On Tour

Chapter 59

One month later
I roll over in the bed, deeply inhaling. I stretch and consider waking Josh, but I don't, not yet. I guess I'll let him sleep for now. I stand up and straighten out Josh's t shirt I'm wearing, which it comfortably oversized on me. I scratch my head and wobbly walk around the corner of the hall to the nursery. It's dark, but some light seeps in through the sides of of the shades. Amara is standing up in her crib, fussy, and holding her plush elephant in her tiny hand. "Mummma," she whines, on the verge of crying. "I'm coming, mommy's here." I quietly say, walking over to her crib. She reaches towards me and I grab her, lifting her up. "You stanky, no wonder why you're so upset." I say in a baby voice, I walk her over to the changing table and lay her down. "Really, you shouldn't have gotten me a gift, it's your birthday, not mine." I say unwrapping the stinky gift. "Phew-we!" I yell, cringing. "Little bit of this," I say, grabbing baby wipes, wiping her up, "Ok, maybe a little more of this," I say grabbing more wipes, "Then we can get rid of this," I say wrapping the dirty diaper up, waking it over to the white elephant trash can. "Now a bit of this," I say, grabbing the diaper cream, rubbing it on her soft bottom, "And lastly this," I say grabbing a fresh, clean, white diaper. I put the diaper on her and dispense a bit of hand sanitizer on my hands. "Alright babe, lets go get you some breakfast." I say to her, picking her up with umph, "My god, you sure are getting big Mar." We walk through the hallway, through the guest bedroom, and into the burgundy kitchen.

I flick on some lights and we walk in. I set her down in her mobile seat on the floor and she jumps around in it, moving about the kitchen. I grab a bottle out of the cupboard, and walk over to the fridge, grabbing the formula. I fill the bottle with it and throw it into the microwave. She's had a few teeth grow in and she's already teething. I'll give her a bottle today, but I'm trying my best to get her off formula, and honestly she's doing well, she knows how to give herself her bottle and we only give her one bottle a day. She can eat small things like noodles, small pieces of bread, and some fruit. Sometimes I have to massage her gums, apparently teeth growing in sounds like it hurts like hell, poor baby. *Ding* I hear Amara mumble on and I grab the bottle. I test it on my wrist and it's good, I hand it down to Amara and she puts it up to her mouth willingly. "Alright, I guess I mines well start decorating, give daddy a rest shall we?" I say to her, she has her mouth full of formula and keeps eating. "Ok," I mutter, walking over to to my blue tooth speaker. I set my phone on the silver counter, "I'm gonna go shut the bedroom door so he doesn't wake up ok? I'll be right back." I say to Amara, who still doesn't understand anything I'm saying. I walk my way through the entrance to the dining room and around the corner into the living room, then around the corner again and into the hallway, shutting the bedroom door. I walk back into the kitchen and see Amara has gotten a hold of some streamers. "Silly those are mine." I say grabbing them from her, she gets a little mad so I give her a teething ring to play with. She easily gets distracted and I walk back over to my phone and speaker. I turn on pandora to the alternative channel, why not. The first song that plays just so happens to be one of my favorites, Vegas Lights by panic!. "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1," I sing and start dancing around the kitchen, hanging up streamers.
     "Hey there, ooo come here." I say to Josh in horror, he walks over towards me and says, "Wow this place looks amazing, good job." He says as I try my best to flatten out his wrinkled flannel. "When is everyone coming?" He asks, grabbing a muffin off the counter. I grab it before he puts it in his mouth and I slowly set it back down on the counter, "Nuh-uh. No snacks until the party starts in 20 minutes." I say, he wines and walks over to Amara. "Morning beautiful," he says picking her up out of her chair, she giggles and he throws her in his arms. "Hey can you go get her ready? Her diaper's changed, you just need to put some cloths on her and do her hair." "Woah, woah, I don't know girl, what do I do?" I roll my eyes and look towards him, "All you need to do is brush her hair out, it looks fine as it is, and throw a summer dress on her." I say and he looks petrified, "U-uh, ok." He says, I laugh and he walks towards the hall. I fix the table cloth on the snack table and pour some more chips in the bowl. "Hey!" I hear Tyler and Jenna yell, stomping in through the back door. I walk out of the kitchen and into the back entrance, "Hey, you're early!" I say, Grabbing their coats, "Better early then never," Tyler says, starting to walk up the steps, "Definitely not how that saying goes but whatever," Jenna says laughing, walking up the stairs. I walk up behind them and walk into the guest bedroom, setting the coats down on the bed. "Where do I put this?" Tyler says, holding a small wrapped present. "Uhhhh, you can go set it on the table in the dining room if you'd like." He walks into the dining room and Josh walks out of the guest room with Amara. "Happy birthday baby!" Jenna says, grabbing Amara from Josh. I eye Amara up, making sure Josh did everything right. All her hair is in tact, no tears, she's wearing a dress, and, oh, oh no. "Josh," I say taking Amara back. "The dress is on backwards." I say laughing, "Do you guys mind?" Tyler and Jenna shake their heads and I take off Amara's dress, flipping it the right way and putting it back on. Luckily she's still young enough to do this.
    Eventually everyone gets there, and we decide to do cake, ice cream, and presents right away. "Alright let's do the cake!" My mom says, rounding everyone up into the kitchen. We set Amara up in her high chair at the end of the silver island in the kitchen and we bring the cake out. We have a big cake for the adults, 3 tier with yellow buttercream frosting, and a bright yellow small cake filled with yellow buttercream flowers and a fondant '1' for Amara. We set the cake down in front of her and she starts digging at it before we even start to sing her happy birthday. We laugh, and start to sing, "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you,  happy birthday dear Amara, happy birthday to you." Everyone stops and takes pictures of her, she has the cake all over her fingers and face and continues to slowly eat it. "Who wants cake?!" I yell, everyone cheers and we start cutting and handing out sweet cake.
    "Shh, shh, I'm coming." I say to Amara, who is whining in her chair. Everyone's finished eating and Amara still has sticky cake on her face and hands. It's bothering her so I grab a few wipes and walk over to her. Everyone's gathered in the living room for presents and I need to get Amara. She whines and I start to wipe off her sticky hands. I take off her bib and clean her face. "There you go, all better." I say, she calms down and I hold her in my left arm. She grabs my shoulder and looks around the room as we walk into the living room. "Is she ready?" "Yep" I say, setting her down on the couch, propping her up with some pillows. We start handing her presents and with the help of me and Josh, one after one, each present is opened. Most of the time she is more amused by the bright colors on the wrapping paper, but some presents seem to catch her attention, basically all the ones that make noise. She gets spoiled with everything, from teething toys, all the way to a small tv with Disney movies on Demand. After presents, me and Josh clean up the paper and set all her presents on the wooden dining room table. We come back to the living room to see Amara happily walking, mostly stumbling, her way across the room from family member to family member. We laugh, and the rest of the night we tell stories and let Amara play with all of her new toys.