Onward And Sideways (Completed.)

Chapter 24

It was the middle of December, and our L.A. family had gone back home for the holidays. So Ethan and I got to spend our last Christmas before our son was born alone.

Sort of.

His parents were doing the usual Nestor Family Christmas at their house an hour away, and invited us over, as usual. So we packed our bags and prepared to spend Christmas in my husband's old room at his parents house.
The day we got there, on Dedember 20th, after we said hello to the family, Ethan took our bags to his old room, with me fallowing behind.

"Oh, crap."!I heard him groan before I came around the corner.

"What's wrong?" I asked, before seeing the problem.
The bed was a twin sized. It was cramped, but doable the first 2 years we were married. We'd just had to kind of wrap ourselves around each other to fit.

But being seven months pregnant, with the size of my stomach, that was not going to work this year.

We just looked at each other, our eyes shifting between the bed and my stomach.

Suddenly, his mom appeared in the doorway. "Oh, that's right! We got you two a queen sized mattress and bed frame, we just forgot about putting it together before you two got here." She appologized. "I'm sorry about that. We just so caught up in the excitement, we got destracted."

Ethan walked over to his mother, drapping an arm ober her shoulders in a half hug of appriciation. He thanked her. "Thanks mom. We really, really appriciate it. I didn't eben think ahout how we were all gonna fit on a twin, so that's awesome. Thank you." He looked at me before continuing. "I can pit in together, don't worry aboit it. Just tell me where it is."

She hugged him back, telling him that the mattress and frme where in the garage with the tools. While he went out to try to bring them in, I ws left with his mom.

I smiled warmly at her. "Thank you. And thank you for ev3n thinking of it. Don't feel bad about being destracted. Ethan and I are usually destracted by one thing or another lately." I added, one hand on my baby bump.

She smiled back. "Yeah, that's how it is with the first baby. With any baby, really. Ethan was our second, and we didn't have him until seven years after Andrew. But that didn't maoe any of it easier." She explained.

I sat on the edge of the twin bed, putting my chin in my hand, and patting the spot next to me withthd other hand. "Tell me about what Ethan was like as a baby?" I almost begged her.

She laughed, sitting beside me. "Alright." She began telling me about life with a sevem yeat old and a baby Ethan. I listened in rapt attention,wondering if out son would be more like Ethan or myself.

We were interupted by the sound of gruntig men. We both turned to look at the door to the hallway.
Soon we saw Ethan, a mattress, and his father, teaming up like ants to bring the big mattress down the hall and through a doorway into the room.
When Ethan finally stppd up straight after laning the matress on a wall, I walked over, wrapping my arms loosely around my red faced, slightly sweaty husband.

"I see you talked your dad into helping." I said to him.

He shrugged, smiling at me, before putting his warm hands on my hips ajd kissing my forehead. "Yep. I told you he's the best dad." He said happily.

His dad chuckled. "It's no trouble. I was goinv to put it together a few weeks ago, but we got destracted." He said.

I smiled at him. "Yeah, your wife told us. It's totaly okay, don't worry about it. Like I was telling her, Ethan and I get destracted thinking of the baby all the time. We understand." I say, keeping one arm around Ethan's waist a I talkedto his Dad, nervous. He;s cool I like Mr. Nestor. I am not afraid of him, just social nteraction in general.