"Come on sweetie, you can do it!" I encourage Aurora. I'm walking hand in hand with the twins into the party center. They were spending the month with me while I had Celine and Scottie too. Mel was behind me with the older two.

The guys were already there, and Brianna toddled over to us when she saw Aydin and Aurora. I let go of their hands, satisfied that they were in no immediate danger. They crawled over to the toys Bri was playing with and engaged themselves. Celine and Scottie were soon running around, chasing each other in their latest game that involved sharks.

I catch Lance's eye and we exchange small smiles and he heads over to the twins while I head across the room to where Josh was standing, munching on the food.

"Hey stranger."

He turns around.

"Hey baby. What's up?"

I reach up and hug him around his neck, accidentally bumping him with my baby bump.

"I'm exhausted, starving and our baby is growing right on schedule." I smile before giving him a kiss. He kisses back and pulls me closer to him.

"I'm sorry I've been distant lately."

"It's fine, Josh. I know what it's like to be inspired. When you need to, you have to. It's your job. If I had a problem with it, I wouldn't have married you."

He pulled back and looked me up and down, his eyes finally focusing on my abdomen.

"Wow. All this in two months?" His eyes flick back up to my face.

I laugh and cradle the bump. "We're half way home, Daddy-o. Twenty weeks down, twenty to go."

Josh puts his hands over mine and kneels down and starts talking softly to my stomach. I watched him bond with his child, enjoying the tug on my heartstrings that the sight made. After a few minutes he got back up and kissed my cheek.

The kids played as the adults stood and sat around, keeping an eye on everyone. Josh and I sat together on one side of the room, discussing what we've been missing with each other over the past two months. Lance was on the other side of the room, talking to Joey and watching Brianna build with the blocks.

Aydin had crawled to the chair next to us and pulled himself up. Holding the seat edge, he walked away from the side closer to me and stopped when he ran out of chair. Hand in mouth, he looked around the room and saw his daddy. He took his hand out of his mouth and took a step towards Lance, letting go of the chair for his next step. 

"Ohmigod," I inhaled. "Lance!" I called across the room. He and Joey turned and followed my gaze to Aydin. Aydin looked confused and Lance crouched down and held his arms out.

"Aydin, come to Daddy," he said softly. Aydin slowly walked over to Lance. When he reached Lance's arms, everyone started clapping and Lance praised him.

I got a bit misty-eyed and Josh put his hand on my knee. He looked so proud of his step-son. He seemed to beam even more when Aurora took her own first steps twenty minutes later.

Lance and I sat with the newly minted walkers and helped them open their presents. Once the excitement of the presents was over, it was time for the cake.

Aydin just dug right into his cake and we had to rescue the candle before he got hurt but Aurora just stared at her candle until Scottie blew it out for her and we removed it.

After the party was cleaned up, Josh loaded up his stuff from Lance's car into ours and we headed home. It felt great to have him back home and as we lied in bed that night, I marveled at how different my life was compared to a year before.