"Daddy dose bears are like us," Jill said whispering against Jim's chest as she lay snuggled beneath his arm.  Jim lay with one knee bent over the side of her twin, his foot flat on the floor, while the other foot hung long past the length of the twin.

"Which bears?" Jim said narrowing his eyes on Jill's favorite page of Goodnight Moon.

She'd made him read Goodnight Moon every night for the better part of the last two weeks. It was weird. Just a couple of months before she'd told him on no uncertain terms (with a pointed finger, mind you) that Goodnight Moon was for itsy-bitsy babies only.

Tonight he'd made her promise that if they it, that meant she'd stay in her bed for the duration of the evening. It seemed the bigger Pam got, the more Jill wanted to sleep with them instead of in her own room.

"Dose bears right dere Daddy. Over dat bunny's bed," she said touching the little framed photo. 

She was such a details girl - definitely Pam's daughter. Not that the caramel hair and the way she smiled with her tongue pushed between the top and bottom row of her teeth hadn't given her away on that score already.

Jim found the bears, right where Jill said they were - in a framed little picture right above, ‘Dat bunny's bed.'

"Oh yeah, there they are," he said. "How are they like us?"

"Like you and me and mommy. Just dat many," Jill said nodding resolutely. Point obviously made.

Oh. How could he not have guessed that correlation?  There was a pretty strong "Three's a Party, Four's a Crowd" Campaign being run from the south east wing of the Halpert house. He was pretty sure Jill was having some flair made at the local Kinkos.

"How many's that many?" Jim said, holding up his fingers.  Good parents took their children's frustrations as learning opportunities, right?

Jill scrunched her little nose and regarded his fingers. "Yep, just dat many Daddy."

He didn't push. She was smart enough as it was.

"Well, actually," Jim began holding add his pinky to the three fingers that were already standing. "There's gonna be one more of us very soon."

"No Daddy, just us," Jill said snuggling in a bit tighter.  

His little girl couldn't consistently identify three fingers but seemed to have quite a firm concept of what "three" meant.  For one thing it meant no more in this house. Not ever. And if there was going to be a fourth individual counted it was going to be their dog, Foxy and even he was on the outs sometimes.

"Ok," Jim said finally.  Avoidant to the core.

Pam would have called him a coward. "I think it's time for bed," he said extricating himself before Jill could protest.  He leaned down to kiss her forehead and started tucking her in.  "You want to be tucked like a burrito or a mummy?"

Jill giggled. "Mummy!"

"Ooh, mummy is the best!" Jim said happily, tucking away.  Mummy meant it would take her at least another ten minutes to wiggle herself out of her bed and into their's.

"Ok," Jim said finally standing to his full height. He pressed his fingers against his lower back, suddenly achy. "Who's Daddy's big girl?"

"Jilly!"

"And what do big girls do?"

She frowned.

"Come on...tell me what big girls do."

She adamantly pushed out her bottom lip and refused.  She was as stubborn as her mother was. Like really dug her heels in about stuff.  Pam didn't see it. Pam thought that was just ‘So ridiculous...I'm so not like that.'

‘Right. No - absolutely you aren't,' Jim would say.  Which of course just sort of pissed her off.

Now he said, "Big girls, stay in their big girl beds all night, like big girls, and then they get up in the morning and have big girl French Toast, but only if they're big girls."

"Daddy dat's too many big girls!" Jill squealed with a smile.

"What? What do you mean!" Jim said grinning. "How can I not use it that many times when you're such a big girl?!"

Jill laughed when he reached down and tickled her sides through her mummy tuck.

"Ok," he whispered, calming her down then. He brushed her hair away from her forehead and planted his lips there. "Love you more than all the leaves in all the trees, goodnight Moonie."

"I'm not a moonie!"

"You'll turn into one if you make me read that book again, ‘Night," he was saying as he made his way towards the door.  He bent over and flipped her night light on as he switched off the overhead lamp.

He heard her whispering something about the moon to herself as he walked back downstairs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pam unconsciously shifted and opened her arms as Jill wedged herself beneath her chin.  Oh God, Jill was too big or her stomach was too big...something, somewhere, was much too big.  She could barely move.

"Mama I had a nightmare,"

Pam's impossibly heavy eyelids stayed closed as she combed her fingers through her daughter's hair.  So tired.

"Mmm...I'm sorry Babycakes...go back to sleep."

Even less than half-conscious she knew that for whatever reason when Jill needed comforting she liked more than just about anything to be called, Babycakes.

"I love you Mama, can I sleep here Mama?"

Pam just nodded.  She knew they were supposed to get up immediately.  She and Jim had actually asked their pediatrician about this new phase of Jill's and the doctor's advice had been to get up immediately and march Jill back to her bed, because the truth was if she was really having nightmares they'd know about it. They'd hear her from down the hall.  This was just a little insecurity - they needed to tell her they loved her, make her feel secure, and walk her back down to her bed...

But Pam felt too guilty and too tired to move.  Her legs wouldn't have moved if she'd wanted them too. "I love you too Beanie, You can stay but you have to go to sleep for mama...it's still nigh' nigh' time, ok?"

Jill nodded and quickly started talking again. "How many more sleeps Mama? How many more sleeps till Baby gets here?"

"Ssssh...Don't wake Daddy, Jilly...I don't know how many more sleeps.  Maybe fourteen more sleeps."

"Oh Mama dats a lot of sleeps!"

Mama. She was using mama.  Something about that registered as odd to Pam even as she drifted back to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wet.

Jim's fingers felt something wet.  He'd intended to reach out for Pam, but all he'd felt was wet.

Cold and wet.

He turned over and blinked a few times in the darkness, making out the now familiar shape of their daughter sprawled between them.  His fingers danced across the sheets beneath the comforter once more, meeting nothing but more wet before they got to Jill.

Aw, jeez...

Jim groaned and pushed himself to a sitting position, checking out the wet spot on the side of his white t-shirt.  Awesome.

He reached into the bed, scooping Jill up in her Barbie nightgown without a word.  Barbie's pink dress was now just a bit more vibrant than it had been earlier.  A healthy dose of urine would do that.

Pam mumbled something in her sleep and then slowly roused. "I told her she could...ugh," she said, realizing as she rolled over slightly that everything was wet.

Jill was out like a light in her daddy's arms, not stirring for a moment.

Pam moaned in a dramatic sob. "Really?"

It was 3:23 in the morning.  They had to be up in two and a half hours and Jill looked soaked.

"Don't worry about it, I got it..." Jim said as he carried Jill down the hall to the bathroom.

Pam rolled her eyes. She couldn't sleep in urine. If it was up to Jim, he'd come back and throw a towel in the middle of the bed and fall right back to sleep.

She got up slowly and started stripping the bed, and called to Jim, "There's a freshly washed Princess Unicorn gown in the top drawer!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pam yawned as she smoothed another layer of peanut butter on Jill's bread and just one tiny little half spoonful of jelly. Jill was more of a peanut butter girl than a jam girl.  Pam folded the sandwich in half and stuffed it inside a little plastic baggie, making room for a tiny post-it inside.

A doodle a day, featured a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich named Jill who sometimes blew kisses or waved or did a funny dance. Today it was making a silly fish face.  Jill would find it when she opened her lunch at pre-school.

Pam cleared her throat, and glanced over her shoulder at Jim. "So Jim, guess what I saw on TV the other day?" He sat at the table eating his cereal with eyelids half-mast. 

Jill was busy making her sippy cup talk to her spoon in her highchair.  The two inanimate objects were having a stimulating conversation about whether or not they liked Jello.

It was the perfect time. Jill was distracted.  Pam ratcheted up her acting skills and prepared for the dialogue she'd pitched to Jim earlier this morning in the mirror as they'd gotten ready for work.  Of course she'd been half delirious when she'd come up with the idea while stripping the bed...she had to believe it would work though.

"What did you see, Pam?" Jim said looking up.

"I saw on TV yesterday that sometimes when little babies are born, their big sisters or big brothers get to have something called  I'm a GREAT BIG SISTER Parties..."

"Or a big brother party," Jim added nonchalantly shoveling a spoonful of cereal into his mouth. "Huh, that's interesting, Pam."

Pam grinned slightly and stayed casual. "Oh yeah...of course, or big brothers too...I just thought that was such a fun idea. Like on the TV show...the way they did it was that there was a party with a bunch of kids, and presents, and all these really cool balloons and I think the little girl - Oh, I mean the GREAT  big sister, even got an entire bouquet of flowers delivered to her door. I mean this little girl was like the luckiest -

"Big sister," Jim corrected.

"In the world," Pam finished, trying not to giggle when oddly enough the Sippy cup and the spoon stopped talking about Jello and became very quiet.

"Wow...Pam, that's the single most amazing thing I've ever heard," Jim said nodding.

"I know!"

Jim sighed. "I wish I could be a big sister."

Pam almost lost it and Jill looked up at this. "Daddy you can't be a big sistah you're a boy. You gots a penis."

Jim glanced at Pam with eyebrows lifted high. "Wow."

"Another conversation for another time," Pam said quickly, waving him off.  "Gosh that's right though, Daddy can't have a GREAT Big Sister party, I bet I know who can though..." Pam said, letting her sentence dangle for just a fragment of a second.

Jill's eyes went wide.

"Me!" Pam said. "I'm a big sister, and I've been a really good big sister to Auntie Penny."

Jill's face fell, and Pam almost gave in and told her they were talking about her.  Jim lifted his eyebrows in warning not to give in yet.  Not yet...

"Whenever Auntie Penny needs something, I'm always there...and when Auntie Penny was just an itsy-bitsy little baby do you know what I did?"

Jill remained silent.

Pam lifted her eyebrows to prompt Jim to ask instead.

"What did you do, Pam?"

Pam smiled wide. "I helped my mommy and daddy sooooooo much, Jim."

"Really, Pam? Like what kinds of things did you do?" Jim said, propping his chin on his hand and watching his pregnant wife play act.

"Oh just being a really great big sister...You know, like helping Mommy pick out really nice things for the Penny - but you know...baby stuff for her - not cool big girl stuff like I got.  Oh, and I was always really nice to my baby sister...and even before my baby sister came along, I even slept in my own Big Sister bed as practice because Mommy told me I had to show the baby how to sleep in a bed...So Jim, I'm getting really excited because I think I'm going to throw myself a Great Big Sister Party!"

Jim made a face. "Well Pam...I mean come on. You're a little bit too old for a Big Sister Party, don't you think?"

"A great big sister party," Pam corrected.  Then she folded her arms across her chest. "And...I guess so.  But Jim, I really, really want one."

"Sorry Pam," Jim said shaking his head. "I don't think we can...it's just weird."

"We can!" Jill said then.  "We can have a Great Big Sister party Mommy! Because I'm gonna be a Big Sister you guys!"

And Jill to the rescue.  Jim smiled at Pam. Perfect. Plan.  

Sometimes - a lot of the time, Pam was a freaking genius.  When she'd told him of her idea this morning over toothpaste, he'd thought it was a long shot; that Jill was such a criminal mastermind that she may not take the bait, but she had.  Now all they had to do was be ready to throw a party not long after having a new baby.

"It'll be easier than tag-teaming washing pee out of sheets and changing diapers at 3 am," is what Pam had said. It had been a convincing argument to say the least.

He turned to Jill now with all signs of smirking gone.  Completely serious, "You think we could?"

"Yes!" Jill said almost bursting out of her seat. "Because Mommy says fohteen more sleeps and I'm gonna sleep in my way cool bed for all dose sleeps until Baby gets here."

"And after," Jim added casually.

"You are?" Pam asked, feigning surprise. "Oh my gosh, Jill! What a great plan!... Beanie you are so smart!"

Jim smiled at Pam as she wrapped Jill in her arms from behind. She leaned over as best she could, showering their big girl in kisses. 

"Jim can you believe how smart she is?!"

Jim smiled. "Revolutionary."

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