A Bambina or Bambino of Our Own

Sick 1

The girls were almost one when the family had their first full family big illness. Sure, the girls felt bad after getting shots, and Nora had had an ear infection a few months back, and they all had had colds since the girls started daycare, but the first time all four of them got really sick, it was unpleasant to say the least.

It had started with Rowan not wanting to eat dinner.

"Come on Ro Ro," Maya said, handing Rowan an avocado slice, "You love avocado."

Rowan just set it down on her tray, yawning.

"Are you sleepy Patatina?" Maya asked, frowning.

It was only about 5 pm, still almost two hours until the girls normally went down. Rowan just whined in her high chair, reaching for Maya.

"Let me just finish making our dinner," Maya said.

Normally, she and Carina ate with the girls, just feeding them a little of whatever they were having, but tonight, Carina worked until 6, meaning she wouldn't be home until bed time so Maya had decided to make lasagna for them as a treat.

Rowan started crying from her high chair as Maya finished up with dinner, throwing it in the fridge before going over to her clearly upset daughter.

"Alright, Ro," Maya said, taking off her bib and picking her up, "It's ok."

Rowan just laid her head on Maya's shoulder, sniffling a little.

"What's wrong, huh?" Maya asked, rubbing her back as she went into the kitchen to clean up.

Nora yelled, smacking her spoon on her high chair tray happily.

"At least someone's happy tonight," Maya smiled as Nora picked up a green bean, popping it into her mouth and smiling with all four of her little teeth showing.

Maya tried to set Rowan down next to her toys, but the baby just cried, reaching desperately for Maya.

"What is going on tonight Ro Ro?" Maya asked, picking her back up.

She went into the entryway, grabbing a baby carrier off the hook, throwing it on. She needed to get the kitchen cleaned, but clearly Rowan also needed her.

She cleaned her mess up as quickly as she could before getting Nora cleaned up too and setting her down to go play. Nora quickly crawled over to her toys, grabbing out a little plastic phone that played songs, dancing a little.

Maya looked down at Rowan, shocked to see that the baby was sound asleep on her chest. Rowan was normally the harder of the two to get down so to have her fall asleep an hour and a half before bed time was not at all normal.

Maya put her hand on Rowan's forehead, unable to tell if she was warm. She grabbed their thermometer out of the cabinet, running it over her forehead. 99.2. Not really even a fever.

Maya sighed, knowing that if she let Rowan sleep, she might pay for it at 3 am when the baby woke up, but something seemed off so she decided to just leave her for now.

She went and sat on the couch, taking Rowan out of the carrier and just holding her. Nora crawled over after a few minutes, pulling herself to stand and cruising around the couch until she got to Maya.

"Mamamama," the baby said, hitting the couch.

"Hi Nora Mae," Maya said, smiling as Nora continued to babble.

Carina got home about thirty minutes later. As soon as Nora heard the door open, she crawled over, smiling at Carina.

"Hi Piccola," Carina said, washing her hands before picking the little girl up, "Where is your sister?"