We Can See STARS

Future Chapter 14: January 2028

3 Weeks Later All Star Bye-Week, D's View

"Jojo, are you so excited to hang out with Tia Ana and Uncle Jamie this weekend?"

"YEAAAAH!!!"

"Okay, go to your room and pick out your three favorite books to put in your bag!" The 3 foot tornado ran to his room to make his choices. From where I sat in the living room finishing putting his bag together, I could hear him babbling to himself. I got me and my heavy belly up from off the floor and walked to Jamie and my room to see him packing our stuff in one suitcase. As often as he had to pack for trips, he knew all kinds of tips and tricks for packing. Even more than me and all my traveling. So he was always happy to put our bag together for trips. And I was happy to let him, even if it occasionally meant that we had to do last minute shopping at our destination for socks and underwear.

"How's the packing going?"

"Good, can you put the toiletries together?"

"For sure. Do you need your shaver?"

"No, I think I can go without."  I continued adding toothpaste, our travel toothbrushes, travel size body washes, face washes and a few things for our hair.

"Is Jojo all packed up?"

"Just about, he's grabbing some books." I walked back out to the living room to find a stack of books near Jojo's bag.  "Jojo!! Come here!!"

I could hear his footsteps on the floor as he made his way over to me. "Baby, you can't take all these books. It's only a couple of days. Can you pick your three most favorite?" He sorted the books to himself, making choices of one over another until he was down to 4.

"Can I take one more?"

"Yes, that's okay." I shoved the books into his pack and left it by the door. After a few more negotiations over food, naps, and random toys, we were all packed up into the car and on our way to Benn and Ana's. I looked over at Jamie and placed my hand on his, "thanks for agreeing to this. I love our time together." He looked back over quickly with a slight smile on his face.

"Well, I'm not sure how they'll do with him for the whole weekend but I'm excited too."

Just then we arrived at the street their place was located at. I texted Ana to let them know we had arrived. Almost immediately I got a text back from her giving us instructions on how to enter their parking garage and to park in their assigned spot so we could transfer all of JoJo's things. As we entered and found their parking we could see Benn standing there waving us down.

I got Jojo out of his car seat and placed him on the ground where he took off and ran to Uncle Jamie. As I was getting the car seat out, Jamie was getting Jojo's backpack and his hockey equipment out of the trunk.

"Thanks a lot for taking him for the weekend."

"Yeah, of course." Benn gave Jojo a high five and asked "are you ready kiddo?"

"YEAAAAAH!!!"

"Would you guys be able to figure out the car seat in your car?"

"Yeah, for sure."

I squinted at Benn, not overly confident with his answer. I turned my gaze to Jamie who was just staring at these two best buds.

Quietly, I asked Jamie "could you put it in their car please?"

"Why babe? They've got it."

"Okay," I blew out and rubbed my stomach in frustration trying to not be too worried about their ability with the car seat.