It made her smile and stared down at her little angel. Yeah, precious cargo will do that to you.
Unsurprisingly, her mother, his parents and Sals’s cars were there. A giant wooden stork holding a bundle was staked into his front yard. And a banner hung in front of his garage:
Welcome home baby Angel! We’ve been waiting for you!
Suddenly she was feeling emotional again. Their parents, Sal and Grace, holding their kids came out to meet them.
Angel’s mom already had a ton of food in the kitchen. “We won’t be here all day,” she promised. “but everyone will be stopping by at some point today so I just wanted to make sure you had enough for all of them.”
All day long people came through to welcome little Angel home. By the time the day was over they were exhausted. They lay in bed staring at their baby in between them.
“Do we really have to put him in his crib?” Sarah asked kissing the baby’s nose.
“Sal said we don’t wanna start bad habits. They messed up with little man. He is still sleeping with them. But I think this guy’s first night home we can make an exception.”
A year and a half later
A slap to the face woke Angel. “Hey man!”
His eighteen month old son was trying to climb his face, giggling.
“Why does he always slap my face to wake me?” He turned to little Angel and flipped him over, tickling him. His son laughed uncontrollably as Angel continued to push him down every time he tried to get up. At eighteen months, even for a preemie, he already outweighed Sofia’s baby girl; he wasn’t walking yet, which Valerie told them she should be happy about.
“My God, little Alex started running the moment he learned to walk and there was no stopping him. He’s been more of a handful then dealing with two baby girls!”
Handful or not Angel couldn’t help but get excited every time he saw him pull himself up to stand holding on to some thing. They’d both learned long ago not to compare him to other babies. He was a preemie and though physically he hardly looked the part anymore he was still technically a little behind but the doctors assured them just like his weight he’d catch up and the signs were all there. He’d be walking any day now. And he had no fear. Unlike Sofia’s little Samantha who cried the moment she so much as stumbled. Little Angel could fall and tumble and he’d get right back up with a grunt and even a laugh sometimes.
“Morning, baby,” Sarah said.
Little Angel stopped laughing for a second and turned to Sarah. She pulled him to her kissing his chubby little cheek. Angel watched as his son stared at Sarah with his big green eyes, reaching for her nose. Every one said he looked just like him only with Sarah’s eyes. All Angel saw when he looked at his son was Sarah’s eyes.
He thought back to the day he was born. How terrified they’d been about losing him. For a while there, both he and Sarah had been hesitant to even consider the thought of another baby. Neither had even talked about it, though at times he knew it made her sad to think that because of their fear little Angel might be an only child, Angel just couldn’t imagine going through all that again.
They both laughed a few months ago when Valerie exhaustedly announced she was pregnant again. Then just a few weeks later Sarah missed her period. It was the last thing they were thinking about and since they’d had such a hard time getting pregnant the first time Sarah hadn’t even bothered with birth control after having Angel.
Now they were going to find out if it was a boy or a girl. This time they wanted to know. Would they be getting bunk beds or fixing the other room to be fit for a princess?
Sarah poured herself coffee when her phone went off—a text.
Angel walked up from behind her with little Angel in his arms and kissed her temple. Little Angel reached out and grabbed her face with his little hands. She leaned in so he could give her a big sloppy kiss on the forehead.
“Who’s that, Syd?” Angel glanced at her phone. “Tell him the Cardinals are going down!”
“Ouww!” Little Angel mimicked his daddy.
“Yeah, tell ‘em, son. Chargers are gonna beat their ass. They’re going down!”
“Ouuww!”
Sarah laughed texting Sydney back. “I’ll let him know,” she said giggling.
Ever since they had the baby Syd started coming around more. He and Angel had sort of bonded during football season last year. Angel had even texted Syd a few times. Of course it was only when Syd’s team was down or lost to say, “In your face!” or some other cruder remark. They weren’t exactly tight and they probably never would be but this was a start and he knew it made Sarah happy.
After the ordeal they’d gone through with her first delivery, both of them couldn’t really care less about the new baby’s gender. All they wanted was healthy and no drama. Angel had admitted to wanting a little girl next but agreed with Sarah that healthy was first priority.
Their ride home from the doctor visit was a quiet one. The baby was sound asleep in the back seat. Angel reached for Sarah’s hand. “What are you thinking about?”
Sarah rested her head against the back of her seat and turned to him. “How blessed I am.”
“How blessed we are.”
She smiled. “Growing up I could only imagine what it was like to have any siblings. Valerie said the same thing the other day and now we’re both part of this huge family that seems to be growing by the minute. I can hardly believe I’ll soon have two little boys to chase after.”