The rest of the morning passed with getting Toby’s new bed into his room, now that Anna’s parents were there to help, and dismantling the old cot. As soon as his new bed was ready for him, Toby grinned at Anna and lay down, pulling his new blanket up and completely over himself. All that was left was a wriggling lump under the cover.
There was a pang in her stomach as she looked at the pieces of the cot on the floor.
He was growing up.
A hand cupped her shoulder, and she nearly jumped. Her father stood behind her, an odd look playing over his features as he watched the lump wriggle further down the bed.
She put her hand over his and watched Toby.
“Right now, it’s like I’m watching Jake when we put him in his first bed.”
The grip she had on his fingers tightened. For a moment, she almost didn’t breathe, as if she could scare him off with the slightest movement.
“Jake called me when they got Ella in her first bed, asking if it was legal to sedate kids.”
Andrew gave a startled laugh. “My son did that? Really?”
“It was the second week, and the new freedom meant getting her to stay in her bed was a nightmare. He called saying they found her in the kitchen playing with her tea set at two a.m. He said that if he had to sit down and pretend to be ‘Mrs Bird’ in the early hours of the morning one more time to pacify her into going back to bed, he’d scream.”
“He’d do that with her?”
She nodded—of course he had. Her brother had done anything for his kids. “It settled after a few weeks, but Sally sent me a photo of him on the kitchen floor downstairs wearing a purple feather scarf and blearily eating fake biscuits.”
Andrew gave a small chuckle, and his hand stayed on her shoulder, as heavy as a promise.
As Toby became bored with what he was doing, he scooted on his bottom to the gap at the end, past the small guardrail that ran along the edge of the bed. After a moment of staring at it with a furrowed brow, he figured it out, managing to slide down and grin at them, his sense of triumph unmistakable. With a final pat of the sheets, he walked up to take Anna’s offered hand.
“Ella?” His l’s still came out more like y’s.
“Want to find your sister?”
Toby nodded, then held out his hand to his grandfather, who took it, giving him a small smile. “Ganpa.”
Andrew’s smile only grew as they were tugged downstairs.
Giving up on getting Toby down for his usual late morning rest, they instead all sat on the front porch, watching Toby ride his tricycle up and down the front path while Ella followed on her scooter.
Her leg bouncing slightly, Anna asked her mother, “And you picked up the cake?”
“For the third time, ‘yes’. And I brought the cupcakes I made.”
“Sorry, just—what if all the mums there judge me? What if I throw a crappy birthday party?”
Kym snorted into her mug. “As if.”
“What does that mean?”
“You spent three weeks researching toddler’s birthday parties on the web, Anna. You made lists. You bought half the grocery store and the toy store. We were up until all hours sorting the prizes and the bags and everything.” She raised her eyebrows at her. “We’ve checked everything off list one.”
From where she stood leaning against the railing next to Andrew, Sandra coughed. “List one?”
Anna’s cheeks warmed as Lane fought through her laughter. “There’s three lists: pre, during, and post.”
Andrew joined in, and immediately, Sandra cocked her head at him. “Uh, excuse me, why are you laughing? You made an itinerary for Anna’s first week home from the hospital that you expected the newborn to follow.”
Lane snorted, and Kym elbowed her, biting her lip to smother what Anna assumed was a laugh. Rubbing the back of his neck, Andrew looked anywhere but at them.
With a tightly pressed grin, Anna turned back to Lane and Kym. “See, there’s a reason I am how I am.”
Amusement brightened Sandra’s expression. “Honey, if you expect to have time to check off a list during a toddler’s birthday, you’re in for a horrible shock.”
“I was at Ella’s parties; there’ll be time.”
Sandra smirked, a look that didn’t quite fit her. “You think there’s time because you were being cool aunty giving awesome gifts and playing with them? Sally was running around like a headless chook ensuring soccer Mums didn’t bitch each other to death, that no one fell over and damaged themselves, and that the kids didn’t implode from too much sugar.”
Anna’s eyes went wide, and Sandra sipped her tea with a grimace. “That probably wasn’t the calming thing I was meant to say.”
Lane and Kym snickered.
At one thirty, they all walked to the park, except for Andrew, who drove the car filled with the party supply boxes they’d packed the night before. While Toby and Ella played, the adults blew up balloons and hung them with streamers all over the barbecue area. Anna clutched her clipboard and gave her mother a smug look.
Infuriatingly, her mother only responded with a benign smile.
Come two o’clock, people were arriving, and the park filled with screaming and laughter.
Anna had invited some of Ella’s friends from school and pretty much the entire day care population. Pretty soon, she didn’t have time to even think of her list. As Toby pulled apart wrapping paper, Anna had to ensure everyone got a ‘thank-you’, that food was distributed, and that introductions were made. It was hectic and exhausting, and why did children squeal so much? Anna barely remembered to sit. It wasn’t until Lane floated past and pushed a couple of the cut-up sandwiches into her hand with a chuckle that Anna realised an hour had already passed and she hadn’t eaten anything since a few pancakes early that morning.
During games time, the various ages of the kids clashed, with the older ones who understood the rules exhibiting increasing signs of frustration at the younger ones who kept wanting to play with the boxes the presents came in or throw wrapping paper at each other. One red-cheeked five-year-old even hit his younger brother on the head with a sauce bottle. But eventually, prizes were handed out, and Anna gave silent thanks that there were only three incidents of sugar-hyped tears.
As she stood over the cake box in exhaustion, Anna pulled it open with a long, relieved breath. Cake meant it was almost over. Next year, she would take Toby to the cinema or pay her mother a million dollars to do it for her.
“Hey.”
The soft words trickled over her, and she leant back against Lane’s chest. “Hey,” she said. “Fancy seeing you here.”
When Anna finished putting candles on the cake, careful not to destroy the overpriced design printed upon it, Lane stepped out from behind her, gazing at her with a soft look.
“You okay?”
Across the park, Ella was patiently showing Toby how to use the bubble blower someone had bought him. She had a crowd of kids around her, all in their best party clothes, jaws hanging open as the bubbles flowed out around them. Inevitably, they started trying to slap and step on them as the bubbles flurried in the wind.
“Yeah. I’m okay.”
Lane nodded. “It’s been a great party.”
“It has.” Yet, Anna looked back down at the cake, even as Lane pushed Anna’s hair back off her shoulders and rested her fingers atop the dampness along Anna’s neck. “What is it?”