A Series of Different Events

2

Lorelai only stayed for a couple of weeks, but by the time Aurora second birthday rolled around in May, Rory was mostly healed.

Like most mornings Rory and Logan were woken up by Ari calling for them. "Mama!" Ari shouted. Rory was honestly a little surprised that she hadn't tried to climb out of the crib yet, but she wasn't complaining. Ari usually woke up before then and she just screamed her little head off until someone came to get her. "Daddy!"

"I'll get her" Logan said and got out of bed to go get Ari. "Hey there birthday girl"

"Look" Ari said and pointed to a bird that was sitting on her window sill

"Do you even know that it's your birthday?" Logan asked as he picked her up and kissed her cheek. "Come on, let's go see mommy"

"Happy birthday, baby!" Rory said when Logan walked into the room with Ari.

"Mama, I saw a bird" Ari told her excitedly

"You were really impressed by that bird, huh?" Logan chuckled.

"I wanna go" Ari said. Logan put her down on the bed.

"She has no idea what we're doing today" Rory said as Ari crawled into her lap

"Probably not"? Logan said

They spend most of the day relaxing, hanging out, doing whatever Ari wanted to do. While Ari was napping, Rory and Logan (mostly Logan) put together her toddler bed.

"What do you think?" Rory asked and held up a stuffed monkey. "Is she gonna trade the pacifiers for this thing?"

"I hope so" Logan said.

"I'm tired of those stupid things being asked over the place" Rory said

"Me too" Logan said. "Although, you realize that when we have another baby, we'll be back to have them everywhere, right?"

Rory smiled. He said 'when' not 'if'. As much as they could hope, there was no guarantee that someone would pick them to adopt a baby. But Logan said 'when' not 'if'. He was hopeful.

"What are you smiling at?" Logan asked

"Nothing" Rory said "I just love you a lot"

"I love you too"

When Ari woke up, they showed her her new bed which luckily she seemed to love. Wether or not she'd actually sleep in it, they'd find out later that night. 

"Ari, come here" Rory said "look what mommy has for you" she showed her the stuffed monkey

"A monkey" Ari said

"That's right, and he really wants to be your friend, but we have to make a trade" Logan said "we're gonna take all of your pacifiers and we're gonna give them to the babies who don't have any, and then you get this monkey"

Ari gave him a weird look, but she didn't seem against the idea.

"Why don't you go get all of the pacifiers from your room?" Rory asked and Ari headed upstairs. She really loved monkeys so Rory had a feeling that was the right stuffed animal to pick, but she was a little nervous for that night when Ari realized that she doesn't have a pacifier. "We just lied to our daughter" she said once Ari was out of the room.

"Are you gonna tell her that we're throwing them out?" Logan asked.

"No. I just don't love that we lied to her" Rory said

"I know"

A little while later Logan was making dinner and Rory was sitting on the rug with Ari.

"Mommy, look" Ari said and showed Rory the monkey

"Does your monkey have a name?" Rory asked

Ari thought for a moment. "Bubbles"

Rory chuckled. "Why bubbles?"

"I love bubbles" 

Pouring Ari to bed was a lot easier than Rory and Logan thought it would be. She loved her new bed, she loved her monkey, and she didn't seem to care that she didn't have a pacifier. After she was asleep, Rory and Logan were looking through old pictures from when she was first born.

"Wait, go back" Rory said. Logan was scrolling through the pictures on his phone and something bought her eye. It was a picture of her asleep with Ari asleep on her chest. "When did you take that?"

Logan tapped the screen to see when the picture was taken. "May 23rd 2015. She was 6 days old" he said. "I remember taking this. It was like 5 in the morning and she had cried the whole night, and we were exhausted. I went downstairs to make coffee, and came back up to see you guys asleep"

"Can you send that to me?" Rory asked. Logan nodded. "You know what I really love?"

"Hmm?"

"How much she reminds me of you" He said

"Please" Rory rolled her eyes

"I know you don't see it, but she does look like you. And it's more than that, she makes the same facial expressions that you do, she's amazed by things the same way you are, and she likes that thing that I do where I tickle your back"

"Everyone likes that" Rory said

"Ace, she's you" Logan said. "A tiny version of my favorite person"

Rory just smiled

"Come here" Logan wrapped his arms around her and she leaned her head on his shoulder.

"How is she 2 years old?" Rory asked. "When did that happen?"

"I know, it's crazy" Logan said. "She's pretty great, though"

"She's amazing"