Another Life

9

By the time we got home that night, Macie was already fast asleep and had been for a while, so instead we dismissed the babysitter and apologized to them for the later night than originally planned before we headed up to bed ourselves. The following morning we woke her up a little earlier than normal with the sole plan of giving ourselves enough time to explain it to her, knowing she might be a bit confused.

I don't know if she could tell something was up, she ate her breakfast without a fight and even sat at the table - which was the first actual meal she had whilst sat still the entire time. She then got dressed without so much as a word said from her. Usually there would be a huge fight against getting dressed, today was one of the three days in the week she had preschool so she had to wear leggings and a t-shirt, which she was never too happy about, she was a very dress-driven toddler and she let us know her opinions on pants loud and clear every time we got her dressed for preschool. She didn't mind jeans as much, but leggings were a big no no.

The no fighting meant we were left with much more time than we needed before we had to leave the door.

Whilst I was getting her dressed, Jay was downstairs getting her lunch packed with stuff we knew would just end up getting put back in cabinets or thrown out because she didn't eat it. Once we were both done we took her into the living room and tried to get her to sit down on the couch next to us, but she had other ideas, wanting to get some of her toys out.

After the fourth time of me repeating the same question Jay managed to get through to her. "Mace, come here I've got a secret to tell you." He said and I chuckled at how her face lit up and how she came running on to the couch, clearly eager to find out the secret. Why I hadn't thought of starting with that I'm not sure, knowing secrets (which she wouldn't keep after we told her) was her favourite thing right now.

She looked up to us with a glint in her bright blue eyes. "Secret?"

Jay nods. "Yeah, a secret, but you've got to promise to keep it just to yourself until we say so, it's top secret, can you do that?"

Macie nods happily, standing up on the couch cushions and stepping over my lap to sit in between us. "Yes! I do that."

Macie looks between the two of us, waiting for one of us to say something. I wasn't sure on what to say, or if Jay wanted to say it, and clearly we should have spoke about this first before we got in front of our toddler. Jay gives me a look, nudging me to be the one that speaks and Macie looks to me curiously as soon as I start.

"Mae, you know how momma hasn't been able to pick you up much anymore and how I've been feeling a little sick all the time?" I ask and Macie nods in response, "Well that's because I have a tiny baby in my tummy that right now is about the size of a pea."

Macie speaks up, her words very off-topic. "I don't like peas."

Her words gain a chuckle from Jay as he pats the top of her head, saying how we knew that fact very well.

She looks up to me with the wonder still written all over her face, the signature Halstead furrowed brows. "Did you eat a pea and that how it get there?" She asks and I can't help the wide grin on my face as I shake my head.

"No, baby, that's not how it got there." I tell her and immediately regret how I worded it because of what happened next.

"Then how it got there?" She asks.

Jay and I both shoot a look to each other over her head. We had always been amazed by her curiosity, it had helped progress her knowledge beyond some of the kids at her preschool. She was a smart kid, but we had always said it would come back up to bite us in the ass one day. This was that day. The two of us stammer for a moment and I'm thankful when Jay takes this one.