The Aftermath of Callie and Arizona

The Calm Before the Storm

Arizona's POV:

March went by that year without too much pomp or circumstance, even with a few busy days mixed in for Sophia's party and her actual birthday. Thanks to Meredith, the slumber party went swimmingly and more importantly, Callie and I didn't end up going crazy thanks to Meredith's help that night.

I think the party at the house on Sophia's actual birthday turned out to be more work than her birthday slumber party. It was a tradition in our house to celebrate our birthdays with family whenever possible, so Sophia choose her actual birthday since it fell on a weekday, to celebrate with everyone that year.

My parents were invited, Ari and Renee, and Teddy. We always ask Sophia whom she wants to celebrate with and those were her choices for that year. 

Her birthday dinner menu was always something we let Sophia put together, within reason that is. We did need to intervene on her fifth birthday menu, because it needed a few modifications due to the fact it was all desserts. In the end, she did begrudgingly opt for pizza that year instead of chocolate cake.

Sophia's menu for her birthday dinner consisted of some hard to find items, but we made it work. The difficult item to find was a cake from a particular bakery that's located in Olympia. We stopped at a cafe/bakery in Olympia once on our way home from a trip about 4 years ago. We had lunch and then Sophia had a slice of their, "rainbow cake" and fell in love with it. 

Basically, it is a white cake that had multicolored sprinkles baked into the batter. There was buttercream frosting on the outside and inside that was rainbow-colored with an airbrush gun. To look at the cake, you'd just think it was decorated to be fun, but it is surprisingly good. So, even though it was a bit of a drive, we were getting one for Sophia that year per her request.

When our weekend trip finally came up in April, we had almost been on Maternity leave for 8 weeks. The time had flown by it seemed like. Then again, if you had asked me that question some mornings when I was up with Maddy at 2 am, I would have told you how long my days were. By that point however, I finally felt like we had an established routine with Maddy and think that's what had clouded my perception of our last eight weeks getting to know one another.

"Arizona?! Have you seen Sophia's backpack?"

I was sitting in the nursery with Madelyn that morning, feeding her, while Callie ran around the house getting Sophia ready. I love Calliope so much, but as her and I have talked about before, we both have our quirks. 

That morning I was watching, but mostly listening, to Callie frantically run around the house while she made breakfast, did Sophia's hair and packed her lunch. For some reason, Callie always acts frantic when she's under a deadline. I'm the complete opposite and usual keep my cool. Well, minus my issues with authority figures.

Years ago, it used to drive me batty the way Callie would run around while she got Soph ready, during our second time around though, it had become something I thought was cute because Callie so predictably did it every time. I used to think if I set everything out and made it foolproof to the point Sophia could get herself ready, that would help Callie. I had learned a few days after we got back together last year, it does not. Instead, she still becomes frantic, albeit, it's far less painful to watch.

So, there was a very good reason I had laid things out the night before for all of our sake's. At least it would minimize how chaotic things could get the next morning I figured.

Oh yes, and there's something else about Callie that's all her. Well, Sophia does the same thing sometimes too I've noticed. Callie tends to miss things, especially when they're right in her face. That morning it happened to be Sophia's backpack that was sitting on the bench going out to the garage, already packed and ready to go.