olivia was in her arms, "you are a squirmy mess of muscle, aren't you?"
"She is," Steph quickly agreed. "I had to bump up the weights I lift just so I can be strong enough to keep hers in check. Now ... how did you luck out and land a school that has grass and palm trees? In Trenton, all I got to look at was graffiti and decades-old spit balls."
"Like you have to ask? Dad insisted on me attending the best and the safest school in our area, and I insisted I had to measure up to the other students going here so I'd know I deserve to be here."
"You deserve the best. And you proved yourself without even having to study harder than you already were," I told her.
"And that means every one of your parents are proud of you, Jules. Me especially, since my biggest achievement when it comes to school is that I showed up. So be prepared for me using your accomplishments to help guide Olive."
Julie sat down on a small grassy hill with Olivia on her lap, not caring at all about getting her jeans dirty. She just wanted to be in the middle of all the sister and dog love.
"I guess Mo and Gunny remember me," Julie said to us.
"Of course they do," my wife told her. "You were one of Team 4 who helped rescue them and give them a home that they're happily spoiled rotten in. I feel like we have four kids sometimes even when one is living way down here."
"She's joking," I said to Julie. "Mostly."
"I am kidding. I wouldn't change anything about my life. And just when I thought it couldn't get better, your Dad takes Olive, I, and the face-lickers, here to see you. I hope you don't have plans. We're thinking of hijacking you for the day ... maybe the night too if your parents allow it."
"If Julie would like to," I said to them, "she's already been given permission to spend the night with us. But if you do, your parents would like you to have dinner with them so they can hear about your day before releasing you into our custody again."
She laughed as I had intended her to. "See, Steph ... Dad is pretty funny when he wants to be."
Being a smartass, Steph immediately covered my ears. "Don't tell him that, Julie! That'll only encourage the Ranger-humor."
Being synced to Steph and her moods, Olivia laughed to the point of hiccups at the expressions flying between her big sister and her Mama.
"Stop, Olive," Julie told her. "You're going to choke if you keep that up."
"Don't worry, your sister laughs harder than this whenever she eats. Apparently chewing is a killer on the funny bone."
"Or your reactions to her eating are," I pointed out.
"You may be onto something there. You are easily amused though ... aren't you, Olive?" Steph leaned forward and kissed the very tip of her nose.
Julie almost lost an eye due to Olivia's exurberant response. "Jeez, Olive-pie. I bet we could sign you up for Karate tomorrow and not need it to be a baby class."
"There is more than a little truth in that statement," I told my oldest daughter. "There's definite power behind Olivia's kicks and jabs. Speaking of power, you get to decide what we're doing for our weekend here."
Gunner and Ammo each claimed one of Julie's legs to use as a pillow for their chins. And with Olive sitting on her lap, her head tipped back to try to get her big sister's attention, they made a triangle of adoration directed solely up at Julie.
Without even consciously plotting it, Steph and I managed to create a family like the one I was lucky to have been born into. Steph didn't have what I did, but she knew what she wanted with me and for Julie and Olive ... and made it happen.
Our daughter took some time to scratch both canine heads with the hand not holding onto her sister, while dodging the ponytail Steph had wrangled Olive's equally wild hair into, containing it with a daisy holder that has a working bell center which I found is a less technologically-advanced version of a baby-tracker.
Not having much say in Julie's early years, discussions about baby clothes is relatively new to me, even more so with the morning coffee conversations Steph has with Ella that results in what Steph has coined as 'Olive-fied' Rangeman uniforms. Today's choice was a black-edged white dress, black leggings, with Olivia being identified as 'RangeCutie' where a uniform tag would normally be.
Julie seemed as amused as Steph and Ella had been as she hugged her baby sister tight, trying absorb as much as Olive as she could while she has her. After careful deliberation, she had reached a decision regarding how we're spending our family time.
"Would you guys mind if we just hung out like we do when I visit you in Trenton?"
"We're doing anything you want," Steph told her, still standing by my side but now curling both arms around my midsection. "And lucky us, we have a building full of Uncles here in Miami to closely reenact what our life's like back at home."
