Home Is Where the Heart Is (Brittana)

Chapter 21

Santana's POV

On my birthday, I woke up to breakfast in bed, which I guess had become a bit of a birthday tradition for us.

We chilled at home and video called our families, since I'd asked to not go anywhere on my birthday. The best part of the day was spending time with Everly. Her babbling had recently turned into her first word: Mama.

"Mama," Everly squealed, grinning widely. "Mamamamamama... Mami." (Her second word.)

I gasped, leaning down to pick her up. "That's right, I'm Mami." I couldn't stop smiling.

"Did you learn a new word for Mami's birthday?" Brittany asked, kissing Everly's forehead, unable to contain her smile.

"Mami!" she exclaimed again, seeing how happy her new word made us.

Of course Everly was going to eventually start calling me "Mami" since that was what Brittany called me in front of her, but it was still easily one of the happiest moments of my life, despite how simple it was.

---

"Santana!" I heard Brittany call when I opened the apartment door after getting home from work.

"Where are you?" I called back, taking off my work shoes and hanging my purse from the hook on the wall.

"The nursery!"

I hurried to the nursery.

"What is it?" I asked, then immediately saw Everly standing in the middle of the nursery, not holding onto anything.

"She took a step," Brittany said.

"Wow! That's so exciting, Everly!" I exclaimed, kneeling on the ground. "Can you come to Mami?"

She looked at me, keeping her balance, and taking a step before falling onto her diaper-padded butt.

"Great job, sweetheart!" I grinned widely as I picked her up into my lap.

"You missed her first step," Brittany said with a pout.

Looking up from the baby to smile at her, I replied, "I got to see her second step, though. I can't be here for everything, and I got to come home to this, so it's alright."

---

"Hey, B," I whispered just before midnight the night before our daughter's first birthday.

"Hey," she replied, instantly.

"I can't sleep. Can you believe that our daughter is almost a year old?"

"It's crazy," Brittany said, leaning in closer to me. "Is it bad that I'm a little sad about it?"

"I don't think so. I mean, I am too. I think we can be a little sad about our daughter growing up and happy about it too."

"It feels like she was born yesterday, and now she's walking and talking and... it's just a lot."

"Yeah, it is."

"Can we take a picture of her at the exact minute she was born?" Brittany asked.

"Of course."

So, when the sun just started to rise, we sneaked into our daughter's bedroom where she was sleeping in her crib to take a picture of her.

"We should probably start getting ready for the party," Brittany said after we left her nursery, "since we're awake anyway."

We started by tidying up the floors and cleaning the bathroom before eating some breakfast. When our daughter started mumbling to herself (which we heard over the baby monitor), Brittany went upstairs to breastfeed her and get her dressed. She wouldn't wear her party outfit yet, since we didn't want it to get dirty.