♡︎ Frankie ♡︎
"Careful down the stairs baby, I know you're excited but you have to slow down. Ava isn't gonna leave us, okay?" I caution.
"Otay mommy I be caweful" she slowed down a lot relieving my stress.
We make it outside and Billie spots Ava's in her red range rover. She rolls down the passenger window immediately gushing over Bil.
"Hi munchkin!!" She squeals.
I open the door for Billie and she climbs in, "hi Aba! Biwie missed 'ou."
"You are so precious, angel" I coo making the small girl blush bright red.
I strap her in and hop in the passenger seat, "hey Ava, how have you been?" We lean over the console to hug each other.
"I've been good, better now that I get to see you too" she beams.
"Oh god" I chuckle, rolling my eyes playfully.
"Did you girls eat something?" She asks as I take Bil's back off my back and buckle myself in.
"We had sandwiches but this monster will definitely be hungry in the next fifteen minutes or so" I reach back tickling Billie.
"I hungwy now mommy" she giggles.
"Mommy, huh?" Ava questions with a smirk on her face.
"A lot has changed since the first time you watched her" I smile.
"I can see that" she teases, "so what would you like to eat, honey bunch?"
"'Rito!" Billie stims, clapping her hands happily.
"Aw baby, did you slip more? How old are you now, bug?" I praise reaching for her bag.
Bil holds up two fingers, "okay, here you go baby" I hand her her pacifier and Stitch plushie.
"So where to? What's a 'rito' ?" Ava giggles.
"Burrito, she is obsessed with Taco Bell."
"Then Taco Bell it is" Ava pulls off.
****
After we ate Billie went right to sleep, we just pulled to go the zoo now and I'm so excited to see her reaction. Ava parks the car and grabs her purse and Billie's bag, I get out and open the back door.
Carefully I unbuckle her seat belt and pull the sleeping girl out of the car. She lets out a sigh, resting her head on my shoulder. I support her legs, my hands resting under her thighs.
"Billie" I hum rubbing her back soothingly to wake her without scaring her.
She whines around her pacifier, "darling wake up, look where we are."
Billie whimpers some more, lifting her head up using her hands to rub the sleep from her eyes.
"Look, munchkin! We're at the zoo!" Ava cheers.
Billie gasps when she realizes, " 'oo!! Wook' mommy!"
"I see baby!" I cheer matching her excitement taking the paci out of her mouth and clipping it to her shirt,"ready to go see the animals?"
She nods frantically, squirming around trying to get me to put her down. I put her down and grab her hand so she doesn't wander off. Billie holds her other hand out towards Ava. Which she accepts giving Billie a warm smile.
We all walk in together, Ava shows the lady at the gate our tickets on her phone and they let us in.
"Where to first, munchkin?" Ava asks.
Billie's face lights up as she looks around, she points to the sign with a picture of a monkey on it.
"To the monkeys we go!" I smile.
Billie lets go of my hand running down the path towards the monkeys. There is a man dressed up in safari clothes.
"Hey cutie, wanna let the monkeys?" He asks Billie with a bright smile on his face.
She looks back at me with pleading eyes, "pease'?"
"Of course" Ava chimes in.
I can't help the worry the washes over me, I hope she doesn't get scared. There are baby ones outside of the big cage but the bigger monkeys are really close by.
We follow the man inside the wooden fence light structure, it's locks automatically behind us. There is two other families inside, their children plying with the baby monkeys.
"You three can just sit right here and I'll get one of the monkeys to come- oh well I guess that was easy" he chuckles when one of the monkeys lands on his shoulder.
He kneels down in front of Billie, her face drops slightly as the monkey leans forward rubbing its little nose on her cheek. Bil cowers away.
"Don't be scared honey, it's a baby like you" I empathize trying to put her at ease.
"May I?" Ava asks the man reaching for the monkey.
"Of course!" He beams.
The monkey climbs on Ava's lap, "look Billie."
Billie hesitantly moves closer, the money reaches up playing with the little hairs dangling in her face making her giggle. Ava gives me a comforting look as I sigh in relief, so happy she didn't freak out badly.
After the monkeys we see peacocks, pigs, bald eagles, zebras and now we're heading to the reptile exhibit which is making me extra nervous. Both for Billie and myself.
When she realized where we are headed I feel Billie tug on my shirt. I look down at her and she makes grabby hands wanting to be picked up. I quickly scoop her up, resting her on my hip and she snuggles her head into the crook of my neck.
A woman greets us as we go further into the exhibit, "Hi! I'm Casedy. I'll be your guide through the exhibit" She smiles at us but her eyes linger on me a little longer than I like.
Ava snickers, nudging my arm playfully, "shut up" I scowl at her.
"First up are the Bearded Dragons" Casedy says.
"Look, darling" I move closer to the glass.
But Billie does not seem interested in this part of the zoo.
"Are you afraid of them, cutie? They won't hurt you" Casedy coos. I roll my eyes and Billie pays her no mind.
We get closer to the snakes and I feel Billie stiffen up. Casedy talks to us about the yellow and white Boa Constructor behind the glass. It slithers closer to the glass and Billie screams. Tears fall from her scared blue eyes, breaking my heart.
"Let's get her out of here" I tell Ava.
"But you haven't seen the rest of the exhibit" Casedy's brows furrow.
"Are you stupid? Or just plain dumb?" I snap back.
Casedy's jaw drops, she tries to say something else but I ignore her.
"I'm so sorry the snakes scared you, darling" I coo trying to calm Billie down as we walk away from that ding-bat.
Billie continues to cry but slowly stops as we make it out of there. "Aww, munchkin I'm sorry. It was my idea to go in the there" Ava frowns.
Billie hiccups, babbling gibberish.
"Has she ever slipped this far before?" Ava asks.
"N-no never, maybe we should call it a day. I'm not sure how she is when she's this young in headspace." Ava nods in agreement.
