“Can I ride in Anya’s carriage, please?” Zoë asked me, her bright blue eyes begging me to give in and say yes. I glanced down at Clare trying hard not to smile. Zoë had been begging her mother for a ride in the baby stroller all day, and she knew that if she asked me I would probably cave in. She was right.
“Well...” I started.
“Taylor,” Clare interrupted. She tried to look at me sternly but she laughed after a few seconds. She was trying to pretend to be mad, but it just wasn’t her nature. She knelt down in front of the four year old and took both of her small hands in her own. “Zoë, you are a big girl now, and big girls get to walk. Babies have to ride in carriages, not big sisters! Not big girls like you! You want to be a big girl don’t you?”
Zoë nodded enthusiastically. “I’m a big girl,” she said. “I’m a big sister. I get to walk.”
Clare stood up but kept on of the child’s hands in hers and swung it forward and back as we continued our walk down the crowded road. “That’s right!” Clare said. “You’re definitely a big girl now!”
I followed closely behind them, pushing the baby stroller with one hand and holding Anya safely cradled in my other arm. The stroller was vacant at the moment, it only held a stuffed Winnie The Pooh bear that Zoë had adored so much and the baby’s bag. Clare had been pushing it before we stopped walking and Zoë had seen no reason why Pooh should be in the carriage and not her, especially since Anya wasn’t using it. The baby had become fidgety after a nap and she liked it best when someone held her. The second she fell back to sleep I planned on putting her back and once again lugging the baby bag on my shoulder and the Pooh toy in the back of the carriage, holding it in place as I pushed so it wouldn’t fall out. Zoë would be upset if Pooh fell.
The old bear friend of Christopher Robin was her favorite Walt Disney character, besides Cinderella of course. Cinderella was her favorite “girl” character and even though we had yet to meet her, I heard Zoë tell Clare that she was sure I’d get her Cinderella’s autograph because I was almost as famous as Cinderella. Zoë was positive that Cinderella knew my name and she’d come up to me and then whisk Zoë away to meet Prince Charming. Pretty good imagination for a four year old, huh? Already thinking about boys. This girl was gonna break some hearts some day, I already knew it. And I’d be there breaking some necks if they hurt her, that I knew.
“Daddy! I wanna go on the tea cups!” Zoë exclaimed. She pulled on my arm, the one without the baby in it, to get my attention.
“Mommy will take you,” I told her, smiling innocently at my wife.
“Are you sure about that Daddy?” Clare asked me.
“Oh I’m positive Mommy will take you,” I told my daughter, prying her little hands off my sleeve. Clare and I exchanged glances.
“Come on, Zoë,” Clare instructed the child. “Let’s go get on line.”
“Me and Anya will wait right here for you,” I told my family as I settled the baby carriage in front of an empty bench and sat myself down on it gently.
“Daddy, don’t forget to wave to us, OK?”
“OK, Zoë. I won’t forget.” I rustled her hair gently.
Clare leaned over and whispered sweetly into my ear, “I’ll get you later sweetheart.”
“I can’t wait,” I told her, grinning ear to ear.
She shook her head, laughed, and started walking our daughter to go get nauseous on the spinning tea cups.
I looked down at the baby in my arms and smiled. “Hey Anya!” I said. Her eyes lit up and she dribbled. I wiped the saliva from her small mouth with my finger and kissed her forehead lightly. I held her under the arms with both hands and placed her feet on my thighs. “How’s my baby girl?” The six month old giggled. I kissed her again. “My little princess,” I told her before placing her head on my shoulder. I changed my voice to a joking gansta voice, “me and you kid, we is gonna be here for a few minutes.” I changed back to normal, “Probably more like twenty. So go to sleep so I can put you in your carriage.” I stroked her back gently to soothe her more. I knew by now that I had to keep talking in order for her to know that daddy was still here. Daddy was the one that was still holding her, not some stranger.
Anya was extremely smart and observant, she already had a distinct routine at half a year. She had little things she had grown accustomed to that both Clare and I had noticed. Things such as she had to be held by me or Clare and no one else after waking up from a nap, and if she wasn’t she cried and cried. The only way to soothe her was by singing to her, one of the things I did for both of my children all the time. Even when she cried for a bottle or about having a dirty diaper, she wasn’t quite happy until I sang to her. She’d then either fall asleep or become calm again. Clare often joked that I hypnotized our daughter, and that wasn’t far from the truth. My own mother said that it was amazing to watch when I’d take the bawling child in my arms and sing softly to her because Anya would instantly close her eyes and sip her bottle silently and not stop until it was done. At parties my wife and I attended with our children, if one of us were out of Anya’s sight for too long, she’d start crying and screaming and it always took daddy’s voice to calm her down.
“Daddy’s little princess,” I accused her, rubbing her back in a small circle. My baby sighed one of those cute little baby sighs I enjoyed so much, the one where it is obvious that it takes a lot of energy and planning to accomplish, the one where her whole body moved with her as she breathed. I kissed the small amount of the hair on the back of her head. “You’ve got your daddy wrapped around your little finger.” I cleared my throat and began to sing to her, “When you weep you can know that it’s all right. As you sleep I’ll just follow your doorlight. We can talk as long as you hold on tight. Just one breath is a million sighs. I can tell every breath that you’re breathing, I can feel every thought that you’re thinking. We can talk till a thousand years gone by, you and I.” I craned my neck so I could see what she was doing on my shoulder. Her eyes were tightly closed and I chuckled to myself, “that’s my baby girl.”
“She is so adorable!” A female’s voice spoke up quietly.
I looked up to find that there were three young girls around my age standing in front of me, they couldn’t have been more than 25 at the most.
“Thank you,” I told them. I beamed at the compliment, I always did. Anya and Zoë were both beautiful children and I loved when Clare and I received compliments about them. I was thrilled and I knew the pride showed in my eyes. I was always proud when I was with my family.
I shifted Anya a little bit on my shoulder, carefully so she wouldn’t wake up, and offered my hand which all three of them shook. “We’re seeing your show tomorrow,” one of the ladies told me.
I smiled. “Cool! It’s going to be a good one tomorrow. At least I hope so! Isaac, Zac, and I have been practicing all week in New York so we can get this promo concert perfect.”
“When are you going on tour?” Another girl asked me.
“Next month hopefully,” I told her, glancing at the baby while I was speaking. Anya brought her tiny fist up to her mouth and she yawned, her eyes opened and she drooled onto my shoulder. I used my finger once again to wipe it off her small lips. “Since we are ending the promo tour tomorrow here in Disney, my family and I decided to do a little vacationing here before we head home. Then we’re going to go to Tulsa to visit Anya’s uncles. Isn’t that right, baby?” I asked my daughter. I picked her tiny head up off my shoulder and stood her up gently on my knees, holding her ribcage with both of my hands. She smiled at me and made a few baby noises. “That’s right!” I told her. “Crazy Uncle Zac’s house.” I looked back up at the girls. “She loves Uncle Zac’s house and so does her sister. Uncle Zac has everything at his house, especially little places to hide and scare Mommy and Daddy.” I shook my head at the memory I had of when Zoë took Anya and hid in a cubby hole in the back yard of my brother’s house. Clare and I were frantic looking for them, and when we finally found them we were too relieved that they hadn’t been kidnapped to give a proper punishment. The only reason we knew to look there was because my older brother Isaac said that his kids had made him go with them one day at Zac’s house to look at a new secret clubhouse they had discovered, the cubby hole my daughters would hid in about a week later. Zac had since decided to put a grate on it so no more children would climb in there.
“So, this sleeping beauty is Anya, huh?” The third girl said bending down on her knees to be the same height as the baby on my knees. “She is so small! How old is she?”
“Six months,” I replied.
“Where is Zoë?” She asked.
“With her mother on the tea cups,” I responded.
“And you’re not, Taylor?”
I laughed. “No, I don’t feel like throwing up today thank you very much! I get to take care of Miss Princess right here. Can you do me a favor? Can you turn that carriage around for me?” I nodded towards it with my head. One of the girls turned it towards me. “Thanks so much.” I kept one hand on Anya’s back and took the baby bag out of the stroller and then took out my eldest daughter’s toy. I heard crying to the right of me and it got louder until it was in my ear.
“Taylor.” A tap on my shoulder.
I stopped what I was doing and looked up to find my wife standing there looking exhausted holding our screaming daughter. “What happened?” I asked Clare frantically. Clare patted Zoë’s back and said, “we waited on line but then the attendant said she was too short.”
I stood up and placed Anya on my hip. “Dang it!” I exclaimed. I supported the baby’s head and placed her in the baby carriage. “Hey Zo-Zo,” I said softly into my daughter’s ear. She turned her head out of her mother’s chest so she could look at me. “Don’t cry, honey.” I reached over and wiped a tear off her cheek. She turned back into Clare’s chest. My wife looked at me to do something. “What do you want me to do?” I mouthed. “Make the attendant let her on so she can fall out and die?”
“Taylor, you know I wouldn’t want you to do that!” Clare snapped at me.
“Calm down,” I begged of her. I turned my attention to my crying daughter. “Come here, Zo-s.” She shook her head. She was in the “I only want Mommy stage” that Isaac told me happened to most kids. He advised that the daddy stage was coming up next and that the girls would have me giving them everything they want. I believed him but I told him not to worry, I already gave them everything they want. I was such a softy when it came to my children and my wife. I said “no” when needed of course, but I sure did say “yes” a lot.
“Zoë, go to Daddy,” Clare told her. Zoë looked at me and reached out her arms which clasped around my neck and she easily slid from her mother’s grasp to mine.
I bounced her on my hip for a few seconds and asked Clare to watch Anya while I took Zoë on some rides. “I wanna go on the tea cups,” Zoë insisted softly.
“I know, honey, I know,” I agreed. “But you just have to wait a month or so to go on that ride. We don’t want you to fall out because then you wouldn’t meet Cinderella!” Zoë smiled a little bit. I grinned. “There’s that smile I love so much!” She twisted her mouth back into a frown when I pointed it out. “Hey kiddo, you can’t fool me! I saw that smile!” She turned her head into my chest. “Wanna go on Pooh?” I asked. She shook her head without removing it from my chest. “Come on, Zoë. I know you want to.” She nodded still keeping her head pressed up against me.
“We’ll be back,” I told my wife. She was pushing the baby cart back and forth gently, rocking the now sleeping Anya. Clare nodded and smiled at me. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
“It was nice to meet you,” I told the three fans who were watching me closely. “Maybe I will see you tomorrow morning at the show.” We exchanged good-byes and I blew a kiss at my wife and walked over to the Winnie The Pooh ride with my daughter permanently attached to my hip.