7.8: New Beginnings in the Park

    "Can you believe it?" I beamed. "We're getting married today! Married!"
    "I can believe that, what I can't is the fact that I fit into this dress." Rosie laughed, as I leaned in for a kiss.
    "You are eight and a half gorgeous months pregnant. It doesn't matter how much you gain or lose, you are still a caring, intelligent woman who's making me the luckiest lady on Earth. I love you."
    "Did you forget to write your vows?"
    "No, why?"
    "Because I think you just wrote them."
    "Aww..."
    "The baby! It's kicking." Rosie exclaimed, as I leaned forward, listening to her growing bump.

    "I can hear it. Do you hear mother? Do you hear me? We love you and can't wait to meet you."
    "Hazel, I can't wait to meet this child."
    "Neither can I... you'll officially be mum, then."
    "And you'll officially be mother."
    "Do you think ti's a boy or girl?"
    "I don't know. I liked being surprised, though... you know how some ladies are like, able to tell you the gender based on where the bump is or something? I don't feel like that... maybe it's because it's my first pregnancy, but I don't think I could tell you correctly if someone paid me."
    "So if someone starts a pool, I should put money in the one opposite of what you think."
    "Pretty much." She giggled again, patting her stomach.
    "Are you ready?" I asked, as I took her hand and we begin walking to the wedding arch.
    "Defiantly."

    "Here we are." We took our places beneath the park's wedding arch. I took a deep breath. I was getting married today, to Rosie Kinnely... who was going to take my last name. She said Janes had so much more history behind it then Kinnely did. "Rosie Kinnely, I always expected this day, if where ever to happen, to happen differently. I didn't expect you to propose to me, I didn't expect you to be willing to take my name, I didn't expect our first child to be due almost a year after we went to France together. I didn't expect any of it, but one thing I did expect is you. You would always be caring and optimistic and smart and it wouldn't matter how rainy or snowy or cloudy it is, because you'd always be my sunshine. I can't promise you everything. I read the classic vows about sickness and stuff and honestly... that doesn't seem like you and me. We don't have a classic relationship. But we're amazing together."

    "It's going..." She began sniffling, "To be difficult to top that. But that isn't what marriage is about. It isn't about me or you, it's about us. What we do together, what our child does, that's what represents us. It doesn't matter if I do something or you do something and it fails, if we do it with each other supporting us, then it has already succeeded. That's why I can't wait to be your wife and I can't wait to find out if I did this marriage ceremony correctly, because I have no idea. But we did it together and even if we did it wrong, this means more to mean than any type of big ceremony that was done correctly. Hazel Janes, will you take me as your wife?"

    "Of course." I smiled, as she slipped the wedding ring onto my finger. I couldn't believe today had finally come. Today was the day my future truly began. "And Rosie, will you take me to be you wife as well?" I asked her and even though I knew what her reply would be, I still felt giddy inside, as the anticipation grew.

    "Hm... let me think, YES!" She said, almost shouting the word yes.
    "I'm glad you're enthusiastic." I teased, as I slipped the ring onto the finger.
    "Is there any other way to be during a wedding?"
    "Classic, boring-"
    "May I kiss the bride?"

    "Please do." I said,  as I leaned forward, embracing my wife. My wife! I felt excitement bubble up inside me as I thought the word, over and over again. My wife who was going to have our baby. This was perfect imperfection.
    "Hazel," Rosie whispered in my ear, "I want you to do something with me..."
    "Alright..." I whispered back. Rosie's hormones had become a tad berserk in the last few months; she could either be telling me she loved me, wanting to go back to our home and have a wild time, or ask me something off the wall insane.
    "Seesaw."
    "Please tell me that's a position, because I think I've been wanting to try it for awhile, but with your belly..."

     "No!" She giggled, for the third time in ten minutes, "The seesaw over there. The teeter-totter. All I can think of is playing on, like little kids do. Is that weird?"
    "You're pregnant, just married, and Rosie. Those three things make the perfect combination of insanity... you are the bride, though and you always do what the bride wants. I suppose if that means playing on children's playground equipment, then we should do that."
     "I weigh like a thousand pounds... and your dress."
     "I wore white to a playground. It's my fault if it gets dirty. And you are not that heavy! I would pick you up and carry you, but I can't lift more than like thirty, forty pounds and I don't want to risk the health of the child, so I won't."

    "Then to the seesaw!" She began walking as quickly as a heavily pregnant lady could, to the teeter-totter. I sat down on one end, as Rosie sat down on the other. "You realize you probably can't-"
    "I elevated you!" I exclaimed, interrupting her commenting about how I probably couldn't.
    "Now it's my turn." She smirked at me, as I began being lifted off the ground. I imagine who ever designed my dress expected me to have a large indoor wedding... maybe a fancy outdoors one with expensive flowers and caviar. They probably didn't expect this, me actually playing in a playground, to happen five minutes after I just tied the knot.

   "Hazel, I love you." Rosie said, as I looked down upon her from my perch two feet off the ground.
   "I love you, too.
   "Love you more."
   "No, I love you more!"
   "No, I do." Rosie said, sticking her tongue out at me, like a young child or Miley Cyrus would do.
   "I love you and the baby to Jupiter and back a billion times."
   "Well I love you and our baby to Pluto and back a billion plus three times and back!"
   "Aww, well I..." I began my decent as Rosie rose into the air, "Love you more than soy ice cream with organic herbal flavor enhancers and coco syrup on a warm, sunny day."
   "Well I love you more than Cheetos on a lazy, fat pregnant day."
   "It's msut be a tie." I said, faking a sigh. "We both love each other and the baby equ-"
   "Ah!" Rosie shouted, freezing in mid air.

   "Rosie? Rosie, are you okay? Rosie, is it the baby? Dammit. I shouldn't have let you do this, you should have rested..." I slowly lowered her to the ground, quickly rushing to to her side.
   "Hazel." She whispered, as I helped her stand. "The baby..."
   "WHat's wrong?"
   "Hazel, I'm having contractions." She whispered, holding onto me. "My water just... Hazel, I'm having our baby!" Suddenly her quiet whispers disappeared for yells as she held onto my arm, her finger nails plunging into my skin.

   "Do you want to go to the hospital? You're a little early... we should waited until after the baby was born to have the wedding, I knew this would happen."
   "We wanted a home birth. Take me home."
   "I'll get the car." I hurried to the parking lot, unlocking the mint green eco-friendly car Marco had given to Rosie and I as an early wedding present. I pulled around to the front of the park, helped Rosie into the vehicle, and sped away to our home as quickly as I could without violating any traffic laws. I parked in our driveway and flung open Rosie's door, helping her inside our home.
   "Ah-d-er." She said, clenching her jaw. "Natural childbirth hurts!"
   "Do you want to just lay down on the couch?"
   "No, no... we prepped the nursery with all my birthing things... we should go OW OW up there."
   "I think we should have got a midwife."
   "No, no, I can do this. Help me." Rosie grabbed onto my arm again, as she tried walking to the stairs. I helped her up them, to the baby's nursery. As she began panting, much like an adorable lab, I helped her lay down on her birthing cot. Yes, we bought a birthing cot.
   "Breath, breath, breath-"
   "Owww." She yelled.
    "Push, I know you can do it Rosie, push, push, push!"   shouted, not sure what else I was suppose to do. All the birthing class lessons suddenly left my mind, as I pushed her wedding gown up, so a bundle of fabric rested around her hips.
    "I'm pushing!" She yelled. The minutes ticked by, as we both shouted, unsure of what to do. We had prepared so much for this, but here in the moment our knowledge was limited.
     "It's a girl." I said, smiling, after what seemed like hours and in reality was only thirty minutes. I took a baby blanket that was hand knit and wrapped it around her soft, squishy body.
     "A girl..." Rosie said, smiling.
     "What should we name her?" I held her out to Rosie, so she could hold our bubbling baby girl.
     "Basil..." Rosie whispered. Basil, like the herb, had been my favorite name out of all the baby books and apparently was hers as well. "Basil."
     "Welcome to the world Basil." I smiled, watching Rosie hold her. I gently kissed mum and baby's foreheads, as we stood together and placed our baby in her crib.
     "Hazel, we did it." Rosie whispered. "Our baby."
     "Our baby." I repeated, my heart overwhelmed with pride. "I'm married with a beautiful baby girl. Rosie, I love you."

     "I love you, too Hazel." She leaned forward, hugging me.
     "And we love you, Basil!" We said in unison. Hazel, Rosie, and Basil Janes. We were a family.