Chapter 13
The first time Sydney awoke to Kate’s cries, she had absolutely no idea what was going on. One second she was in a deep, peaceful sleep, the next there was a strange noise filling her bedroom, waking her up and causing her heart to race. It took her a moment to realize what it was, but when she did, she bolted to Kate’s side, lifting her up immediately. She squinted her eyes to look at the clock and saw that it was time for Kate to be fed once more. She then walked to the kitchen to warm up the bottle of formula she had mixed together before going to bed.
That time, though, Kate didn’t take her bottle as easily as she had been doing throughout the afternoon. She refused to suck on it until Sydney had walked with her around the kitchen for almost twenty minutes. By the time she crawled back into bed after Kate fell back asleep, she wasn’t even tired, which resulted in her tossing and turning for an hour before finally falling asleep, only to be awoken a few hours later by Kate.
This pattern continued and by Sunday, Sydney felt like a zombie who hadn’t slept or showered in days. The reason for her lack of sleep was obvious; the reason for her lack of cleanliness was that Sydney was too afraid to leave Kate for an instant, fearing she’d spontaneously combust, or something of the sort. Finally, she was too grossed out by her own appearance that she had to shower, so she carried Kate into the bathroom with her and placed her on the counter in her carrier while she took the world’s fastest shower. Kate, it appeared, didn’t even really notice Sydney had disappeared for the six minutes it took her to become cleaner, which Sydney found to be a good thing.
On Sunday evening around five-thirty, Sydney was just about to warm up a bottle for Kate when she heard a knock at her apartment door. Curious as to who it was, she left Kate in her carrier on the kitchen table while she went to investigate. She saw through the door peephole that it was Michael and for once in her life she had never been so thankful that she had showered. “Michael, hi,” she sighed when she opened the door.
“Hey, I hope this isn’t a bad time, but I have presents,” he smiled, holding up a paper bag with a pink bow on it. “I won’t stay long, I promise.”
“No, no it’s fine come in, please. I’m sorry I haven’t called you but… I really haven’t been participating in the real world,” she said with a soft laugh, letting him into her apartment.
“Understandable – you look beautiful though,” he said, kissing her cheek gently.
“Don’t lie Michael; I look dreadful. I haven’t slept since Friday morning,” she groaned.
“Beautiful,” he corrected. “So is she here?”
“Oh yea come on,” Sydney waved Michael into the kitchen with her and pointed towards the baby carrier.
“Oh god Syd she’s gorgeous. Aren’t you little angel? You’re a pretty, pretty little girl,” he said as he approached Kate. He set his gift down on the table beside her and gently touched one of her tiny little hands as he spoke to her. “You’ve just got the prettiest, biggest blue eyes I’ve ever seen.”
Then, he turned to Sydney and asked, “Can I hold her? I won’t drop her I promise – I’ve only dropped one baby once and I didn’t hurt my nephew at all, I swear,” he said with a wink. Sydney laughed softly and encouraged him to pick up Kate. Michael scooped her up like a pro and cradled her in one arm while still talking to her softly.
Watching how wonderful he was with, not just Kate, but with any baby, tears formed in Sydney’s eyes in utter amazement of the fact that her amazing boyfriend just got better. When Michael began tickling Kate’s feet and tummy, Sydney lost all control of herself and burst out into tears. Michael looked at her, slightly horrified. “It’s not you… well it is but it’s the sleep deprivation,” Sydney managed through her tears.
“Syd, sit down please,” Michael said in a calm tone, while handing her a tissue. She thanked him with a slight whimper and then sat down at the kitchen table, peering into the gift bag Michael brought with him.
“Oh diapers – bless you,” she sniffed.
“You’re welcome,” he laughed softly. “So, aside from the exhaustion are you two doing well?”
“Oh… yeah… well Kate’s great. She’s in perfect health… I’m a wreck – from the lack of sleep… plus I’m convinced I’m destroying her,” she said with a slight laugh.
“You are absolutely not destroying her.”
“Yea but I keep forgetting stuff like to feed her - felgercarb feed her,” Sydney moaned, slid out of her chair and headed towards the bottle she needed to heat up.
“I’ll do it – go sit on the couch, relax,” Michael told her. Sydney protested, saying that he didn’t have to, but Michael countered her protest by saying that he wanted to. “Besides, this is my absolute favorite stage of babies. They’re so adorable and cute and just in need of everything – I love it so really you’ll be doing me a favor,” he told her with a grin. Sydney couldn’t say no to that – first, he was too adorable to say no to, second she was actually too exhausted to say no – so she retreated to the couch.
Michael heated up Kate’s bottle before giving it to her. Though she wouldn’t take it at first, he was able to get her to using a trick he had picked up by watching his niece. “I’m Michael by the way,” he told her before gently ‘shaking’ her one hand with his thumb. “And you’re Kate. I figured we might as well be introduced since, you know, I’m feeding you and all,” he said with a soft laugh.
He walked into the other room with Kate, intending to sit on the couch with Sydney, but found that she was completely stretched out on the couch, asleep. He smiled slightly at this and went back into the kitchen where he wouldn’t wake her. Once Kate had finished her bottle, Michael wiped off some of her spit up from her chin before switching her to lie across his lap since his arm was getting a little tired.
“So you like me Kate? Maybe? Well I like you a lot and I have a feeling we might be seeing a lot of each other, you know why? Well, can you keep a secret?” he asked, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Of course you can’t even talk,” he laughed softly at his own joke before continuing, “Well, we’ll be spending a lot of time together because I really like your aunt,” he told her with a wink.
Michael tended to Kate for another half hour until she fell asleep. At that point, he wanted to put her down in her crib, but couldn’t figure out where it was, until he realized it was probably in Sydney’s bedroom, a place he hadn’t yet been. He entered it cautiously and changed Kate’s diaper before wrapping her tightly in a blanket and placing her into her pink-clad crib. Once Kate was down, he returned to the sitting room and picked up one of the many parenting books spread across Sydney’s coffee table.
When Sydney awoke and saw Michael flipping through a book to her left, she gasped loudly, “Oh god, I fell asleep!”
Michael smiled at her. “Don’t worry about it. I fed Kate, rocked her, changed her and put her to bed. She’s been asleep for… umm ‘bout an hour and a half or so,” he said after glancing at his watch.
“How long was I out?” Sydney asked with a yawn.
“Over two hours,” he told her.
“Oh god!” she said, feeling utterly terrible for wasting his time. “I’m so sorry you should have woken me up!”
“Absolutely not,” Michael told her seriously, moving to sit beside her. She looked wary. “It’s no problem, really, it was my pleasure. I’m gonna take off but you can call me anytime you need anything… or a few hours of baby sitting,” he told her with a wink. She laughed softly before kissing him gently and thanking him profusely. “No problem. See you Syd.”
“Bye,” she sighed. She then watched him leave, wondering how she had been so lucky to find someone as fantastic as him.
Chapter 14
On Monday morning, after following what had become her new routine of waking up, feeding Kate, changing her and then catching another two hours of sleep while Kate took a mid-morning nap, Sydney called her boss, Mr. Dixon to make sure he had received her frantic message a few days earlier. She would have called sooner except that her offices were closed over the weekend and Friday had been consumed with frantic shopping and sobbing sessions.
When she reached her boss, he confirmed that he had received her message and offered her congratulations on her new daughter. He even asked for a picture to be emailed to him if possible. He also told her that as of that day, her six week maternity leave would kick in. Sydney thanked him and hung up having a sinking suspicion that those six weeks would feel more like six minutes because the previous five days and seemed like only a matter of seconds.
By the time Thursday rolled around, signaling Kate’s one week old milestone, Sydney was convinced that she would be able to survive motherhood without a doubt. After all, things were going well for her. She loved Kate more by the second and though she was tired, she was at least getting used to getting up at midnight and then again at five am to feed Kate. Most importantly, though, she had created a pattern and routine for herself, which helped her make sure she wasn’t missing anything.
Things were going well for her, until Thursday night that was. She woke up to Kate’s cries at midnight and went to feed her, but Kate took no interest in the bottle Sydney was offering. She walked her around her apartment for half an hour trying to quell her cries, but nothing seemed to work. As time wore on, Sydney began to panic, thinking something was seriously wrong with Kate. She found a baby thermometer that her mother had purchased and took Kate’s temperature. It was only 99.0, meaning she wasn’t in dire need of medical attention, so Sydney went back to rocking her gently.
Finally, around two am, Kate drank some of her bottle, though most of what she drank she spit back up. After another hour, Kate finally cried herself to sleep and Sydney went to bed herself, utterly exhausted. She wasn’t able to rest too long, though, for at six thirty Kate’s cries struck up once again.
Kate’s eating a bit, spitting up and crying pattern continued until noon when Sydney, practically in tears herself, called her mother for help for the first time since the first day they had helped her. Of course, Irina rushed right over.
“I don’t know what to do – she won’t eat and she won’t stop crying and I didn’t sleep and I think I broke her!” Sydney wailed to her mother as soon as Irina walked into her apartment.
“Sydney, Sydney you didn’t break her,” Irina said softly, stroking her daughter’s tear-stained cheeks.
“Bu-but she won’t stop,” Sydney sniffed, looking down to Kate, whose face was red from all the screaming she was doing.
“Let me try, alright? Have you taken her temperature?” Irina asked, scooping up her granddaughter. Sydney nodded and informed her mother that she had taken it only a few hours earlier and that it was 98.9. “Well she’s not sick then, she’s probably just agitated about something. You go take a nap and I’ll take care of her,” Irina told her overly exhausted daughter. Sydney was in no state to protest so she just shuffled into her bedroom and collapsed down onto her bed.
As soon as Sydney was gone, Irina took over, using every trick she had come up with after raising two daughters to try and calm Kate’s cries. It took her the better part of half an hour to do so, but finally all her work paid off and Kate fell asleep. Unfortunately for all of them, Kate only managed to sleep for a few hours before she was up screaming again. At that point, Irina tried to feed her but was unsuccessful at getting Kate to keep very much of the formula down. Shortly after this, Sydney awoke and the two women worked together to help calm the little girl.
By early evening Kate had worn herself out again and fallen asleep at which point both Sydney and Irina collapsed onto the couch, very worn out themselves. “Why is she doing that Mom?” Sydney whimpered. “Doesn’t she like me anymore?”
“Of course she does Sydney. Babies are just fussy some times for seemingly no reason at all. I remember one time when your sister was about two months old and she just started crying and crying and crying and your father and I couldn’t get her to stop. She went on for… oh I don’t know how long – hours until she was actually getting hoarse and you came up to us and asked if we could put her in the garage,” Irina said with a soft chuckle.
“Oh no!” Sydney laughed. “How’d you get her to stop?”
Irina shrugged slightly. “She just stopped on her own, but that was a very rough day.”
“Tell me about it,” Sydney groaned as she rolled her head onto her mother’s shoulders. The two of them were just starting to relax when Kate’s cries began once more. This time, Sydney went to her rescue, cringing slightly at the fact that Kate’s high pitched wails were giving her a piercing headache.
“I have an idea,” Irina said to her haggard daughter. She ushered for Sydney to follow her into the bathroom and Sydney followed willingly, desperate to try anything that would help. Irina picked up the empty tub Sydney had been using to bathe her daughter in and filled it with warm water before instructing Sydney to strip Kate down and place her into the bath. Then, once Kate was being supported in the tub by Sydney’s hands, Irina began using a washcloth to gently clean Kate’s chest, arms and legs. Amazingly, this calmed her and quieted her cries to occasional slight whimpers.
“It’s working,” Sydney whispered. She didn’t want to raise her voice too loudly and risk upsetting Kate and at the same time feared she couldn’t speak too loudly because she was near tears of relief.
After Kate’s bath, Irina began to dress her while Sydney ran out to get herself and her mother some dinner (she had volunteered to go since she hadn’t actually left her apartment in a week and was beginning to feel like the rest of the world had vanished). When she returned she was thankful to find Kate was eating and, most importantly, was quiet.
“Thank you so much Mom… I seriously would not have made it without you,” Sydney said to her as they were eating.
“Of course, anytime,” her mother smiled. Then, she reached across the table and grabbed tightly to Sydney’s hand. “I’m so proud of you Sydney, you know that? What you’re doing here is just amazing and I’m so, so glad you’re doing it. I love you Sydney.”
“I love you too Mom,” Sydney smiled at her. “And I love this one… when she’s quiet,” she laughed and gestured towards Kate, who was in her carrier sucking on her pacifier.
“I love her too – all the time, but it is easier when she’s not wailing, you’re right,” Irina said with a slight laugh.
Chapter 15
Early on Saturday morning, Sydney received a call from Will, asking if he could stop by to talk and to see the baby. She told him to give her at least half an hour, but after that any time would be fine. He told her he’d be there within an hour and, immediately after hanging up, Sydney frantically began cleaning her house and herself since it was a disaster area due to Kate’s two-day (practically) non-stop crying-fest.
When Will arrived at quarter to eleven, Sydney was just putting the finishing touches on the little bit of makeup she had put on to make herself feel human again. “Hey come on in,” Sydney smiled to him as she opened the door.
“Syd you look gorgeous, as always of course, but you’re looking extra special this morning,” Will said to her.
She laughed at his obvious lie to make her feel better. “Probably because I showered for the first time in days this morning,” she laughed.
“Ah well at least you don’t stink,” he smiled to her. She rolled her eyes slightly and followed him into the sitting area where Kate was sitting in her carrier sucking on her pacifier. “Syd she’s adorable. She looks like you too,” Will told her.
“Impossible, but thanks anyway,” Sydney laughed slightly.
“Not really, I mean, you and your sister looked pretty similar so if she looks like Nadia she would thus look like you,” Will pointed out. Sydney gave him a smile, having, surprisingly, never thought of that before. “Anyway, down to business,” Will said, holding out a manila envelope to Sydney.
“What’s this?” she asked, taking it. Will said nothing as she opened it up and pulled out the rather thick set of papers. Confused, Sydney looked to Will for further explanation for there was no way she could decipher the legal jargon on the papers she held.
“Finalized adoption papers,” he told her with a smile. Then he added with a wink, “I told you I knew a guy.”
“Wait, for real?!” Sydney asked excitedly. Will nodded. Sydney gave a squeal and threw her arms around Will’s neck, hugging him tightly. “Thank you so, so, so much!”
“Of course,” Will said, laughing slightly. Then he released Sydney from the hug and focused on Kate, gently rubbing her tummy. “You’ve officially got a mommy little one,” he said to her.
“I guess she does,” Sydney said with a slight laugh, still in disbelief that Kate was really hers, yet at the same time, she couldn’t imagine Kate not being hers. “You wanna hold her?”
“Um, yeah I guess,” Will said with a slight shrug. “I’ve never held a baby before.”
“Oh well it’s real easy just have a seat,” Sydney gestured towards the couch behind them. Will sat as Sydney lifted Kate from her carrier and transferred her to Will’s arms. He held her incredibly awkwardly and just stared down at her while Sydney arranged her limbs and adjusted her onesie.
“She’s heavier than I would have thought,” Will commented.
“Well she might be almost eight pounds by now,” Sydney told him.
“Ah well she’s cute,” Will said. He leaned over and tried to pass Kate back to Sydney as gently but as quickly as possible.
“What’s the matter?” Sydney asked with a slight laugh, wondering why he was giving her up so quickly.
“I… don’t like babies…”
“You don’t like babies?!” Sydney asked in utter shock. Will shrugged and shook his head. “Why not? How can you not like this adorable little face?” she asked, her tone switching to a baby-fied one as she pinched one of Kate’s chubby cheeks.
“She’s adorable I just don’t like babies; don’t want kids,” he explained. “Anyway, I need to be going. Make sure to keep those papers in a safe place.”
“Thanks Will!” Sydney called after him as he left her apartment. Then, she turned her attention back to Kate asking her in a soft but shocked voice, “How can he not like babies? He’s craaaaazy isn’t he, hmm?” Kate stared up at her blankly. “Just what I thought,” Sydney said, laughing slightly.
Later that afternoon, Sydney was folding laundry while rocking Kate, who was whimpering slightly, in her carrier with her foot. Just as she had gathered up a stack of laundry in one hand and Kate in the other she heard a knock at her door. “Great,” she grumbled, trying to find a way to put down the contents of her arms without dropping everything. She managed it, though, and lifted Kate to her shoulder so she could open the door. “Michael,” she beamed when she saw him.
“Hey Syd, Kate,” he smiled at them. “Brought ya something.”
“Oh Michael you didn’t – a stroller!” she gasped when she saw what Michael was dragging behind him.
“Yep, I saw you didn’t have one yet so…,” he let his voice drift off and shrugged.
“Oh Michael thank you I do need one but this is too much I-”
“Stop,” he cut off her rambling with a smile. “It’s my sisters. There’s nothing wrong with it but she had to get one of those double side-by-side ones you know for her two little munchkins. She didn’t know what she was going to do about it, but when I mentioned you and Kate she offered it up as a gift – which, by the way, I showed her those pictures you emailed me and Emily loves Kate. Seriously, she wants her. In fact, she asked her husband right away if they could have another baby,” he said with a slight eye roll.
Sydney laughed. “Is she insane?”
“Basically. If Emily had her way she’d have eighty seven children – no joke either. She just wants babies, babies and more babies. Well, I doubt she’d want to have eighty seven grown children, but she’d love to have babies around constantly. She’s really sick that one,” he smiled.
“Apparently,” Sydney laughed. “Well tell her thank you very much. Kate will definitely get use out of this.”
“I will pass along that message,” he told her with a grin. Then, he walked around the stroller, which was difficult since it was mostly blocking the narrow entryway to Sydney’s apartment, and kissed Sydney gently before rubbing Kate’s back. Sydney passed her off to Michael, knowing that he wanted to hold her. He took her with a grin and tickled her tummy lightly asking, “So how are we doing?”
“We are doing very well. In fact I-” Sydney stopped mid-word, almost telling Michael about the adoption papers but then realizing that Michael didn’t actually know about the adoption at all; as far as he knew, Sydney was just taking care of Kate temporarily. Quickly, she tried to back track, “I- I was just about to feed her – hopefully we won’t be revisiting it this time,” she said with a slight nervous laugh.
“Uh oh, are you spitting up?” Michael asked Kate. “Aren’t you hungry in this tummy right here, hmm? Hmm?”
“Maybe she’s on her very first diet,” Sydney joked. Michael rolled his eyes slightly at her before following her into the kitchen. “So how’ve you been?”
“Kinda missing you,” he told her with a smile. She smiled back at him. “But other than that I’ve been kinda swamped with work since, apparently, three people decided to quit on Tuesday and then another two before the end of the week,” he said with a slight grumble.
“Serious?!” Sydney gasped. He nodded. “Uh oh, what happened? Do you know?”
“Well, apparently they were friends who were practicing an ‘all for one, one for all’ motto,” he rolled his eyes. “Whatever, they’re the ones without jobs now.”
“Right,” Sydney laughed as she warmed up Kate’s bottle. “It’s surprising how much I’m actually not missing work… but then again it’s not like I’m not busy.”
“Exactly… so you think that maybe sometime this week I could come over after work and bring you dinner or something?” he asked.
Sydney shrugged. “Sure anytime, it’s not like I have a pressing social calendar.”
“Just checking,” he smiled.
Sydney fed Kate while talking to Michael and then the two of them retreated to the couch with Kate in her carrier on the coffee table across from them. It wasn’t long before Sydney and Michael began making out, having missed each other in the almost two weeks since the last time they had been on a real date. After only a few moments though, Sydney pulled back and looked nervously towards Kate. “You think she wonders what we’re doing?” she asked nervously.
“Uh, no, she probably can’t even see us,” Michael told her.
“Michael she’s not blind.”
“No, but we’re like three feet from her and she’s barely a week old; babies can’t focus on things that far away for a little while yet,” he explained.
“Oh… okay then,” she smiled and kissed him once more.
“Wait,” he laughed, pulling back. “Are you afraid we’re gonna like… scar her?!” he asked. She nodded. “Syd, I highly doubt me kissing you is going to scar her. Other things possibly but kissing, definitely no.”
“Juuuust making sure,” she said. He rolled his eyes at her before pulling her into another kiss.
Chapter 16
Sydney could hardly believe how quickly the time was passing. Before she knew it, she was in her fifth week of maternity leave meaning she only had one week left at home with her precious baby girl. She couldn’t dwell on that, though, for every time she did she nearly broke down in tears.
Though the first five weeks of Kate’s life had been difficult, they had been the best weeks of Sydney’s life. She was amazed by how quickly Kate was developing even though she was just barely a month old. Her favorite part by far was the first time she had really noticed Kate snuggling up to her body as she cradled her; that was the best feeling in the world. Some days were still rougher than others though, especially since Kate was still needing her midnight and five am feedings. When things became too overwhelming, though, Sydney’s mother would help out by spending the night and thus allowing Sydney one interruption-free night of sleep (which had happened only twice, but was very welcomed).
In addition to Sydney’s parents, Michael was helping out as well. He’d stop over occasionally in the evenings after work and watch Kate for an hour so that Sydney could take a longer than five minute shower or just go outside for a brief walk so she didn’t feel like such a prisoner in her own apartment.
On the Saturday after Kate’s five week old birthday, Sydney and Michael took her on her first outing. They put her in her stroller and intended to walk with her around Sydney’s apartment complex. This, of course, made Sydney very nervous since it was the first time Kate was going out in ‘public’ after leaving the hospital. Michael assured her that it would be fine and that the fresh air would actually be good for Kate. He pushed the stroller as they walked, while Sydney checked on Kate practically every other minute.
“Syd, seriously, she’s fine,” Michael told her with a slight laugh.
Sydney blushed slightly. “I can’t help it.”
“I know,” he said, putting an arm around her. “But she’s surviving. So I wanted to ask you, did you maybe want to go to dinner tonight to, you know, get out of the house? You don’t have to, I mean…I’m just offering,” he said with a slight shrug.
“Oh,” Sydney said, her tone short. She did want to go out with Michael or out anywhere really, yet at the same time she hadn’t really left Kate alone for more than half an hour and, even then, she had been in the same apartment. Sydney wasn’t sure if she was quite ready to leave her entirely. “Well… I don’t know. I mean I think my parents have plans and-”
“Emily could watch her,” Michael suggested.
“Michael, I cannot impose on your sister; I don’t even know her!” Sydney insisted.
“But I do and trust me, she’d love it. In fact, she’d probably even pay you to let her watch Kate,” he said so seriously that Sydney laughed softly. “It’s okay though, I don’t want to force you, I’m just offering.”
The tone in Michael’s voice made Sydney feel awful. She knew that most likely deep down he really didn’t care and understood why she hadn’t exactly been a stellar girlfriend over the previous five weeks. Yet, on the surface he obviously wanted her to go with him and she wanted to go as well. Besides, she did have to leave Kate sometime. In fact, starting in only a week she had to leave Kate for eight hours a day, so she needed to have practice being able to leave her. “Okay… I’ll go, but we’re not going to be long, right?”
“No more than an hour I promise,” he told her. “Are you sure you want to go though?”
She nodded. “Are you sure Emily won’t mind watching her?”
“One hundred percent positive,” he told her with a grin.
~*~
Getting ready for her date, Sydney was more nervous than she had ever been. Not about the date itself, of course, but more about leaving Kate with someone she had never met before. She trusted Michael and trusted him when he said that Emily was perfectly qualified, so she wasn’t worried that Emily would do anything to harm Kate, just that Kate would be afraid and wonder where Sydney had gone. Most of all she feared Kate would think Sydney had abandoned her.
She was so nervous she could hardly follow the directions to Emily’s house that Michael had given her. She found her way there, though, and saw Michael’s car already parked out front when she arrived. The lawn in front of Emily’s house was full of children’s toys lying haphazardly around. Sydney smiled softly at this. It didn’t seem messy to her, but homey and she hoped that maybe someday she could have a house that had toys out front belonging to Kate.
She pulled Kate’s carrier out of the car along with her diaper bag before heading up the front path to Emily’s house. She didn’t even have to ring the doorbell because just as she stepped on the front porch Michael opened the door. “Evening beautiful,” he smiled at her.
“Hi,” she said, stepping inside the house.
“OOO there she is!” a tall blond woman squealed as she barreled into the foyer. “Hi I’m Emily Grant you must be Sydney and this must be little Kate! Oh she’s precious,” Emily cooed into the baby carrier. “Oh I could just eat her up!”
Sydney looked at Michael who was giving her an ‘I told you so’ look and laughed slightly. “It’s nice too meet you Emily.”
“Of course you too! Come on in and you can meet everyone. Neil, Hanna, Robert this is Sydney; Sydney this is everyone,” Emily introduced her son, daughter and finally her husband. Sydney gave a slight wave as she observed the Grant family, who all appeared to have matching green eyes.
“Oh mom, not another one,” Neil wrinkled up his nose as he peered into the carrier Sydney was holding.
“Relax buddy you’re not keeping this one; she’s just visiting,” Michael said as he scooped up his nephew.
“Oh good,” Neil said. Sydney laughed softly at this.
Emily gestured for Sydney and Michael to sit on the couch and they did so, Sydney putting Kate in between them. “Can I?” Emily asked, gesturing to Kate. Sydney nodded and helped Emily lift her tiny daughter out of her carrier. “Oh she’s just the sweetest little dear. Aren’t you just?” Emily cooed at Kate.
Sydney relaxed slightly at the fact that Kate seemed to be taking to Emily well, not crying at all. “Well you two can be on your way; we’ll be fine,” Emily said after they had been talking a few moments. Sydney looked cautiously towards Michael, suddenly having a total panic attack, but his reassuring smile made her feel slightly better.
“O-okay,” Sydney said, taking Kate from Emily momentarily and kissing her head. “Mommy will be back soon okay? I love you,” she told her quietly before returning her to Emily’s arms. Then, she backed her way slowly out of the house as Michael held her hand, her eyes never leaving Kate until the very last second.
“Let’s go beautiful,” Michael told her with a smile. Sydney gave him a tiny smile in return but inwardly her heart was breaking; it was going to be a long evening.
Chubby-cheeks-Kate is so lucky to have Sydney and terrific grandparents!