Imperfectly Beautiful (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #3)

Sand Dollars and Surprises

-LIA-

"Oh, Mom, you didn't have to do all this. We should really be celebrating you this weekend, it just dawned on me this morning that I forgot to say Happy Birthday," Maria's tired eyes were wide as she came downstairs while I arranged a pretty bouquet of flowers in the center of the table.

"Oh, honey, you gave me the best birthday gifts ever," I grinned and shook my head.

Technically, the twins had been born just after midnight so their birthday was the day after mine, but that didn't matter to me one little bit. In fact, it was absolutely perfect since the day after their birthday was Katherine's birthday. It was kind of like a little wink from God that he'd placed our namesakes on Earth on the exact day to bridge our birthdays. Now, from here on out, it'd be my birthday, then the twins', and then Katherine's as a beautiful reminder of the way our families were now connected. I couldn't help but get a little teary every time I thought about it.

Everything about the past few days had been so preciously filled with family time that I was almost reluctant to head back to Boston, but I knew Michelle was anxious to get home and finish her "nesting" before the arrival of Jamie and Maria wanted to get the girls home to meet all the rest of our extended family. Nevertheless, I wanted a big family Saturday brunch to commemorate our time together before we disembarked that afternoon.

Maria smiled, "Katherine said the same thing, but Tony and I feel so bad because both of your gifts are at home in Boston and all our plans are just so scrambled."

"You know when you first told me that you were pregnant with Grace and I was worrying how everything would turn out, Beth reminded me that sometimes our best blessings come when things are unplanned and I've realized over and over just how true that is," I smiled. "Don't worry about your plans, sweetie. This is more than perfect."

"Well, I'm glad you think so, still I want to say Happy Belated Birthday, I'll make sure you get your gift as soon as we get home," she hugged me and I hugged her back.

"Okay, but don't stress yourself. When we get home, I hope you'll just rest. I didn't hear much crying last night, but you still don't look like you've slept a wink."

"Yeah," Maria sighed and stifled a yawn. "The girls slept pretty well last night actually, since we took your suggestion to let them share the bassinet. I guess from being in my tummy they just prefer to be close."

I nodded, "Yeah, you and Nate were the same way for the longest."

"True and I guess we kind of still are. We always text each other every night before we go to bed, even if it's just a moon emoji," Maria chuckled and I smiled. "But anyway, Tony gets up like every ten minutes, if even that, to go look in the bassinet and every time he does it, it wakes me up. I guess he realized he was disturbing my sleep because then he started sitting in a chair right next to them, but that just made it worse because my subconscious knew he wasn't there next to me and that triggered me to wake up and look for him and by then the twins needed to be fed and it was just a cycle like that all night. He's up there now staring at them, but I had to get up and move around a little."

"Aw, that's cute," I giggled. "Annoying and exhausting, obviously, but cute. Your dad was the same way with all four of you. I'd tell him that you guys were fine, but he just had to make sure you were breathing constantly. A lot of times he'd just end up sleeping with the baby on his chest, he even figured out a way to hold you and Nate at the same time."

Maria nodded, "You know I almost forgot that's exactly how Tony did Grace too. She wasn't quite a newborn when we got back together, but she was still so tiny and he never wanted to put her down. He'd just cradle her in his chest and sleep like that. It was adorable, but I always worried that we were messing up her sleeping patterns or something. I guess she turned out fine though, she seems alright five years later."