Learning to Love

Chapter 17

I could see Abbie and Josh outside the car, they seemed to be talking, Josh nodded his head and went towards the front of the car, Abbie opened the door opposite me and then slid into the seat next to me. Abbie turned to look at me as she was pulling something over her stomach, "Hold on Josh don't move the car yet, Cali sweetie what's the matter? Did we forget something in the hospital for you?" I shook my head no and clutched teddy really close and tried to get myself out of this car seat. Abbie grabbed my hand, "No Cali you can't undo yourself, those are there to keep you safe, see I'm wearing a seatbelt too, to keep me safe in the car." I looked over at her lap and saw the seatbelt, if she could wear that I could probably too, it seemed better than whatever I had on. Josh turned around to look at us.

I pointed to myself then her, then the empty seat next to her, Josh shook his head "No Cali you can't sit in that seat it's not safe for your little body." I started tearing up, why couldn't I sit in that seat I didn't like all the straps on me. I saw Abbies face soften a little and she reached over towards me, I immediately tensed up, I figured I'd get hit for being difficult I just didn't like this whole car thing though and just wanted to walk. "Oh, Sweetie it's okay, we aren't going that far right now, we just need to get to the hotel, okay? Can you be super brave for me for a little bit?" I looked up at her and she smiled at me, I nodded my head, I could be brave for a little bit, I guess. I saw Josh turn back around, "Okay let's get to the hotel."

I was startled a bit when the car started moving but quickly relaxed when I could see outside the window. It was pretty nice looking out the window and I could see all the people walking and other cars on the road moving. We seemed to make a few turns then pulled into another car lot, as Josh pulled into a space Abbie turned and spoke to me, "See Cali we are already there, wasn't so bad, was it?" I shook my head, it wasn't too bad, but I would still prefer to walk wherever we needed to go next time.

Josh turned off the car and Abbie was quick to unbuckle herself and get out, I started trying to undo my own seatbelts and I couldn't unbuckle it, I started having a little fit, Abbie opened my door, "Cali calm down I'm getting you out right now, I promise." As soon as Abbie was done freeing me from that monster, she plucked me out of the seat and settled me on her hip quickly giving me a kiss on the forehead. "There you are all free, it's okay now sweet girl. Let's go get you settled in the hotel room."

Josh shut the trunk of the car with a loud bang, and I jumped again, giving him what I thought was a mean look, "I'm sorry Cali, did I frighten you? I just had to get all your pretty stuff out of the car." Abbie held me a little tighter and gave me another kiss right on the top of my head. "I'm sure Josh is sorry Cali. Come-on let's get up to the room and get you settled in, maybe tomorrow we can explore the area a little bit, but I think for the rest of today we should just have a little nap and keep it low key." Josh nodded his head at Abbie, "Yeah I agree, let's go get her settled for the day." Abbie and Josh both turned towards the building.

Once we walked into the building I was in awe, all I could do was stare at everything around me, this was the nicest building I'd ever been in. Abbie walked fairly quickly over to another elevator, at least this time I was prepared for the enclosed feeling, Once Josh came in behind us, he turned and hit the 4 button. Josh smiled at me, and I shyly smiled back and turned my face back into Abbie's chest. I felt Abbie's chest moving and heard her laugh. "Are we feeling shy Cali?" I didn't move from my spot until I heard a ding and felt Abbie start moving again, looking up we seemed to have ended up in a hallway with a lot of doors with weird looking things as doorknobs, Abbie and Josh walked all the way to the end of the hallway. Josh put a card into the weird doorknob and the light turned green. Josh pushed open the door then stepped aside so Abbie could go first, "Welcome to your temporary home Cali."

There were two big beds in the room, a table and a chair, a long stand looking thing, A really big T.V. (I think that's the biggest T.V. I've ever seen) and there was a crib off in the corner of the room. Abbie walked into the room and walked across to the window, "Look Cali, down there you can see the pool the hotel has, we can take you swimming hopefully before we go home, and if you look that way you can see the town isn't that awesome?" I nodded my head and moved teddy so he could see all the fun stuff out the window as well. I let out a yawn "that's a big yawn for a little girl, come-on let's get you changed and get a little nap in, I think leaving the hospital took a lot out of all of us." I shook my head no; I didn't need a change and I didn't want to take a nap I wanted to go look at the pool.

"Oh yes, I think someone's a little tired. Josh, can you grab me a diaper and some wipes please? Then could you get some warm milk for her? I'm hoping we can get her to sleep for a little bit." Josh nodded and started looking through the bags to find the stuff Abbie asked for. I started wiggling trying to get out of Abbies hands, I didn't want her to change me, and I didn't want to take a nap. "Cali, calm down, look here's your whiteboard can you write what you're feeling for me?" Josh handed me my whiteboard and the marker, I took the whiteboard but then couldn't grab the marker because teddy was in my other hand, Abbie set me down on the corner of one of the beds and grabbed the marker from Josh.

"Here you go Cali, Teddy can sit right next to you so you can write for us." Abbie lowered herself so she was right in front of me, and kept a hold of my sides, I put teddy in my lap, I didn't want him to go next to me I needed him super close right now, I wrote down that I didn't want to wear a diaper and I wanted to go to the pool and look at it closer. I turned the board to Abbie, and she read it, then looked up at me, I lowered my eyes, so I wasn't staring at her. "Cali, can you look at me please?" I slowly raised my eyes, finally settling them on her nose but I couldn't look her in the eyes. "I need you to at least wear a pull-up for nap time can you do that?" I nodded my head yes; I could wear a pull-up they felt just like underwear to me anyways. "And I promise we can go check out the pool later, we can't get in today, but we can go look around down there, how's that sound?" I nodded that seemed okay; I did just want to go look at the cool stuff I could see from the window.

Abbie seemed to let out a relieved breath and then stood back up, "Okay can you lay down for me and I'll get this wet pull-up off you and into a new one?" I slowly laid down on the bed and brought teddy up to my eyes, if I couldn't see Abbie and Josh, it was like they weren't even there, right? "You are such a good girl Cali; I'll make this super-fast I promise." Abbie was truthful and she was done changing me before I even really realized she had started. "Alright all done Cali, let's get you some warm milk and tucked into bed for a little nap." Abbie lifted me up and then settled into the chair in the corner of the room, placing me on her lap and reaching for the cup that Josh had in his hand. I noticed it had a lid on it and a funny looking mouthpiece on it, I cocked my head at Josh and gave him a questioning look.

"It's just a sippy cup, you use them to make sure things don't get spilled, and you get to drink all the yummy drink that's in it." I shrugged my shoulders; I didn't really know what a sippy cup was but hey if it made him happy and I could drink all my milk I would try it. Abbie brought the cup up to my mouth and I slowly opened wide allowing her to put the mouthpiece in my mouth. I grabbed the cup with one hand and tilted my head back some so that I could get some milk. My eyes widened with surprise when I got the first taste of it, it was the best milk I'd ever tasted, even though milk wasn't something that I got a lot of anyways. Josh smiled down at me, "That tastes really good, doesn't it?" I gave him a smile around the cup and nodded my head. Once I was done with the cup, I held it out, Abbie took it from me and set it on the table next to the chair, "Josh do you want to grab a book from that bag over there and she can hear a story before nap?" I looked at her, what was a story? And why would I want to hear it before nap. Josh nodded his head and stood up from the edge of the bed he was sitting on, he must have moved while I was busy with my milk. "Alright how about the princess and the pea?" He looked over at Abbie and I, Abbie waited a minute then said "Yeah let's do that one" He grabbed the book and brought it over to the edge of the bed closest to the chair Abbie and I were in, once he started reading I wiggled myself on Abbie's lap getting comfortable, I brought teddy up to my chest and closed my eyes, Between the warm milk and the voice of Josh I seemed to be more tired than I thought I was.