Moments with Michael

Getting ready for the babies

It's the year 1991, and you and Michael have been married for four years. You have been trying to have a kid for almost a year, and five months ago you finally got pregnant. You are both equally excited, and doing everything to prepare yourself. Today, that means painting the baby-room.

"Hey baby! I'm home!" Michael yells through the house.

"Hey love!" I greet him when I walk into the hall. I stand on my tiptoes to peck him on the lips, making sure not to touch him elsewhere. I'm pretty much covered in pastel-yellow paint, and I'm sure he wouldn't want that all over his clothes.

"You're painting, huh?" He asks with a little smile, as he follows me to the room.

"Yep"

"Wow! You've got a lot done!" He exclaims when we walk into the room, and he sees that almost half of it has changed from its original boring, cold, white color to the warm, pastel yellow, that decorates almost my entire body.

"You wanna help me with the rest?" I ask

"Of course" He says with a loving smile. "One second, I just gotta change my clothes"

I smile back at him, before he leaves the room to find some more practical clothes. Even though he has been in the studio recording since early morning, he's always ready to give me a hand when he comes home. For example yesterday, I was having a crisis in the kitchen. I wanted to make a good dinner ready for when he came home, but I burnt it a bit, and my oversensitive hormonal self was sitting on the kitchen floor crying when he came home. He comforted me and dried my tears, for then to help me save the meal.

"Okay, I'm ready." He says, interrupting my thoughts as he walks into the room. He's now wearing an old, blue, long-sleeve shirt with an even older pair of jeans.

"Here" I say, smiling as I hand him the paintbrush.

He takes it, and we both continue with the job of painting the walls. We work in silence for a few minutes, before Michael decides to break it:

"How have you been today?" He asks.

"Good. No crazy mood-swings so far" I answer with a grin. "What about you?"

"Great. It went really well today! If we continue like this, I think it'll be ready in just a few months!" He answers enthusiastically, a bright smile showing on his face.

"That sounds perfect! Then you won't have any work when they're born" I answer, touching my big stomach lightly. I see Michaels eyes wander down to look at it, and a soft, loving glimpse appears in his eyes. Before I got pregnant, I had only ever seen that glimpse in his eyes when he looked at me, but now I see it every time the talk falls on our yet unborn twins. Which is pretty much all the time. I smile at the thought; he's gonna be an amazing father!

"Trust me, love, I will be there when they are born, no matter how much work I have. I would never let you go through that much pain alone, and I wouldn't miss the birth of my kids for the world!" He says, turning to me to give me a sweet kiss on the nose, making me giggle.

"Do you know I love you, Michael?" I ask, putting my hands around his neck, not caring about the yellow stains.

"Sure do" He replies softly, before connecting his lips to mine in a loving kiss.

"And I love you more" He whispers when we break apart, looking deep into my eyes.

"Impossible!" I say, a happy glimpse showing in my eyes.

"Well, with you the impossible becomes possible" He says.

Not being able to come up with a clever response, I just lean forwards and draws a yellow heart on his cheek with my paintbrush. He lets me, but the moment I'm done, he does the same to me.

*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*--*

"What do you think about Noah?" I suggest.

We're both lying in bed, talking about names and writing the best suggestions down in a little book. Two pages are almost filled already, one for girls names and one for boys names.

"Hmm... I like it. It's like from the bible, saving humanity." Michael replies, his voice thoughtful at the beginning of his sentence, but a humorous tone finds its way to it at the end.

"Exactly" I say, smiling widely. "Our child is gonna be a super-hero!"

I see Michael smiling at the thought, and even after four years of marriage, it still makes me melt.

"What about Carina?" He then suggests.

"I have a cousin called that..." I say, letting my sentence trail off.

"You have so many cousins, you have said that to every other name I have mentioned!" He says, his voice filled with laughter.

"You're right! It is a pretty name. Besides, she's my favorite cousin on my dads side of the family, I wouldn't mind having a child with the same name as her. And I'm sure she would find it funny too!" I say, and I hear the sound of a pen against paper when Michael takes my words as permission to add the name the our list.

We go on like this for hours, and the list slowly becomes longer and longer. At one point we decide that maybe it's time to go through the list and cross out some of the names, but every single one of them sounds so cute, have such a good meaning, or comes from a loved one.

"We're gonna have to get a hundred babies if we wanna use all these names!" I exclaim.

"I wouldn't mind that" Michael replies with a smile.

"No maybe you wouldn't, but you're not the one who has to be pregnant, or give birth to them all!" I give again.

"You're right." He says, putting his arm around me and pulling me closer to him. "But I would absolutely love to have more children with you one day!"

"Me too, Michael, one day. Right now we have two on their way, don't you think that is enough for now?"

"Yeah, I do. After all, we both have to learn this parent-thing!"

"Yes. I wonder how that'll go..."

"Don't worry, sweetheart. I'm sure you'll be a fantastic mom!" Michael assures me.

"Thank you. I know you will be an amazing dad too, Michael!" I reply.

He just kisses my forehead as answer, holding my face in his hand and lightly caressing my cheek with his thumb.

"Think it's time to go to sleep?" He asks, and I lift my head a bit to see the clock on the night stand. It's 00:31.

"Probably. It's later than I thought, and I'm tired" I say, proving my words with a yawn.

"I have to go to the studio tomorrow too, it would probably be smart to be at least a bit well-rested for that." He says with a small sigh. "I love my job, but sometimes I just wish I could stay at home with you!"

"Me too, baby. But it's Friday tomorrow, so you can come home a bit earlier, right?"

"If the recording goes well, I can't see a problem in sending the guys home to weekend early. And then I can get to spend some quality time with my wife." A smile lights up his face when he says this, and I can feel a similar one spreading on my face. I can't help it, he makes me so happy!

"Goodnight, Michael. I love you" I tell him.

"Goodnight. I love you too!" He says, giving me a short but sweet kiss on the lips before moving down to kissing my big stomach.

"Goodnight, my angels. Remember daddy loves you!" He says his usual goodnight to our kids, and gives my stomach and then my lips one last kiss, before he turns of the lights.

I lay close to him in the dark, feeling the warm and safe feeling his presence always gives me. He puts one of his arms around me, and I just snuggle into him, disappearing completely into the arms of the man I love, the father of the children I'm bearing. A small smile shows on my lips in the last moments before I drift to sleep. I know those children couldn't get a better or more loving dad than him...