How Green Becomes Wood

"I haven't heard any of it," Daizi said, "My friends keep telling me I'd love it but have also said Dark and I are forbidden from listening to a single note until we get to see it live."

Dark watched Xander tuck the tickets away and said, "I can always keep the tickets safe if that is easier," although technically they didn't need to worry. They were send codes to his email which could be scanned in case the tickets were lost, but using the physical tickets were nice. "Daizi is who suggested the kayaking."

Of course, Dark and Daizi thanked the twins heartily for the babysitting coupons, expressing relief the twins hadn't spent a lot of money on them.
 
"I'll pretend like I haven't heard it at all," Alec assured her. "As it is, I've only listened to a couple twice, so it'll be easy to forget. Kind of."

Xander handed the tickets over to Dark. "Safe and sound. It's probably best if you keep them."

"I'm glad you like your coupons," Alec said. "And I hope you remember to use them!"
 
Dark took the tickets back and stood to put them somewhere safe, "Do not fear, we will use them."

"Maybe not until next year though." Daizi teased, sliding off the couch to play with Ivy, "Hummingbird, won't you be so delighted to get to have time to play just with your brothers? How nice it'll be!"

"Cooger will watch her when we go see Hadestown. It is already on the 30th, so it is not too far from today."
 
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"Wow. Next year is so close," Alec admitted. "You know, it's funny. Some days seem to drag on forever and ever. Others are gone in a flash! Whole weeks just poof! Gone!"

"I guess that's just how time works," Xander shrugged.
 
"We did all that planning for the vow renewal and it felt like the day was over just as soon as I put on my dress," Daizi chuckled, sitting near Ivy as she attempted to solve a puzzle.

"I loved you in that dress." Dark said softly, remembering how the bodice fabric felt beneath his hand.

"We need to find some elegant ball to attend so I can rewear it."
 
"We can look into it. That would be fun!" Alec agreed. He watched Ivy for a while before asking, "Do you think Ivy will understand why she doesn't get presents on this day?"

"I doubt at first," Xander commented.
 
Dark considered this for a few moments, watching as Ivy thought very hard about what she was attempting to do, "This year she is unaware presents were handed out because everything was in envelopes. Next year she may, and then she will probably be upset, but you both will also get presents when she does not on your birthday, so she may adjust to it sooner than we think."

"We decided we'll only do a nice dinner to acknowledge the day the adoption was finalized," Daizi pointed out, "so this day may end up evolving into more of a family day, too." She nearly suggested creating a special small Ivy-day, but it seemed weird to set aside a day like that for a biological child, but excluding Ivy from this anniversary of when their family came together bothered her a bit, too. She didn't really feel like Ivy necessarily deserved presents today, though, and she didn't want to take anything away from her boys, "It feels like your day, but it's also the start of when we became a family. She's family too, but she didn't exist two years ago today."
 
"Hmm. That makes sense," Alec agreed. He thought fondly of the gifts given to him, but he did have to wonder: Were gifts needed for this event? They had Halloween and Christmas and Thanksgiving and New Years packed into this short span of time, and their birthday wasn't that far off, too. He wanted to always celebrate this day, but maybe gifts weren't needed. He'd bring that up another time. Not now. Now, he just wanted to enjoy what he had: A family. One that only ever wanted the best for all of them and were happy enough that he and his brother existed in their lives that they wanted to celebrate it. That was the best gift of all.

"Birthdays are like a different type of gotcha day," Xander remarked, "but way more traumatic. Lovely and wonderful and miraculous and all that. And traumatic."
 
"That's true," Daizi agreed, "Miraculous, wonderful, and traumatizing about sums it up. I think I count it to twenty-eight hours."

Dark attempted to do some math in his head but didn't know when the count was meant to begin, so he accepted it, "I think it is fair to say it those twenty-eight hours were more stressful than the twenty-eight hours we had this day two years ago."

"Less painful, too."
 
Daizi turned towards them, both understanding her labour was absolutely stressful on her sons and feeling a bit indignant about how they had a nice day at a cabin while she was preparing to eject a baby from her body. She wasn't mad, really. Most of her irritation was only for play, but she did feel like it was her duty to act a little put out. What did they know about unpleasantness?! She needed to be stitched back together!

"We had hot chocolate when I brought you home," Dark recollected, "I do not recall what we ate the day Ivy was born."

This time, Daizi turned to give her husband the same look.

"The biggest stress of you both," Dark continued, getting off the couch to go sit with his long-suffering wife, "came after the initial bit."

Daizi played up her indignation for a few moments longer and then said, "And nobody brought us soup and presents. But it still took a long while before the stress of having you both surpassed the stress of Ivy being in the NICU. Being able to sleep and not being in physical pain most of the day helped too."
 
"As long as it is not red lentil soup," Daizi said dryly, "Red lentils have been completely ruined for me. But I'd rather have my sweet girl than red lentil soup," Daizi said, "Come here, habibti, let's try walking some more. You're so so close!"
 
"I would like that," Dark answered.

Standing behind Ivy and holding her by the hands, bending at a frankly atrocious angle, Daizi said, "Let's try walking to Xander, Ivy! Do you want to go walk to your big brother?"
 
"I will be here," Dark replied, looking forward to getting to play a board game with his family.

"She just gets nervous," Daizi said, helping Ivy walk that way, "She does it so well until you let go. It's like with standing."
 
"You'll be caught, Mini," Xander assured her. "You won't hurt yourself too badly. But you gotta hurt a little bit. You'll learn and grow, don't you worry."

Alec returned with four different board games and a couple of card games for Dark, Daizi, and Xander to choose from. "Games!"

"What are we playing?" Xander asked, glancing at the games. "I'm not picky."
 
Daizi tried letting go of Ivy's hands, and she immediately stopped walking, looked up at her mother, and sat down. Daizi sighed, gently grabbed Ivy by the back of her onesie, and started walking her again, "Oh Habibti, what is Mama going to do with you?" Then she said, "I won't play Monopoly with your father. He sucks all the joy out of it, not that there's much joy in Monopoly to begin with."

"Your mother gets annoyed that I win."

"I always end up cheating to get the game over more quickly."
 
"Monopoly is very boring," Alec agreed. He read off a list of the games they had and asked them to vote on which one they wanted. Xander looked very closely at the games for someone who wasn't picky and voted on one of the card games.
 
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