Moving Forward

Celebrating

"Come on Ava, we need to get out of the car.  There's going to be plenty of toys in there for you."

"And Jul?" She asks, making sure that Julian will be there "I wanna play with him."

"Yes, Jul will be there.  He's here already waiting for you." I hold her hand, walking into the house.

She runs off the play with all the kids and I look for Lisa to see what I need to do.  It looks like all the decorating is done and all the food is out.

"Hey, it looks really good in here." I walk up to her "I brought the drinks.  They're in my trunk."

"Cool, thanks."  She moves around some things, trying to decide how they look best "She's being very picky.  I'm seriously convinced these hormones are going to be the death of her."

I laugh, knowing Court has been hard to please lately.  She's been super hormonal between the pregnancy and the show ending.

"If I get like she is when we're away leave me." I laugh, knowing I wouldn't want to deal with myself if I was like that, "Take Ava so she doesn't have to deal with it and leave me."

"Oh don't worry, I plan to.  I also plan to take them out when you're sick because you throw up way too much.  It isn't cool."

"Yeah I know it isn't.  Ava thinks it's funny though, she tries to act like she's me."

We eventually move on to working on everything else and setting up some of the games.  The kids love helping us as we hide things through the house for the scavenger hunt.

"I wanna hide the balloons!" Julian gets excited "So they can't fly away!"

"Yeah let's hide them in the bathroom!" Ava weirdly suggests "So that we can play with them."

"Okay." Julian grabs them from Lisa's hand, running to the nearest bathroom with Ava following closely behind "But what if someone comes in here and takes them?"

"We can put them on our toys?" Ava asks "Our toys can fly!"

"Okay well you two have fun with that." I walk away from them, happy they're using their imagination.

"Why are all the balloons disappearing?"  Court asks, walking into the living room "Did you hide them too?"

"The kids stole them." Lisa says "Watch out for flying toys."

Court looks at us like we're crazy, but just walks over to her seat, watching everyone run around looking for all the things we hid.

"I really hope you guys have some kind of prize hidden for them, they're doing a lot of running." She laughs at everyone "I would want something if I was running around looking for a bunch of baby products."

"The kids made them little treat bags.  They were supposed to make and give a big one to you but I think they ate most of it."

"They're so lucky they're cute." She looks over at them playing "I'm glad Coco will have your baby to play with since they have each other.  That way they aren't left out."

"Yeah, I am too." I watch as the kids actually help each other instead of fight over dumb things "And we'll get to go through the whole baby stage together so when we lose our minds we won't seem too crazy."

"I miss my baby." Lisa waves to Julian "I love his independence now, but I still miss the baby him."

Everyone eventually comes back into the living room once they find everything and we go through the list to see who won.  We make the kids leave their toys long enough to hand out the prize, and then decide it's time for presents.

"Hey Ava and Julian, come help." Court can tell they're getting bored, so she has them sit next to her and open the presents.  They get really excited with each one, even though they know it isn't for them.  Ava even is nice enough to let Julian help her open the presents, which normally does not happen.

"Oh my God that's adorable!" Courteney holds up the blanket Lisa and I got her "I love it.  Thank you!"

"You're welcome." We both hug her before telling her to keep going.

"You'll like the next one even more."

She opens it to see a present from the whole Friends cast.  It's a multi picture frame with a picture of the whole cast, some of each of us with Courteney, and some of her and David.  There's a few empty spots for pictures of them and the baby as well.

"Aww, I love it!"  She starts to cry "I really want her to know how important all of you are to me.  This is perfect."

She continues to open the rest of the presents with some help from the kids.  They excitedly open everything until they have them all.

People stay a while longer, playing some games we have around at tables and talking amongst everyone else.

"She's so adorable."  Courteney's mom walks up to me "I can't believe how big she's getting.  I still remember when I first met her that time I was visiting the Friends set."

"I know." I sigh, not too happy with how quickly she's growing "And now we're starting all over.  It's still so amazing to me."

"It goes by way too fast." She says "I'm sure she's excited about the baby though.  She looks so cute carrying her baby around."

"She can't wait.  She's constantly asking when she'll be here."

We talk for a little longer until the kids start to fight, so Lisa and I have to go break it up.

"But he's mean, mommy!"  Ava cries when I tell her to apologise "I don't want to."

"Honey you have to.  You can't hit people.  That's not nice."

She gives me the meanest look she can, but walks over to Julian to apologise.  I wait for them to make up then decide it's time to go.

"Lets go say bye to Courteney." I walk Ava over to where she's standing.  She runs in front of me, right up to Courteney to hug her.

"Bye, honey." Courteney picks her up "Have fun on your vacation with mommy, Lisa and Julian, okay?  I'm gonna miss you."

"I miss you too." Ava wraps her little arms around her tightly "But we see baby soon!"

"That's right.  You'll be able to see her soon after you get home." Court laughs as Ava tries to feel the baby move "Then a little after that you'll be able to see your sister."

"Yeah.  I can't wait!"

She lets Ava go after a while and I walk up to her.

"Thank you so much for helping with this."  She reaches out to hug me "It turned out really great.  I couldn't have done it without you and Lisa."

"You're welcome.  We couldn't be more excited for you.  You're going to love all of this so much." I pull away, trying to hide the fact that I'm about to cry out of excitement for her.

"I can hardly wait.  I've wanted this forever and seeing her and Julian just makes me even more excited than before."