Page 24 of The Bear, the Eagle, and their Wombat Omega (Omegas of Animals: SD #14)
Steve
I loved planning events. I absolutely adored it. Making people’s special day even more special, helping charities earn the money they needed, taking the burden off bosses trying to do something nice for their staff. I adored all of it.
But there was nothing more special than creating one for my family.
Today was Katie, Jesse, and Henry’s first birthday.
People said don’t blink because childhood is so short .
I’d never really understood why they’d say that.
Time was time. But now that I had a family of my own and former newborns who were now toddling around the backyard two seconds later, I got it.
I felt like yesterday they were teeny tiny babies in arms. And now they were saying first words, exploring everywhere, and really growing into their own personalities.
I wanted to do something special this milestone. Small, but special. Just us. There was a very brief moment when I thought maybe we should have a big party. That was my job, after all. But we’d discussed it, and it wasn’t what any of us wanted.
We’d seen outlandish first birthday parties over the years.
Heck, I’d helped throw some…but why? For some, it was a family reunion of sorts.
That I understood, but for most it was done out of a sense that it was the right thing to do, that good parents throw parties.
But the children would never remember anything about that day.
They would see pictures in the future, but that was about it.
And that’s why we opted for a nice family day at home.
The kids had special shirts to wear at dinner, there was a cake, and of course they each received a present.
But that was the extent of it. Today was more about spending time together and not about overwhelming the kids with over-the-top activities and tons of people.
The kids were huge fans of seeing their papa bear in his fur. As they toddled around the backyard with him, Arkyn and I took over the food. He did the grilling, and I got everything else on the table and cut the kids’ food into bite-sized pieces.
They were very much in an “I do” stage where they didn’t want to be fed anymore.
They wanted to be the ones grabbing it. A lot of children their age were eating pureed foods, but I’d long given up on that.
It was too big a mess to watch them try to feed themselves with a spoon every single meal.
Instead, bite-sized pieces of what we were eating became the norm, and they loved it.
“It’s about time to eat,” I called to Bruno.
My bear shifted back, and, between the two of us, we got our little ones changed and into their high chairs, ready to eat. They loved eating outside as much as we did.
They each wore a T-shirt that said First Birthday .
Jesse’s had a bear on it, Katie’s an eagle, and Henry’s a wombat.
I’d had them embroidered just for them by one of the vendors I’d been using at my new event-planning business, which was mostly birthday parties and baby showers and family type celebrations like that.
I was loving it.
“What a nice day.” I sat down between Henry and Katie. We placed children between adults that way. It made things so much easier.
The breeze was flowing, keeping the bugs at bay, and the temperature was not so hot that you wanted to get back in the air-conditioning, but warm enough that it felt comfortable just to be without a coat or a sweater.
Katie decided that all of her watermelon needed to be fed to Arkyn, who graciously ate each and every gross little niblet.
Henry, on the other hand, wanted no part of sharing.
It was all his. And Jesse kept having to be reminded to eat, his eyes going to the sky, watching the hummingbird that kept circling us.
“I have a surprise for you,” I singsonged as I collected the dirty dishes. My mates knew there was a cake. They didn’t, however, know about the second surprise.
I wasn’t one for smash cakes. They were fun and fine if you wanted them, but I did not want to clean up three of those. But a communal cake, where they each got a little piece? That, I was down for.
Table cleared, I set the two cakes in the middle. One had three candles, and the other was my surprise for my mates.
“Why is there a stork on their birthday cake?” Arkyn looked at me.
“Why do you think?”
Bruno’s gaze fell to my middle. “You mean?”
“Yep. I found out yesterday—we’re gonna be dads again.”
They were both as excited as I was. And as we sang “Happy Birthday” to our three little ones, all of our eyes were filled with tears.
It was such a happy moment…so happy that, that when the kids ate their cake with most of it ending up in their hair or in the crevices of the chair, we all thought it was cute instead of thinking about what it would mean when we had to clean it up.
We got them all bathed and gave them each a present, a stuffie handmade just for them, representing each of their beasts. Then they went down for their nap, leaving my mates and me a little time.
We snuggled together on the couch, talking about our wonderful children, the changes to come, and how grateful we were that Fate brought us together.
This wasn’t the life my father had planned for me.
It wasn’t the life I had planned for me.
This life I was living with my mates and my children was a bazillion times better.