*Seb and Dori's house*

Dori had spent the night between the nursery with the twins and in the bedroom with Sebastien. She too wanted to be sure he rested. It had been more of a struggle to get him to sleep than the babies. As the morning sun streamed into the kitchen window, Dori checked the refrigerator once again. She had stocked it with drinks, sandwiches, salads, and snacks. Closing the door firmly, she checked the counter and counted the jars of baby food again, making sure there would be more than enough for the twins and Leila Elena for the day. The rest were tucked away in the pantry. Checking that off her mental list, she walked down the hallway and folded the last few clean clothes for the twins, shaking her head again at how much they had grown, hoping the tee-shirts would still fit. She and Mandi had gotten them months before a few sizes bigger than what the twins had been wearing at the time. Now Dori wasn’t sure. Hesitating just a moment, she pulled them from the basket and held them up to one of the tops she had just washed. The tee was slightly bigger. Dori sighed, re-folding both and putting them into the laundry basket.

The hand-held monitor in her back pocket caught her attention. As she listened again, she turned quickly and padded up the stairs. While it was still dark outside, she had turned off the monitor that he used, hoping he would sleep without distraction.

A moment later, she was in the nursery. Yannic was giggling and trying to clap her hands as Allie jabbered away gleefully. As they sensed the mother coming near, both stopped to look toward the footsteps, smiles erupting as soon as they saw her face.

“Good morning girls… are you ready for daddy’s big day? She picked up Allie and sat her on the floor. Soon, Allie was crawling about, glad to have more room than her crib to explore. Yannic was next and equally happy to wander off in a different direction as well. As Dori watched them, she continued to talk to them. “First, we’ll have a nice breakfast… some fruit and veggies… then, some play time… then a quick nap before lunch with the guys and little Leila Elena. You’ll have a playmate today while daddy’s busy singing. Oh… but don’t worry, even though you can’t see him, he will be thinking about you all day… and how much he loves you. He is so very proud of his girls. He is such a good daddy isn’t he? I think so.”

Dori talked to them softly, hoping she wouldn’t wake Sebastien, sleeping down the hall. What she hadn’t realized was that Sebastien had heard her coming up the steps, but hadn’t opened the door. He knew she would be upset if she didn’t think he was resting. He wanted her to be calm and strong… it was something he needed to rely on… today more than any other day. Listening to her made him smile, as he stood silently in the hallway, not wanting to interrupt at the moment.

“I think we should look especially pretty today girls… and we’ll save the special outfits for just before the concert… maybe after lunch as we don’t want them covered with food now do we?” Dori continued. Yannic and Allie both stopped to giggle a moment, before crawling over toward Dori. “So, this morning shall it be yellow or green today? Hmmm which one? Yellow like the sun or green like the fields… What do you think? “ Dori giggled and shook her head, opening another drawer to pull out some socks. “Like you can tell me…”

Using a funny high pitched voice, Sebastien said, “I want to wear a purple one… no a blue one…”As he stepped into the doorway, laughing. It was his Peek-a-Boo voice that the twins always seemed to giggle at.

Dori jumped and looked toward him blushing. “Oh, you are up. I’m sorry, was I too loud?”

Sebastien shook his head. “No, I had been up… just hiding so I wouldn’t get into trouble with you. I know…I know… I should be resting. But it’s a beautiful day and I want to spend some time with my girls before I go to work.“ He walked into the room and sat down in the middle of the floor. Turning his attention to the twins, he covered his eyes with his hands and waited a moment. A few seconds later, Yannic’s tiny hand was reaching for his arm, touching it lightly. “Peek-a-Boo… I see you!” He said in the funny voice moving his hands away.

Allie squealed with delight as she crawled toward him, abandoning the teddy bear that had occupied her attention seconds before. As she came closer, he covered his eyes again and waited. This time, both girls touched their daddy, as he looked to them repeating the words with the funny voice.

Soon Dori joined in. “Yannic, Allie, where’s daddy? Where is daddy? Do you see him? I can’t see him… can you?” In a matter of seconds, the family was laughing and giggling on the Nursery floor. Thirty minutes later, she stood saying. “Play nice with daddy while I start to get breakfast ready.”

Sebastien stopped her a moment, reaching up to kiss her hand softly. “How about we continue this downstairs so mommy doesn’t have so far to go? “
Dori nodded. Twenty minutes later, the twins were dressed and sitting in their high chairs having their breakfast, wearing more than they had eaten.
Sebastien and Dori watched the girls try to eat by themselves, helping out now and then as needed. Before long, the girls had tired of trying to eat by themselves and were willing to be fed. It had given Sebastien just enough time to finish his coffee and toast. Dori was still nibbling on hers off and on.

Sebastien smiled, “Come on girls… you want to grow up to be big and strong like daddy and mommy right? You have to eat… and so does mommy. Let’s show mommy how much you can eat.” As he spooned another bite into Allie’s mouth. Yannic shook her head and refused to eat any more. Dori laughed, wiping her face.