day 15!! holy shit where have the days gone?
the twins are one here!
please enjoy :)
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"Where goin'?" Layla asks as Janis and Cady get her and her twin all bundled up for an evening out.
"We're going to the zoo," Cady replies as she pushes some cozy boots onto Layla's little feet. "They have it all decorated with lights, and we get to see a bunch of animals."
"Oh!" Layla says happily, smiling at Janis as she pops a little beanie over her dark hair. She likes animals. Her twin looks a bit more apprehensive.
"Eat me?" Leo asks.
"No, baby," Cady chuckles, pulling her onto her lap to get her own little boots on. "They won't eat you, I promise. They can't even touch you, there's a fence in the way. Mama won't let them eat my babies."
"Oh. Okay."
"There we go," Janis smiles once they're about half bundled. The babies don't fit in their car seats with their cold outfits on, so they have to wait until they get there to dress them for the weather. They still look adorable in their matching holiday sweaters, hats, and boots. "You're all ready, should we go bye-bye?"
"Go zoo?" Layla asks, pushing her hat off her forehead to see.
"Yeah, let's go to the zoo, come on," Cady chuckles. Janis picks up Layla while she gets Leo, and then they're out the door.
—-
"What do you think, girls?" Cady asks excitedly once they're through the gates. Her babies look around at the new environment with wide, curious eyes, taking in all the bright lights and colors and sounds and smells. She can almost see their minds being blown.
Layla gives an overjoyed squeal from Janis' arms as she sees all the rainbow colored lights everywhere. "Wow!"
"I know, right?" Janis laughs. Leo's still a bit nervous, seeming much more overwhelmed by everything. Cady kisses her forehead to get her attention.
"What animal should we go see, Leo Beo?" she asks quietly, pushing Leo's little grey hood up slightly and adjusting her grip on the baby marshmallow she's holding.
Leo looks back at her, calming slightly as her focus narrows on her mama. "Georgie."
Cady laughs. "Okay, we can see the giraffes. They're this way, come on."
She carefully holds Leo in her left arm and her wife's hand with her right. Janis adjusts her grip on Layla and follows after them to the Africa exhibits. Leo rests her head on Cady's shoulder as they walk, nearly lulled to sleep by the swinging rhythm of their gait.
"Look, pumpkin, what do you see?" Cady asks, bouncing her slightly to get her to look back up. Leo looks where she's pointing and smiles.
"Whoa!" she says in wonder. "Gi'affe."
"Yeah, you're so smart! Aren't they pretty?" Cady says. She hears Layla give an excited shriek as the tall creatures come into her view. "You excited, Lala?"
"Big!" Layla says eagerly. Cady laughs and nods. Janis hands her over so her wife can explain all the facts she learned in Africa to their daughters.
"They are big," Cady agrees. "They have to be tall so they can eat leaves off of trees, that's their food."
"Yucky," Leo says in disgust. She's not big on vegetables.
"Yeah, that's not for people," Cady agrees with a chuckle. "But they think it's yummy. Look how big their tongues are, do you see? They're soooo long so they can wrap them around the branches to pull off all the leaves." She laughs as Layla pokes out her own tongue to compare. "Their tongues are actually only a little shorter than you two."
"Eugh," Janis shudders in disgust. She wraps her arms around Cady's waist and rests her head on her shoulder. Cady tilts her head slightly to kiss her cheek a few times.
"Do you remember the original Georgie?" she asks quietly. Janis nods. They'd named Leo's stuffed giraffe after the real giraffe they had fed on their first date back in high school.
"I still think that date was some of my best work," Janis murmurs back, kissing Cady's neck. Leo reaches out for her, so Janis takes her from Cady.
"This might just top it," Cady says happily, smiling at the baby she has left in her arms. "First time our little munchkins get to see the zoo."
"Maybe," Janis chuckles. She carries Leo a few feet away to read a plaque naming all the giraffes. "Look, Bee, this has all their names. That one over there is named Jane. That's Mama's middle name, too."
"Hi Jane," Leo waves. "Hi."
"Aww, my sweet girl," Cady chuckles. Leo leans in for a kiss, so Cady gives her a gentle peck. "Okay, Lala's turn to choose, what animal should we see next?"
"Elmer!" Layla cheers. She still sounds a bit more like she's saying 'Elmo', but her moms can understand what she means well enough.
"Okay," Cady chuckles. "Elmer's this way, come on."
—-
Layla squeals excitedly when they enter the elephant and rhino building, and looks around at all the murals decorating the walls. Cady carries her down further to the actual enclosure to see the real thing.
"Mommy," Leo says to get Janis' attention, patting her little mittens against Janis' cheeks for emphasis. "Hot."
"Do you want your little suit off?" Janis asks. Leo nods. "Okay, here." She stands Leo up on a bench and carefully unzips her snowsuit. The babies are still too little for coats, so they have full snow outfits instead. The grey puffy material makes them look like little marshmallows. "There we go!"
Layla doesn't complain about the temperature, so Cady stands her up against the window. Layla grins happily and drums on the glass with her little mittens. "I's Elmer!"
"Yeah, there's the elephants!" Cady chuckles. "Look over there, what's that? We learned that the other day, do you remember what that's called?"
"Uh..." Layla says pensively. "A whinosrrus?"
"Yeah, you remembered the whole thing!" Cady chuckles. "Rhinoceros. Look at the horns, aren't those cool?"
"Whoa!" Leo squeals when she's held up to the window next to her sister. Cady smiles as her babies instinctively reach to hold hands now that they're close to each other again. After a second, Leo's little nose scrunches up. "Stink. Yucky."
"It does stink in here," Janis agrees with a chuckle. "Look, though, look at the baby elephant over there."
"Awwwww," Leo and Layla coo at the same time. Layla looks thoughtful for a moment before helpfully adding, "Big baby."
"They are big," Cady chuckles. "Look how much bigger the grownups are, though. That little one still has a lot of growing to do."
"Mama?" Leo asks.
"Yes, munchkin?"
"Why... why... um... why nose big?"
Cady chuckles at her assessment of the elephants' trunks. "Their noses are kind of like their hands. They use them to grab things and hold things like you do with your hands. And if they go swimming they can poke their nose up to breathe."
"Nose hands?" Layla asks confusedly.
"Kind of," Cady agrees with a laugh. "Look at that one, see how she's using her trunk to pick up that toy? They have a bunch of little tiny muscles in there so they can move it however they want to, so they can hold things. Like you do with your hands."
"Oh." Leo says. She wiggles her fingers inside her mittens and looks back at the elephants.
"Big ears," Layla says, pointing as best she can with her mittens on. She giggles as the elephant she's pointing to flaps them a bit to get rid of a bug.
"Yeah, they do have big ears! Their usual home is really hot, so they move their ears to blow air to help them cool down," Cady explains. "And it helps blow bugs away."
"Hot," Leo complains again. "Stink."
"Do you want to go back outside?" Janis asks. Leo nods. "Okay. Lala, you coming?"
Layla looks one more time at the elephants, and nods with a wave goodbye. Cady pries her off the window and sets her down, holding her hand as she follows her sister and mommy back outside.
"Oooooooh," Leo says eagerly, pointing to the trees lit up above her as Janis zips her back into her marshmallow outfit. Layla looks up too, curious to see what she's looking at. She spins around a few times to see all the blue and green lights from different angles.
"Whoa!" Janis laughs as Leo neglects to turn around and instead topples over onto her bum as she tries to look behind her. "Careful. Should we go find something to eat?"
"Eat," the twins both agree. Cady picks Leo off the ground, and Janis takes over holding Layla's hand to head to the food court.
—-
Cady manages to both keep the twins corralled and order their food while Janis leaves them briefly to grab the stroller from the car. Luckily there aren't too many people around, so Leo and Layla can toddle around the picnic tables to get some energy out without bumping into too many other zoo-goers.
"Mommy!" Leo crows happily when Janis makes a return. Janis catches her as she barrels into her legs.
"Hi, my little marshmallow! What did you pick to eat?"
Leo's brow furrows in thought as she tries to remember. Janis chuckles and kisses her forehead as she pops her into her seat in the stroller.
"Let's go find out, hm?"
Leo nods, so Janis pushes her back over to Cady. An employee delivers their order at almost exactly the same time. A few different flavors of french fries, drinks, and a funnel cake to share. They can have all junk food for dinner for one night.
"Hi, my loves," Cady greets as part of her family makes a return. "Where's the other one? Lala, come here, pumpkin! You want some french fries?"
"Friend fry!" Layla cheers, barreling back to her family. Cady catches her and puts her in the other spot in the stroller.
"Yeah, you want a friend fry?" Cady chuckles. The twins both call them 'friend fries' instead of 'french fries', because they're to share with friends. Neither of their moms are particularly interested in correcting them. Janis takes their mittens off so they can grab their food and not worry about eating fluff, then Cady offers each of them one of the plain fries. "Be careful, they're hot."
Janis chuckles as each of her daughters grab their offered snack in a chunky fist and look at it curiously. Leo blows on hers a bit first, or tries to. Layla just dives in and pops it in her mouth to gnaw on. "Mmmm!"
"Yummy?" Cady chuckles. Both girls nod. "Good."
"Mama?" Layla pipes up once she swallows her mouthful and goes for another.
"Hmm?" Cady hums around a mouthful of cheese fry. Janis grabs a fork and steals a bite as well.
"Whassat?"
"These are friend fries too. They just have yummy cheese on top," Cady explains. Layla's eyes widen slightly. "Do you want a bite?"
Layla nods and opens her mouth to try the small forkful she's offered. Her eyebrows shoot up her forehead as she tastes the delicious cheesy goodness. Janis laughs at her reaction.
"Me too, Ladybug," she says. Leo does the sign for 'more', so Janis hands her another of the one she had been munching on. Layla shakes her head when she tries to give her one too, and opens her mouth instead. "You want more of the cheese?"
Layla nods, her mouth still hanging open. Cady laughs and gives her another bite. "You're definitely your mommy's daughter. Leo, do you want to try some?"
Leo looks at the offered bite suspiciously, but does accept and chew it thoughtfully. "Ooh!"
"Man, this was supposed to be mine," Cady laughs as both her daughters open their mouths for more like baby birds. "Oh well. At least you still have small tummies, not enough room to steal all of my dinner."
Janis laughs at that and tears off a bit of the funnel cake. "Get them to try this and your fries won't mean anything."
"Oh, I forgot about that," Cady chuckles. "Not too much, though, it's almost bedtime. Shouldn't have too much sugar."
"Are we staying?" Janis asks, offering Leo a small chunk of the tasty fried dough. Leo takes it curiously and chomps on it. "I know, right?" Janis chuckles as her eyes go impossibly wide.
"Yummy," Leo says, reaching for another piece. Janis hands her another bit.
"I think we should. They can sleep in the stroller for a while," Cady replies. "Give us some time to ourselves."
"Sounds good," Janis says, kissing Cady's neck. Cady leans back against her chest and gives Leo another bite of plain french fry to balance out the funnel cake.
"I love you," Cady murmurs.
"I love you too," Janis replies, kissing her cheek. Cady replies with one on her lips until they're rudely interrupted by a whine from Layla. "Oh, what happened?"
"Mo'e p'ease," Layla whines, reaching a little hand out for more food.
"Somebody's getting tired," Cady chuckles, handing her another french fry. "There you go."
—-
Between the four of them, the food is gone quickly and they're off to see more lights and animals.
There's a sort of lake in the middle of the zoo. No animals are there, but there's a series of fountains and a light show every half hour. The babies watch from the stroller and dance along to the holiday music the lights are synchronized to, while Janis and Cady watch with fond smiles from behind them.
After that, Cady elects to look at the gorillas, so they make their way to the ape building. Leo and Layla both toddle up to the large window separating them from the gorillas to peek in.
"Baby," Leo says, pointing to the glass. Sure enough, a baby gorilla is on the other side and playing in a tire.
"Aww, baby gorilla," Cady chuckles. "He's probably about the same age as you two!"
"Toy!" Layla cheers as the baby gorilla drags his tire closer. Cady smiles as her twins do a little dance at him and try to play through the glass.
One of the adults seems to take issue with this, because they suddenly give a loud roar and rush up to thump against the glass. Every child nearby screams, but Leo and Layla were closest to the glass and are especially terrified. They both shriek in fear and run away, desperate for someone to take them away from the scary monster.
Leo trips about halfway back to her moms, and Layla runs the wrong way. She bounces off a nearby wall and also falls down. They both appear to give up on the escape and just lay on the floor in terrified tears.
"Oh my goodness, pumpkins," Cady says sadly, heading to grab one. She winds up with Leo, while Janis grabs Layla. "Shhh, baby, it's okay. Mama's here, they can't hurt you."
"Mamaaaa," Leo wails desperately, clinging to her neck so tightly. "Out!"
"Okay, okay, shh," Cady hushes, holding her close and grabbing the stroller with her other hand. Janis follows after them with Layla clinging to her and sobbing into her neck. "My poor babies, that was scary, huh? Oh, shh, you're okay now, I promise."
"Shh, baby girl," Janis tries to calm Layla. "Mommy's got you, it's okay. We won't go back there, you're okay, I got you."
Leo calms down remarkably quickly for her own standards, realizing that she's no longer near the big scary animals and is instead being held close and hushed by her mama. Cady continues bouncing and rocking her until she falls asleep in her arms. "One down."
Layla isn't usually afraid of most traditionally scary things, but every once in a while she experiences something new and is scared out of her wits. This appears to be one of those times. Cady heads over to aid in the comforting.
"Baby, it's okay," she murmurs, holding Leo in one arm and brushing a hand over the back of Layla's head with the other. Layla refuses to remove her face from Janis' neck. "Poor munchkin, shh."
Janis rubs Layla's back and rocks her up and down a few times in a ditch attempt to comfort her. Layla just continues wailing away and clinging to her desperately. "Wanna switch?"
Cady nods and carefully passes over a sleepy Leo. She wakes briefly at the shuffle, but quickly collapses against Janis' shoulder and is back to sleep within seconds. Cady takes Layla, who screams when she's pried from her mommy, but quickly sinks into Cady and continues crying.
"Shh, my little love," Cady hushes. She carefully unzips her coat and holds Layla inside, so she can feel her warmth and hear her heartbeat. "You're safe, Mama's got you. I promise, it's okay."
"Mama," Layla wails. Cady can tell she's trying to calm down, but is just too shaken up to stop crying. Time for desperate measures. Cady takes a deep breath and starts to sing.
"Lala mtoto lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala
Lala mpendwa lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala.
Jua nalo limezama,
Lala sinzia lala.
Ndege wote wamelala,
Lala sinzia lala.
Lala mtoto lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala,
Lala mtoto lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala.
Mama baba wakupenda
Lala sinzia lala.
Bibi babu wakupenda
Lala sinzia lala.
Lala mtoto lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala,
Lala mpendwa lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala."
Layla matches her breathing at the appropriate points in the lullaby, and gradually stops her crying. Cady gently kisses her forehead as she finally drifts off to sleep in her arms.
"There we go," she whispers, rocking slightly from side to side to keep her baby in dreamland. Janis gently rests Leo in the stroller and buckles her in so she doesn't slump forward, then ever so carefully takes Layla to do the same.
"Well that was absolutely heartbreaking," Janis chuckles once the babies are safely secured and deeply asleep. Cady chuckles and leans into her hold. "That song was beautiful."
"Thank you," Cady murmurs. "My mom used to sing it to me, it's an old Kenyan lullaby."
"It definitely worked."
"Poor little squish," Cady hums sadly, gently stroking Layla's chubby, tear-stained cheek. "Don't see her like that too often."
Janis nods in agreement. "She's okay, though. At least she fell asleep."
"And now we get some alone time," Cady purrs, popping up on her tiptoes for a kiss. Janis chuckles and returns it, but keeps it chaste since they're in public. "I love you so much."
"I love you more," Janis replies. Cady kisses her again.
"I love you most."
—-
"Do you think they'll ever see Kenya?" Cady asks quietly outside the lion enclosure. There's not many of them outside due to the cold, and the ones who are are asleep, but Cady grins gently when she sees her old friends again.
"Someday," Janis agrees with a nod, looking to their babies still asleep in the stroller. "I'll make sure of it. Just maybe when they're not, like, lion food-sized."
Cady laughs at that, but nods. She's quiet for a long time before she pipes up again. "We should do this every year."
Janis kisses behind her ear a few times, earning herself a pleased shudder. "I think that's doable. We'll just skip the gorillas next time."
"Definitely," Cady chuckles. "Did you have fun?"
"Yeah. I love seeing them react to the world," Janis murmurs, resting her chin on Cady's shoulder. "Watching them experience things for the first time. It's more fun seeing it through their eyes."
"It is," Cady agrees. "I'm glad they can at least see some of what I grew up with."
"I am too," Janis agrees. "We'll have to come more often. You can teach them everything you know."
Cady smiles at that. "As long as they listen to me. Probably won't for too much longer." Janis laughs and nods. "Can we see the penguins before we go?"
"Of course," Janis replies, taking one of her hands and pushing the stroller with her other.
————-
An hour and a half later finds them in bed, cozy and cuddled up together like the penguins they just saw as their daughters dream of sugarplums in their cribs in the next room.
Best date night ever.
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hope you enjoyed!!
here's the translation for the lullaby cady sings. it was yesterday, i got the lullaby from google and translated it using google translate. so. blame google.
"Sleep baby lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala
Lala dear lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala.
The sun has set,
Lala sinzia lala.
All the birds are asleep,
Lala sinzia lala.
Sleep baby lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala,
Lala dear lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala.
Mom and Dad love you
Lala sinzia lala.
Grandmother loves you
Lala sinzia lala.
Sleep baby lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala,
Lala dear lala lala lala lala
Lala sinzia lala."
welp.
anyway. see you tomorrow!