Moving Forward

Home at Last

"Hi honey!" I open my arms as Ava runs right up to Brad and I "We missed you so much."

"I missed you more." She pulls away, looking around "Presents?"

"Yes," Brad laughs, moving her forward "We got you presents. Let's go inside and you can get them."

We go in to see Brad's parents on the couch, watching some dumb tv show they had on for Ava. She runs up to them, letting them know that we're home by jumping on them until they turn around.

"Was she good?" I sit across from them "She told us she was on the phone yesterday."

"Well, pretty much. She had a few moments, but she was good for the most part." Jane answers "She wasn't too good at night time."

"Too good?" Will laughs "She didn't sleep more than maybe 5 hours each night. And that was after fighting with us for an hour about sleeping in her own room."

"Sorry, she's still bad with that." I look over at her playing with Brad "We normally just give in so we can get some sleep."

"She made us very aware by screaming outside the door. It was fun."

I laugh at their complaining, walking over to where Brad and Ava are to help him find her present since he's digging through everything.

"They're in the top part of mine." I set my suitcase on the ground, opening it "See, right where you watched me pack them."

I hand the presents to her, watching as she rips the bag open to start playing with them. We laugh at her excitement as she sets the house up and grabs some of her other dolls to play with in the house as well.

"So how was Mexico?" Will asks "Anything exciting happen?"

Brad looks to me, wanting to tell them about the baby. I think of a reason to get Ava out of here for a minute.

"Hey Ava, look at all these clothes." I hand her another bag "Can you go try them on for me?"

She takes it, along with a few of her dolls and rushes out of the room to try them all on.

"Uh yeah." I get the ultrasound picture out of my bag, handing it to them "Something really exciting actually."

"Oh my God!" Jane practically jumps off the couch "That's so awesome! Congratulations!"

"Thanks, mom!" Brad smiles, laughing a little at how excited she is "They said she's somewhere around 2 months."

"You guys know this is what's supposed to happen from the vacation, not something you find out during. Right?" Will smiles handing us back the picture.

"Yeah, well it was a huge surprise. We weren't expecting it at all, but we're really excited." I look over at Brad, who is staring at the picture lovingly "We don't want Avalynn to know for a little while yet though."

Ava runs back out a few minutes later, modeling all the clothing for us. We can tell what she really likes, because she tries to keep it on forever and ignore the other clothes.

"Hey, what did you do while we were away?" Brad asks Ava "Did you have fun?"

"Yeah!" She runs around telling us everything she got to do "We went to the playground every day and then I got ice cream, and we went to see movies and we went shopping!"

"Wow! They must really like you if they did all that." I manage to stop her running, and pull her onto my lap "Did you thank grandma and grandpa for watching you while daddy and I went away?"

"Yeah, but next time I go with, okay?" She looks up at Brad and I smiling "Because I make it more fun."

"Of course, princess." Brad pulls her closer to him "You're going away with mommy again soon."

"Aren't you going?" Jane comes over to sit closer to us "You don't wanna go?"

"I'm gonna be filming so they're going with Lisa and Julian. I actually feel like the lucky one, getting out of traveling with kids." He looks over at us for a little "Besides, it gives them a little break from me."

"And I'm sure they need that." Will laughs, sitting on the floor next to Brad "When are you done filming? I thought you already were."

"We all did." I roll my eyes slightly, not exactly thrilled with him having to go back "They have to do reshoots."

"I don't really want to be there anymore than you want me to go. You know that." Brad replies smartly "I just want it to be over."

"Things got that bad on set? I thought you were having fun." Jane looks over at us confused "You said you liked it."

"I did at first, and I like the actual movie, I'm just not so thrilled with the cast anymore and how they act towards people." He stops there, letting us know that he's done talking about it.

"Okay, well we should probably go. We have a flight to catch." Will and Jane get up, hugging all of us "We had fun with her."

I follow them outside, helping them with their bags.

"Thanks so much for watching her. We really needed this with everything going on." I hand Jane a bag that she doesn't want me to carry.

"You're welcome. We love being with her." She takes it from me, hugging me again quickly "And we're really excited for you guys. You're going to have so much fun with her and a baby."

"I can't wait." I smile, watching them drive away.

I go back inside to see Brad carrying the suitcases upstairs and Ava following with my extra bag, that looks bigger than she is. She eventually gives up and leaves it laying on the steps for me.

"I wanna sleep here." She decides, jumping on our bed, laying right in the middle.

"Okay, but we're tired so you have to actually sleep."

"I will." She smirks, pulling all the blankets around her, and trying to take over the whole bed "Maybe."