Can I Go Where You Go? - Pablo Gavi

Baby Girl

Kara Isabella Hernandez Gavira. That's what we decided to name our baby girl the night she was born.

Throughout my whole pregnancy we were scared. It turned out that high risk wasn't a term they threw around for fun.  We were scared our baby girl wasn't going to be able to make it into the world, but she did.

And now, as we sit around our living room, celebrating her first birthday with all the people who love her to the ends of the Earth, I can only be grateful.

Her brother Arlo's doing great as well. He's two years old and is running around the house, laughing as he collides with all the furniture. He has better motor skills then most kids his age; Gavi and I have gotten more then a few "he's going to follow in your footsteps" comments. I usually smile and joke back, but right now I couldn't care less about our future; I care about our now.

"Mama," Isabella---we decided to call our daughter by her middle name because of its Spanish nature and our consistent residency in Spain---says from my lap. I turn her around to face me and smile at her. She smiles back. She knows a few words, including mama, papa and "io"---what she calls Xavi. 

Arlo, having heard his sister speak, runs over to us and tries to climb onto my lap. He makes grabby hands at his sister. "Lala!" he exclaims. It's what he's taken up calling her because he can't quite pronounce her full name yet. 

"Lala's with mama," Gavi says as he scoops up Arlo and takes a seat on the couch next to me. The nickname has caught on and pretty much everyone calls her Lala now.

I move Lala to face her brother. "Do you want to hold her?" I ask him, bouncing her on my knee. He nods many excited times. "Okay." Gavi sits Arlo properly in his lap and shows our son how to hold out his arms. I set his sister down in his grasp, and Gavi helps him hold up her head. Arlo's palm in Gavi's looks so small, it makes my heart melt.

"They get along so well," Aurora comments, coming over and sitting on the chair next to us. We're having a small family get together to celebrate Isabella's first birthday; Gavi's family is here, as well as my parents who flew out, and my uncle. Some of our close friends are here as well.

"Wait until they grow up," Mikky adds, taking a sip of the white wine in her glass. She comes over and sits down in a nearby chair as well. Both Mikky and Aurora have been so much help with the kids---Mikky having two of her own, she was able to give us a ton of advice.

"I'm not too eager," I say, watching Lala in Arlo's arms, and Arlo in Gavi's. Pablo's watching them too, his little kids.

"Arlo is the sweetest kid," Aurora says, taking a sip of her own wine. Ever since I gave birth to Arlo I haven't been much of a drinker. It was fun when we were young, but I don't see the point of it anymore. I get my happiness from somewhere else.

Arlo, having heard his name from his aunt, isn't focused on his sister anymore. He wants to get up again.

"Are you done holding Lala?" I ask him, starting to move forward to pick her up. He nods several times. I pick her up and he slides off of Pablo's lap and takes off into the other room. 

There are other kids here too; Mikky's daughters who are a little older then him, and Pedri's son. Pedri and Sophia finally settled down and had a baby boy two months after I had Isabella. They hadn't been trying, but they were happy when they found out. They named him Alejandro; Alex for short.

It was when Arlo, Lala and Alex were running around the pitch after one of Gavi's games that I decided I wanted another baby. Isabella hasn't been a baby for a while; she's two now. I miss the baby stage and know Arlo misses having a baby around too. He loves his sister and how she follows him everywhere. (Sometimes he acts annoyed in front of the adults, but we can all see right through him).