“Actually, I have.” I stand proudly and walk over to the back passenger door where the car is stuffed with dog necessities.
“Okay, well, get them all inside. Then you’ll unload the car, while I play with them.” She smiles brightly and begins to walkup the steps slowly, while talking to the puppy with the purple bow around its neck.
“I think Mommy’s happy,” I whisper to the blue-bowed one.
After a few attempts, I manage to collect all four of the remaining dogs in my arms and walk them into the house, over to the living room where Aubrey and Marianne are gushing over the little pup.
“Oh my!” Marianne exclaims when she sees the other four. “You really enjoy having your hands full, don’t you?” She laughs wholeheartedly.
Chuckling, I let them go and head back to the car to collect all my purchases. After two trips, I’m finally done. I place the five doggie beds one beside the other along the wall, all different colors that match their bows, and hand Marianne the food and water bowls as I follow behind her with the large bag of food. Each pup will have two bowls with its matching color.
As I line them up against a wall in the kitchen, literally taking up the whole space, Marianne giggles behind me. “You do realize that will not work out in your favor.”
I smile at the row of metal bowls on the floor. “We’ll train them to go to their appropriate spot.”
“And when Stellina begins to crawl?” She raises a brow at me with a knowing smirk.Damn, I didn’t think of that.
“Then we’ll figure something out when the time comes.” I shrug. We’ll be figuring out a lot of things along the way.
I’m about to head back to the living room when I remember we left Stellina’s bedroom door open. I wouldn’t want one of the pups going in there and making a mess. I wander over to our daughter’s room, taking the time to look at it, and every time I do, I get a little more emotional.
The work Morgan did is phenomenal. The walls of the room are now a soft lilac, with all the furnishings light wood or white with an oval-shaped crib. When Morgan asked Aubrey whattheme she would like for the nursery, Aubrey told her the night sky yet light-tones at the same time.
Morgan then gave the idea to hang white fluffy clouds from the ceiling with miniscule LED lights behind them. When nightfall came and we turned off the lights, the little LED lights would shine through the clouds, mimicking the stars in the sky.
Aubrey jumped on the idea and even added a specific request. She wanted one specific constellation to shine brighter than the rest. Andromeda. I love how Aubrey always tries to tie in my family legacy with our daughter.
I shut the door behind me and return to Aubrey. She’s now sitting on the floor, getting kiss-attacked by all five of the puppies as she laughs her heart away. “Come on, little guys, give Mama some space.” I chuckle and pull them away from her.
“How are we supposed to name them all, Shane?” She drags herself backward until her back is up against the foot of the couch as I take a seat beside her and toss a few toys toward the puppies.
“We could name them by their color. There’s Bluey, Greeny, Pinky, Purply, and Yellowy.” I smile, satisfied with myself, but Aubrey’s outburst of giggles tells me she’s not on board.
“Absolutely not. I am not naming my dog Yellowy.” She bites her lip, thinking. “How many boys and girls do we have?”
“Blue, green, and yellow are males. Pink and purple are females.”
“Okay. So, three boy names and two girl names.” She nods her head slowly, still thinking.
A thought pops into my mind. “I’ve got it.” I start by pointing to the yellow one who has the lightest color of fur. “Muffin.” Then to the green bow that has a darker shade of fur than the rest. “Brownie.”
I move on to the purple bow that’s playing with a chew toy. “Cookie.” And finish by nodding to the pink bow sleeping in Aubrey’s lap. Both girls have identical golden fur. “Cupcake.”
Blue Bow runs up to me and crawls up my lap and into my arms, like he knows he’s the last one left and is waiting excitedly to hear what we choose.
“Now, what should we name you?” I lift him up and press my face to his, letting him lick me all over. His coat is the same color as his sisters’, but his ears are a darker shade like Brownie.
“Sprinkles,” Aubrey says as she glides her hand down his back.
“Sprinkles. I love it.” I smile, kissing his head.
“And I love you, even if you just made us five-time parents. Soon to be six.” Aubrey giggles as she lays her head on my shoulder.
“God, I can’t believe our baby girl is going to be here soon.” I let Sprinkles run off and play with his brothers as I turn my head to the side and kiss Aubrey’s crown. “It feels like we just found out you were pregnant.”
“I know. Time went by fast, and now in just eight weeks our daughter will be in our arms.” She glides a hand over her stomach as I place mine over hers. Cupcake lifts her head and sniffs our joined hands, then rests her head against them.
Stellina kicks beneath our hands, like she can sense us there. It’s a simple moment, yet I’d trade anything in this world to relive this moment daily. My future wife, our daughter, our little furry babies, all together.
