The backyard of Don Cragen's house out in Westchester County was covered in Dora the Explorer birthday decorations. After so long, Cragen never thought he'd actually see his place be home to a kid's birthday party (and Mike Logan's kid at that!), but there he was - and there they all were - him, Mike and Millie, along with some of Millie's relatives, waiting for more guests to arrive and watching the little girl in question run around. Isabel was already hyper, although she had not yet had any sugar.

"Mami, Mami, I wanna go in the poool now," Isabel said for what must have been the dozenth time.

Millie, in a maternity dress that was summery, but did nothing to hide her nearly-five-months baby bump, shook her head. She was surprised that Isa hadn't already jumped in while they had their heads turned. Thanks to those baby-swim lessons she'd had since she was less than a year old, the toddler knew how to swim, but still. "You gotta wait till the other kids get here," Millie said again.

Isabel frowned. "Chris an' Marcus an' Daisy are here!" She pointed over at her three cousins. Daisy was playing with one of Isabel's toys, Marcus was busying himself with a book and Chris was over by the chaise lounge where Mike was lying, asking him what seemed to be a string of non-stop questions.

"Yes, yes, I can make a quadruple-stuffed Oreo," Mike said, lining up the Oreos he had assembled on his chest to show his nephew just that.

To Isabel, Millie replied, "All your other friends still have to get here."

Isabel bounced up and down impatiently, wanting to do something. "Uncle Donnie, Uncle Donnie," she ran over to her godfather. "I help you cook?"

Cragen, at the grill, just chuckled. "You helped your mom decorate," he told her, eying the haphazard streamers that were at toddler-height on various places around the backyard. "I think you've done enough helping today."

Isabel wandered over to where her Aunt Pedra and Uncle David were sitting with their baby, her cousin Gabriel. "...Uncle Dabid, you wan' anodder baby?" Isabel said, smiling sweetly.
"Huh?" David looked up.
"You can have the new baby," Isabel said, pointing to her mother.
"...but he's going to be your brother," David said, smirking. "Your mom couldn't get rid of me and you can't get rid of him."
Isabel frowned. "No, I'mma have a kitty," she informed him. "It's my birthday!"
"...hey, Millie," David called out to his older sister, "Your kid's trying to sell your other kid..."
"...yeah, that's her new thing," Millie said. "Give the baby away..."

While they went back and forth about this, Isabel sneaked away and quickly shed her dress. In her swimsuit, she went as fast as her little feet would carry her and dove into the swimming pool. Mike jumped up when he saw her running, but with Chris in his way and a pile of Oreos flying everywhere, he wasn't quick enough to catch her. As he yelled her name, everyone else turned to see what was going on.

Just as Isabel came up for air, Mike scooped her out. "I swim, I swim!" Isabel insisted, kicking her legs as she was brought up and out of the pool.

"Not without supervision," Mike scolded her. "And not until Mami says."

Isabel whined, and then ran over toward the side of the house, hoping for more party guests to arrive so she could get back in.

Isabel's birthday is tomorrow. I can't believe she's going to be three. Her party is on Saturday but we've still got our traditional stuff planned for her tomorrow (cake for breakfast, whatever she wants for dinner and letting her open a couple of her presents). She's pretty excited. Me, I'm wondering how three years went by so fast -- and how my tiny preemie baby got so big.

( Private Thoughts )

We went for the sonogram yesterday.

...it's a boy!

...yeah. Having a baby boy. Totally weird.

...and we finally told Isa... She wasn't too happy, but oh, well. She'll have to get used to it. I know I had to when my little brother was born a couple years after me.

I'm not even four months along - still have till the end of the month for that - and I'm bigger than I was with Isabel at this point. Mike keeps mentioning (thanks so much) that I'm eating a ton...and to top it all off, this morning (she still doesn't know, we're trying to wait till we find out the gender) Isabel climbed up into my lap, patted my stomach and said, "Mami, you are fat."

Fuhhhh.

I'm glad we know someone with a pool, but going up to Westchester two weekends in a row was a bit much. I mean, I'm glad Isabel is having fun and that Mike and Donnie get to do their guy thing, but I'm tired. I think I've been looking at the same piece of paperwork for over ten minutes.

I need to get with it or I'm gonna fall asleep right here at my desk. *yawwwn*

So I guess I should announce this before people start playing some sorta guessing game when it starts to show. ...I'm pregnant. Around three months. Baby's due in late November. We'll find out next month if it's a boy or a girl...

...and we haven't told Isabel yet, so, uh, please don't mention "new baby" around her yet.

Millie walked out of her mother's apartment building, Isabel holding her hand. As they went down the street toward the subway station, her cell phone went off. She reached down to her hip, unclipped the phone and answered. "This is Millie," she said.

( Read more... )

Easter was...interesting. Isa insisted on wearing her Max costume instead of the dress we got her. Figures. We stopped by Cole's on the way to my brother's. What did we learn from that? Oh, right. Isabel still doesn't know how to share. Well...she can when she wants. She just didn't want to. ...sorry, guys. She was a bit better at my brother's, at least.

Went to the doctor today and he confirmed what I already knew, but gave me more specifics. I'm about six weeks pregnant and due around the end of November. It's still kind of hard to believe. Mike's getting used to it -- at least I hope. I'm still worried about telling Isa. We haven't told anybody yet - except my mother and Claire, who both kinda found out on accident. I'm not sure when to start telling people - with Isa it was more obvious. I guess when it comes up, I'll tell people.

Friday, March 27.

Millie got off the elevator on the ninth floor, leaving Mike to ride the rest of the way to Major Case on the eleventh floor. As soon as she stepped into the lab, she was overcome with the sudden wave of nausea that seemed to be hitting more often in the last week. Quickly, she ran to the nearest trash can and threw up her breakfast. First there was the cold that she'd caught from Isabel and now there seemed to be some sort of stomach bug tacked onto the end of it.

"Ugh." She groaned. Another bout of nausea hit and she leaned over the trash can again. A couple minutes later, she straightened up, holding her stomach. She couldn't remember throwing up this much since...

Millie's eyes widened.

...she hadn't barfed that much since she'd been pregnant with Isabel. What? she thought to herself. ...no. It couldn't be. She was using birth control (the right way this time)...She quickly counted back the last time she'd had her time of the month...Last month, this--she'd been so busy taking care of sick Isa at the beginning of this month that she hadn't noticed it hadn't arrived...

Her heart raced. She realized she should schedule a doctor's appointment for as soon an appointment as they had. Glancing around the lab, another thought came to her. She had all the equipment right there to do a test herself - one that would be just as accurate and much quicker. She grabbed a urine cup and ran into the bathroom.

A few minutes later, Millie came back out. She put latex gloves on and got the chemicals out to do the test. She put a sample in a test tube and added the chemicals. She took a breath and leaned against the counter, waiting for the chemicals to react. She didn't take her eyes from the test tube.

Shortly after (though it seemed like an eternity) the chemicals did their magic and she had her answer. Millie didn't move, only stared at the test tube for a long few minutes, hardly able to breathe.

...your husband feeding your candy addiction and incorporating your profession.

Mike got me these and these.

Can't wait to gross people out while getting my sugar high.

I caught Isa's cold. She's mostly better. Mike seems to be just fine. I can't stop sneezing. Arghhh.

Snowstorm. Isa's still sick. And it's my freaking birthday.

Yeah, I'm staying home today.

I consider myself "non-essential personnel" in times like this and thank God I'm not a uniformed officer.

Baby's sick. That resulted in both me and Mike staying home yesterday. She's got a cold. It's not bad enough so that she's totally knocked out - but she's cranky and coughing enough so that she can't do much more than be parked on the couch watching Dora and going through Get Better Bears (which she calls 'Bedda Bears').

At least she's not puking. I mean, like I've said before, I work with gross lab samples all day long at work - I'm kinda not bothered by puke or blood or - you know, whatever - but it's nice not to be puked on.

I think the birthday party thing this weekend was helpful for Isabel...until the whole falling into the toilet incident. But the interaction with other kids seems to have done her good. It was cute to see her follow around Max and Nathan (and amusing to see them watch out for her).

Now if I could get her doing stuff like that more often, maybe she'd be consistently nice to her cousins...

Isa has taken to calling her baby cousin Gabriel "Baby Gabe-roll Get-out"...

...it's kind of becoming a problem. According to my mom, whenever she's babysitting them both, Isabel says it over and over again and doesn't like it too much when she's holding him. We need to get her back in daycare - or at least, make sure she's getting regular interaction with other kids. She does pretty well on play dates (aside from the bossiness...) The day at that indoor playground with Ellie and Max was good for her -- she needs more stuff like that.

I am gonna KILL Mike's uncle.

Pinche padre my ass!



...more later. After I'm done feeling homicidal.




OOC: There is hilarity that goes with this and there will be a longer entry later, however the RP is not yet finished.

Christmas already seems like forever ago. It was good, though. Isabel got excited over every present that she got to open. She's talking more lately, which is weird. I mean it's not weird - babies get bigger - but she's my baby and I can't believe she's growing so fast.

Mike's Uncle Danny is still here. He comes and goes - sometimes he stays with us, other times he stays with his friends. I swear - he's eighty and he has more of a freakin' social life than we do. It's like having a teenager in the house. Or what I'd imagine having a teenager would be like (...I don't wanna even think about what Isa's gonna be like when she's that age). Only Mike's the yelling dad and Uncle Danny's the mischievous kid sneaking in at all hours of the night.

New Year's was nice - we spent it up on the roof with the fire pit roaring. Isa got over-excited for the fireworks like she does on the Fourth of July.

Work is work. Nothing new there.

( Email to Alex Eames )