Utopia

Growing Pains

Oh how it's like to grow up. One minute you just came out the womb and now you're a toddler. Today's Brooklyn's birthday. October 17, 2105 the day Brooklyn turned 5 is always a day to remember! She's now talking, mobile, and super playful! She has finally got into Girl Scouts. Brownie & proud! This morning was special to everyone in the household because Brooklyn was their rainbow baby. Little did everyone know, Ashley had a little surprise waiting for everybody. It was a bright sunny day. An unusually warm day in Aspen in the middle of coroner at 70°. Brooklyn rose from her bed and stretched. She jumped out of bed and screamed,
"ITS MY BIRTHDAY!"
She ran out of her room into now eight year old Carson's room,
"CAR CAR! Wake UP!"
"Huh? What's the matter Brooklyn?"
"Nothing, it's my birthday!"
"Oh yes, that's right." Carson groaned rubbing his eyes trying to wake up.
Brooklyn ran downstairs to see Dean making her special princess pancakes. Dean noticed her by hearing her little pitter patter of feet down the stairs. He crouched down and said,
"Princess! You have awoken!"
She giggled and ran into his arms. After that, Dean pointed over to Shiloh and Bentley, the families beagle and golden retriever. They were wearing red bandanas with "Happy birthday, to the best little human" written across with gold glitter. Brooklyn loved this so much and gave both dogs a respectful hug and a big smooch on their snoots. Brooklyn sat down at her usual place at the table and started to eat her pancakes.
"Ow!" Brooklyn yelped.
"What's the matter sweetheart?" Dean said concerned.
"My mouth hurtssss!" Brooklyn cried.
Ashley came on downstairs with a big smile to soon come to a concern frown when she saw Brooklyn's face.
"What happened?" She demanded.
"Something with her mouth." Dean replied
"Open up boo." Ashley said.
Brooklyn opened up her mouth for Ashley to discover, she was in the process of losing her first tooth!
"Oh my gosh!"
"What?" Dean asked
"Our baby is truly growing up. She's losing her tooth."
"WHAT!" Brooklyn said in a panic
"That can't be good mommy, put it back!"
"Honey, it's a natural process. A new one will grow back in in a matter of a week or two."
"Oh. Ok!" Brooklyn continued on with her pancakes.
Everybody started to eat and got ready for Brooklyn's special party! She helped planned it. The main party is a watermelon party, as it's her favorite fruit. Tomorrow night is Brooklyn's PJ's & Pizza sleepover party with her best friends. Ashley, Dean, and Grammy all helped decorate the backyard filled with watermelon type stuff. Watermelon drinks, candies, cupcakes, cakes, & decor. Brooklyn was dress in a dress that had a green top similar to the rind of a watermelon and the skirt part that was hot pink with black polka dots to resemble the nice juicy watermelon. She had a sparkly gold oversized JoJo now in her pretty pony tail. She loved herself, as she should and thought she was the most beautiful princess! That's because she was. For now, well always to her parents, but she may need to share the title. Brooklyn came racing down the stairs to be surprised with watermelon decor and food everywhere! Soon, the ring of the doorbell kept repeating like a broken record as all her friends and family started to come. Brooke and her friends ran around and played horsies and wolves, cops and robbers, and food old fashion hide and seek. Ashley asked for her and her friends to come over to the backdrop so she could take some pictures of them and her smile was so bright, it made the sun jealous. She couldn't help but to keep giggling. Ashley tried holding back her tears as she saw her once tiny little infant now a big girl playing with her friends. Where did my little baby go? She asked herself. Brooklyn was her rainbow baby so she will always feel a little more bonded to her. That doesn't mean she doesn't love Carson any less. Ashley kept feeling sick so she called everybody to sing happy birthday to the birthday princess. She blew out the candles to make her wish and everyone got a piece of the cake and talked amongst themselves. Granny pulled Ashley aside and asked,
"Are you okay Ash?"
"Yeah, I'll be- I'll be okay."
"Are you sure? You look like your about to spew all over the place."
"Come with me."
Ashley took granny's hand and took her to her bathroom.
"Why are we here?" Granny asked.
Ashley reached down to the bin and picked up a pregnancy test.
"Wh-what? I'm confused."
"I'm... I'm pregnant!"
"Oh my gosh dear! This is amazing! I'm so happy for you four!"
"Well, Dean and the kids don't know yet. It's Brooklyn's birthday, all attention should be on her today."
"Sure, dear. I understand."
"Thanks, now lets get back to the princess."
Ashley and granny came down stairs to meet Dean
"What were you two doing up there?" Dean asked puzzled.
"Huh? Oh. Uh... I was letting her try my new perfume!" Ashley stuttered.
"Oh yes, it's quite a pleasant scent." Granny replied.
"Ooookay then." Dean said
The girls went outside to join Brooklyn and the other kids and Dean went upstairs to go fix his hair. He was combing his hair and it accidentally fell out of his hand into the bin.
"Ah, dang." He said.
He went to go reach for it and underneath his comb, he discovered Ashley's pregnancy test.
Huh? What's this? Dean asked himself. A pregnancy test... a positive one? Why wouldn't she tell me?
He had to admit, he was a bit hurt she didn't tell him earlier. 
Maybe she's nervous? He thought to himself.
He placed it back in the bin and went downstairs and met up with Ashley outside.
"She looks so grown" he admitted.
"Yes she does. Look how big our babies are. We have some amazing kids." She added.
"Yeah, hey, why don't we try for another?" He asked.
"Wh-what? A third?" She hesitated.
"Yeah, why not? Just one more til we become too old"
"Heh, maybe? Let's.. let's uh... just focus on Brooklyn today we'll talk about this some other time." She said as she scurried off to go watch Brooke run around.
Wait, is that what her and her mom were doing upstairs? Her perfume is really strong, I would've noticed if her mom was wearing it. He thought to himself.
Why is she keeping this from me? Is it just because it's Brooklyn's birthday? He pondered.
Dean went over to Ashley again and said,
"Ash, we need to talk."
"Okay..." she said.
He pulled her upstairs and shut the door behind them and said,
"Actually, I'll be right back."
He went to the bathroom to grab the pregnancy test and came back in the room. Ashley with a nervous look on her face said,
"So, babe, why are we in here?"
"What's this?" He said as he pulled the double pink lined pregnancy test from behind his back.
"Where did you get that?"
"From the bathroom bin. Ash, why didn't you tell me?"
"Well, it's Brooklyn's birthday... I wanted the attention to be all on her."
"Anything else? Or is it all just because of Brooks birthday?"
"Listen, Dean. This all happened this morning. I was happy, but nervous as hell okay? I wanted to tell you but I wanted to wait until I felt confident enough.  The miscarriage really fucked me up. It still haunts me to this day wondering what did I do wrong? Why isn't our baby here today? I'm sorry I didn't tell you as soon as I knew. I'm sorry I told my mom before I told you. But I'm scared Dean. Really scared. The whole time I was pregnant with Brooklyn I was a nervous wreck remember? I basically missed the whole pregnancy because I was to nervous of losing her. I don't want to lose this one." She ranted, with tears starting to trickle down her cheeks.
"We're not going to lose this one Ash."
"And how do you know that? You'd think since we had such a successful pregnancy with Carson, the second would've been the same but it wasn't. We were lucky with Brooklyn. What if we aren't so lucky this time? I want this pregnancy to go smoothly. I don't want to miss this one. I regret not getting all the bump pictures with Brooke. I want to be more involved this pregnancy without being hooked on the vitamins and fad diets."
"You can baby, I promise you. We'll do everything we did before with Brooke, we'll go to the doctors monthly.. every other week if that makes you more comfortable! This baby will be with us. I promise you. I can feel it."
Ashley looked up at Dean with her glassy signature emerald green eyes. Dean wiped away her tears and sat on the bed next to her and wrapped her into a bear hug. Soon, they heard pitter patter of feet just to find it was Carson.
"Hey, - what's the matter mom?" Carson asked concerned
"Come here son," Dean asked
Carson sat in between them and looked at his distraught mother wondering what was the matter.
"Now, granny knows... but nobody else. Especially Brooklyn. You cannot tell anybody okay?" Ashley asked
Carson shook his head meaning that he understood what his mother told him.
"I'm.. you're... we're.. uh." Ashley couldn't spit it out.
"Dean?" She asked
"We're having another baby Carson."
Carson looked at his dad, then to his mom, back at his dad and grinned.
"Another?" He asked for reassurance.
"Yes, baby." Ashley responded.
"Yay! I hope this ones a boy. I mean, girls are cool and all... but I want a brother!" Carson exclaimed.
"Haha, I'm glad you're taking it so well. I'll see what I can do with the brother part."
"Awesome, thanks mom. Anyways, people are starting to leave now and wanted to say goodbye."
"Okay, we'll be down in a second." Ashley replies
Carson ran back downstairs to tell everyone that they'll be down soon. Dean held his wife's hand before getting up and whispered
"We'll be okay." Then he planted a kiss on her cheek.
Ashley cleaned herself up and went downstairs to say her goodbyes and thank yous to everyone who came today. Later on, Ashley was making dinner and while it was stewing, she looked over the island to see Carson and Brooklyn playing together. She turned to Dean and whispered,
"I can't wait to see how it'll be when number three gets here."
Dean brought her in for a hug and kissed her saying,
"I'm kind of worried about Brooklyn. She's been the baby for the past five years... and always got the attention just for it to be taken away."
"Okay, way to burst the bubble Deany, but we're just going to have to do with her what we did with Carson when Brooklyn arrived. She'll see that she isn't being "replaced" and better yet, has a new playmate."
"True."
After that they ate dinner, got their baths and went to bed. The usual night time routine. Ashley tucked in Brooklyn, leaned down and gave her a kiss and said
"I love you baby girl, I hope that you had a fun day today."
"I love you mommy! It was the bestest!" She exclaimed.
"Goodnight baby," Ashley said as she turned off the lights.
"Good night mommy."
Ashley returned to her room to meet her husband as he was getting relays for bed. He turned to her and said
"Why so glum?"
"Glum?" She chuckled.
"Yeah, I tried that dictionary your mom got me for Christmas last year recently. Thought I'd change up my vocab a bit."
" haha! It's nothing really, just thinking back on the past five years of ur kids lives. It's really amazing how much they've grown up and matured."
"I agree. I can't wait for our little family to be complete."
"Same." She said as she looked down at her still small belly. She rubbed it as a symbol of love.
"Good night babes." Dean said
"Good night Deany." Ashley returned as she turned off her light and went to sleep.