And Anna bends down where I can see her pretty hair but I don't want her, I want Mommy.

“Hey, buddy. What's your favorite thing in the whole world?”

I sniffle some more and I say mint chip but we are supposed to save that for special treat.

“I think just this one time it would be okay. Don't you think?”

I take my fingers off my eyes and see that Anna is Not Joking so I start to nod a little bit. And once we eat the ice cream in the living room with the big spoons Anna says she likes our orange carpet and I say thanks, but Mommy thinks it's ugly.

Then I show Anna my goldfish Merv and tell her how sometimes I feed him real goldfish that I eat for snacks instead of his flakes. And I show her the cozy place under Mommy and Daddy's big bed where I like to hide, and their pretty flower sheets and my pretty star sheets and Barbie pillows. And then the hallway pictures.

Anna follows me all smiling.

“That's me as a baby baby,”I say at the picture of me with scrunchy face eating spaghetti.

“And that's Daddy hugging Mommy. And us playing in my blow-up pool with floaties. And me licking Daddy. And Mommy and Daddy marrying all wet, that's silly. And this is Queenie, our puppy who died from a truck.”

Anna says, “How sad!”

“But that's when I got Merv, so it's okay.”

Anna is wearing the most bracelets ever and the biggest eyelashes. I take her hand and peel some bracelets onto my arm, cause she has so many.

“Anna? When's Mommy and Daddy coming back?”

“Hey,” she crouches by me. “Really soon. But until then we can just play and have so much fun. Yeah?”

“But when?”

“Really soon.”

“Two minutes?”

“Well. Hey – do you want to play beauty parlor?”

“Anna, I'll do your lips!”

I show her the lipstick Mommy gave me that is pink pink. Anna lets me put it on and I hardly spill outside the lines. I do a great job. Anna puts pigtails in my hair like hers so now we are twins. After we are pretty, we do back rubs and watch the rain outside and play kitchen. Anna tells me she is 17, that's old.

We are making pictures with glitter on the kitchen floor when the phone rings. Anna says, “Hi, Mr. Halpert.” That means Daddy!

I dance all around the kitchen singing a song about Daddy and after a little I crouch around the machine where Anna puts him on speakerphone.

“Daddddddyyy!”

“How's my girl?”

“We ate ice cream Daddy! A lot of it.”

“Well,” said Anna. “One bowl.”

“Seven bowls!”

“Seven bowls, huh?” says Daddy. “Bet it's coming out your ears.”

I snort. “Anna, Daddy makes jokes sometimes. Just ignore.”

That's what Mommy says but it makes Anna and Daddy both laugh.

“Cece, are you being good for Anna?”

“She's great,” says Anna.

“I am being an angel.”

Daddy laughs again. “Honey, I've got some good news. Mommy's gonna have the baby soon.”

“My sister?!”

“Yep, your sister. So Anna is going to stay with you until Grandma can come pick you up.”

“Why can't you pick me up?”

“Because I have to stay with Mommy, sweetie. But Grandma's coming. You know what that means, right? Sleepover!”

Sleepover is when I go to Gramma Helene's and we make s'mores in the microwave and watch “It's a Wonderful Life” and I get to sleep in the big bed.

“Can I bring Merv and Twinkle?”

“You can bring Twinkle.”

There's some beeping in the background and lots of talking and my feet are sleeping from being tip-toe.

“Oh – okay girls, I've gotta go. I love you Ceebee. I'll call again in a little bit, okay? Thanks so much Anna, you're a life saver.”

“Bye, Mr. Halpert!”says Anna and I say, “Bye Daddy!”

Then I go put on my princess dress and all my 12 necklaces and my frilly socks and some glittery star stickers. That way I can be all pretty for when my present comes, even though I don't know when that is.

Anna helps me pack Twinkle and my pillow and my toothbrush and all my other stuff.

I don't know if this is a big deal or not. Anna keeps asking if I'm excited but I don't really know why. I just know I should look beautiful and be ready for Gramma and that Mommy and Daddy are at the hospital, because Anna said.

When Gramma comes, I am all squeals and she picks me up in her hug that smells like candy and mints and good.

“Hey, pumpkin!” Gramma says. “Look at you, all dressed up!”

“It's for my sister.”

“Isn't she lucky then, to have such a great big sister?”

I nod and twist her beads. “I'm the big sister.”

And I stay with Gramma, playing with her flippy hair until I have to give Anna a goodbye hug and say, thanks babysitter not for a baby! which Anna always laughs at.

//

Gramma's friend Hank isn't at her house tonight. He is usually there when I go over and I like him because he always does magic tricks with lollipops and whistles a lot, which Daddy does. I am not s'pposed to call him grampa, I have another grampa, Grampa Beesly and he used to be with Gramma but not anymore, now there's Hank. Gramma says she wants a night just the two of us.

Right when we get to Gramma's house I run to her bedroom and roll around in the fluffy sheets, then I spray on all her perfumes and touch all her pretty jewels and hairbrush and put a few on. I also make sure to look at the picture of Mommy when she was little like me, next to my picture because I LOVE that. Gramma says Mommy was a real cutie just like me and a little turkey, just like me. I always snort at the little turkey part, so silly.

After hot chocolate and snuggles Gramma says it's time for bed. I show her how good I am brushing my teeth all myself and when I take a bath I only splash little. I miss my rubber ducks in the bath. Once I put Merv on the duck's back so he could take a bath with me, then I got in trouble.

When we get in bed with the lights out, that's when I want Mommy and Daddy. I try to squeeze my eyes tight but it doesn't help, I can still tell I'm at Gramma's. At home what we do is I lie down and Mommy reads me a story and when we turn the lights out we do cheek kiss and nosey-nosey and butterfly kiss, in that order. And then Daddy comes in and lies on my bed where his feet stick out the end and I get to decide real story or pretend story. A real story is real life and pretend is one Daddy has to make up. I always ask for pretend because he's extra good at those.

This is what I tell Gramma when she asks if I'm okay.

Gramma scoots closer and scratches my back up and down. Gramma does the best back scratch.

“Okay, Cece Marie. I've got an idea. Since your little brother or sister is about to be born, how would you like to hear about when you were born?”

“Like a real story?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Okay. First you have to say, real or pretend.”

“Real.”

“Are you sure.”

“Positive.”

“Are there pretend people in the story?”

“No?”

“Is it totally totally 100% completely truly real?”

“I'll try my best. Do you ask Daddy those questions every time?”

“Yes I do. I need to know what's happening.”

Gramma laughs and switches to waterfall with my hair.

“Here we go. It was a sunny March day – ”

“March 4.”

“That's right. Your mom was working at her job even though she knew you were coming --”

“Where did Mommy work?”

“She worked at a place that sold paper.”

“You mean she didn't do paint all the time like now?”

“Nope. She worked with paper for a long time, honey. You remember, that's where she and Daddy met.”

“Okay is this still part of the story?”

“So your mom was working and your dad really wanted her to go to the hospital but she wouldn't go. He even called me to see if I would come convince her. But Mommy wanted to wait until she knew you were ready.”

“How did she know?”

“I think you were probably whispering to her from her tummy.”

I laugh thinking about me inside Mommy's tummy.

“And when Mommy and Daddy got to the hospital, there I was.”

“After we waited a long long time.”

“Was Mommy scared?”

“Probably a little, yes.”

“Because I was new.”

Gramma pats my back. “And you want to know what happened when you got here? The nurse gave you to Mommy and she said to me, “It's the most beautiful girl in the world.” And you were, you were so so cute. You had the longest eyelashes and the teeniest toes. And there was a lot of crying and hugging and everyone wanted to hold you first.”

“Why crying?”

“Happy crying.”

“Who cried the most?”

Gramma laughs. “Maybe your dad. He cried a lot. But so did Mommy. And so did you.”

“Me? That's silly. I was just born.”

“You were pretty loud!”

“Gramma? Will my sister like me?”

“Baby are you kidding? You're going to be the best older sister anyone could have.”

“When is she coming?”

“Soon, I hope. And when she does, we can go see her at the hospital.”

“Now?”

“We're going to sleep right now. When you wake up.”

“How about...now?”

“Cecelia.”

Then we're quiet for a long time and I pretend to sleep.

“Now?”