The hospital is white all around and also some green, like on chairs and floor squares and stuff. I love green, so I try to step on only the green squares but Daddy makes me stop because the balloon keeps hitting him in the head, which is funny. Daddy picks me up and now Minnie Mouse almost touches the ceiling! I get to press the elevator button to make it glow and when a man gets on I say, “What button would you like?” and so I get to press two of them, and then I say you're welcome.

Our floor is blue and Daddy pats my back. “You ready, babe?”

I don't know but I am getting tired of holding the balloon for my sister, so I say okay.

“Mommy is so excited to see you.”

That makes me happy and excited to see Mommy. Before we go find the room, I get to choose a lollipop from the counter, I get purple. We pass lots of people wearing tablecloths and squeaky shoes and sometimes there's screaming. We pass this big window where there's all these tiny little babies, who I am way older then and who look like my dolls. I want Daddy to stop so I can look and I press my nose up to the window and make some funny faces for the babies to make them laugh. Then I see a baby with a furry pink hat and I wonder if maybe that's my sister.

“Daddy, is my sister in here?”

“I'm guessing she's probably with Mommy.”

“Oh. Well what about that one?”

Daddy looks and makes squinty eyes. “Mm, nope. That is...Lollipop Daisy.”

“Daddy no it's not! That's my favorite name!”

“She looks like a Lollipop to me.”

“You are just playing around me.”

“Would I lie about such a great name?”

“Daddy.”

“Cece.”

We walk down some more hallways and I'm getting all lost and dizzy and there's lots of beeping and talking and more crying, I don't like all the loudness, except suddenly Daddy is saying, “here we are!” and opening the door and I get all nervous like jello in my tummy.

But then there's Mommy in a big bed under the covers. She is wearing a tablecloth too and her hair is in a ponytail but all curly and she looks very sleepy but she is smiling a lot.

“Mommy!” Daddy is still holding me, otherwise I would run and jump on her bed.

“Hi,” she says all whispers. “Come here, cutie. You want to meet your little sister?”

“I got her a balloon,” I tell Mommy and pull on the string.

“Look at you! That is so sweet. Is that Minnie?”

We walk over and Daddy leans to kiss Mommy's head and says, “It's been an adventure.”

Then he puts me on the bed and when I start crawling, he says, “Careful, Cece,” but Mommy says it's okay, just be gentle because my sister is sleeping. I don't know where she is but then Mommy takes her out of the covers and she's so itsy-bitsy I can barely see her. She is very lumpy and red and covered in her blankets but then she reaches out her hand, which is also tiny, and makes a little noise.

“Mommy.”

“Cece, come sit here.” She pats the pillow beside her and I scoot up there. Mommy puts her arm around me and gives me a kiss. All the time Daddy is sitting on the end of the bed smiling at us. I am not sure what to do, I kind of want to leave.

My sister yawns and makes more faces and Mommy fixes her hat. Her blankie has pink feet all over it.

“This is Madeline Claire.”

“My sister?”

We stare at her for a long time and the room is so quiet. I feel like I should be all quiet around her, so I am. Mommy is wearing a plastic bracelet and I want one.

“She likes you a lot, she already told me,” Mommy says.

“Mommy.”

She laughs. “I can just tell. You want to hold her?”

I swallow. I look at Daddy and he nods. “Will I hurt my sister?”

“No, honey, you just need to be gentle.”

First I have to squirt on this goop that is cold and smells funny. It gets all the germs off. Then Mommy shows me how to hold my arms where she puts my sister. She is heavy and smells like milk and my bed after Mommy remakes the sheets. I am so careful and I don't move.

“Hi, sister. Hi.” I say real soft and nicely, so she knows I am a fun girl. “This is Cecelia Marie Halpert. I am older than you but that's okay. You can have my purple teddy bear Dennis because I don't want him anymore. What's her name again?”

I look up at Mommy and she has tears all the way down to her chin. “What's wrong Mommy?”

“Nothing,” she says, and then smiles. But then she wouldn't be crying. “Her name is Madeline. You can call her Maddy.” She sniffles.

“Maddy, you are cooler than my baby doll, definitely,” I say. “We're going to play house and Barbies and Scare Mommy and Daddy and kitchen and worms outside and all the best games. Okay?”

And when she moves I see her teeny fingertails that are like teeth and I hope we will be best friends. Except I don't know yet. Then I want Mommy to take her back so I don't break her. Even she has a bracelet!

“Can I get a bracelet?”

“What? Oh. We'll see.”

“Cece, you are so great with her,” Daddy says. “Knew you'd be a natural.”

“Yeah I've had lots of practice with my babies.”

“You sure have,” Mommy says. She leans back on her pillow. She looks really tired.

Then I get down and look all around the room, even though there isn't much cool stuff. There's a plant and the goop bottle and a weird machine and a chair and a curtain that I twist around in until Daddy says stop. Daddy has tied my balloon to the table by the bed and I like that. This way Naddy can look at it all the time.

“Mommy are you sleeping?”

She opens her eyes. “No, just resting.”

“Are you sleepy?”

“Yeah, honey I am.”

“Are you going to come home?”

“Yeah, we'll be home really soon.”

“I just want everyone to be home. Even my sister.”

Daddy laughs. “Nah, I think we'll just leave her here at the hospital. With Lollipop.”

Mommy gives him the look she calls not pleased. “More like let's leave Daddy here.”

I laugh and laugh at that until Mommy puts her finger on her lips, shhh.

“Sorry Naddy,” I whisper and then Mommy lets me stroke her face with my finger very gentle. I do a great job. And then I give her the card I made, which makes Mommy cry again which makes Daddy say a joke that Mommy cries more than our newborn which makes the not pleased face happen again but then she laughs and then she makes a scrunchy face and says no laughing but I think she's talking about herself only.

I stare at my sister some more but this is getting boring, because she is kind of boring, sorry. But she is. She just lays there and Daddy makes coo noises at her.

A nurse comes in. There are squeaky shoes. She asks Mommy if she needs anything and if everything's healing and Mommy says some more painkillers might be nice. Why killers? And Mommy says the baby came out of her belly so she's a different kind of sore than normal. I thought babies always come out of bellies. Where else would they come out of?

Daddy stands up. “We should let you get some rest, huh?”

Mommy sighs. “Oh, I'm fine. I'm so happy to see both my girls at once.”

While I sing my sister a song, Daddy gets some ice and water. And I can tell everyone is so sleepy except me and Daddy and that we are being disturbance maybe. So I say, “let's do family hug pretty please.”

Family hug is my favorite. It's where the whole family, which is now my sister too I guess, gets in a big circle and does one big hug where I am usually the squished in the middle.

“If we're careful,” Daddy says. So we do a careful one and I look right at my sister's face and think I might like her, until Daddy swoops me into bear hug and picks me up.

“You'll be home soon?” I say.

Mommy says, “Real soon, baby. Come give me a kiss.”

“We'll put the coffee on.”

Thank the lord,” says Mommy.

And she makes Naddy – Maddy, Daddy says – Maddy's hand wave as we go out the door.

But then I tell him a secret. “Sometimes, I'm still going to call her Lollipop Daisy. In secret.”

“That's good. Because you know what I call you sometimes? In secret?”

“What?”

“Tootsie Roll Tulip.”