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Tessa has the baby on her hip, one chubby little fist tangled in her hair, the other reaching down her top resting between her breasts.
“Not now, Audrey. You just ate baby girl.” Tessa says, gently, trying to remove her daughter’s little hand from the inside of her top.
“Hey little mousy, those are for daddy.” Scott pinches Audrey’s cheek and gives Tessa a little wink.
She rolls her eyes at him, “I think she wins this fight, dear.”
“For now,” he gives her a little peck on the lips and adjusts the ears on top of her head, “Momma mouse.”
“Meow. Meow. Meeeeeooowww.”
Mary comes running down the stairs, one arm out of her cat costume, so half of it trails behind her. She is meowing and moving her little paws in front of her face, in an attempt to look like a cat. Scott and Tessa both turn to her and chuckle.
“Need help, kiddo?” Scott asks, lifting her easily off the stairs.
“It got stuck, daddy.” Mary says, holding her arm out for him to slip the other sleeve of her costume on.
Once Mary has both arms in her fleece black cat costume, he zips it and pulls up the eared hood. He kisses her nose, and she pouts at him.
“Daddy, you’re gonna wreck my cat makeup.”
“Yeah, daddy, don’t smudge that cute little cat nose.”
Tessa had used an old eyeliner and drawn a little black nose and whiskers on both herself and Mary. She considered putting whiskers on her little baby mouse too, but ultimately decided against it, she’d already had to redo Mary’s three times today.
Without warning, Mary leans forward and licks her dad on the cheek. She then cocks her head and smiles, a little mischievously, at him.
“Meow.”
He wipes his cheek with the back of his hand and grimaces. “Cats don’t like cheese. Eww.”
She giggles, and the sound fills the hall like sound of little bells. And then she licks him again.
“Hey! Cheese is for mice, you little weirdo.”
“Mommy is a mouse.” Mary smiles at Tessa, who has been watching this whole exchange between her husband and daughter with a wide grin, while Audrey continues to try to rid her of her shirt.
“You hear that, mommy? You’re a mouse, mice like cheese, want a little nibble?” he says with a smile that is positively wicked.
“You’re incorrigible.”
“You love it.”
“You’re so cheesy.” she flicks the cheese hat that he is wearing and smiles.
Audrey leans towards her dad, babbling as she does. She has one hand in her mouth, gnawing on her fingers with her two brand new teeth, the other is reaching for the yellow fabric of Scott’s cheese costume. She is wearing a grey fleece mouse onsie with a hood, round little mouse ears on top. The middle is filled with stuffing, making her look even rounder, and Tessa has put her in little grey tights and black patent shoes.
Scott takes her out of Tessa’s arms, and she immediately takes her hand from her mouth and latches on to his costume, drool quickly soaking the material.
“I guess this is what I get for dressing as food.”
Tessa shrugs and turns to Mary, “Hey my little love bug—“
“I’m not a bug, I’m a cat!” Mary stomps a foot and puts her hands on her hips, glaring at Tessa as if she’d said something truly offensive.
“Alright, little kitty, can you get your shoes on?”
Mary nods and runs to the foyer to grab her pink runners, holding her cat tail as she does. All day she had been reaching for it, afraid it may fall off, despite Tessa’s best efforts to explain to her that it was firmly attached and not going anywhere. Tessa follows Mary out to where she is determinedly putting her shoes on, all by herself—on the correct feet, she may add.
She opens the coat closet and grabs the Tula carrier—light pink with little white leaves. Mary is just finishing doing up the Velcro on her shoes, and Scott is bouncing a now fussy Audrey, who is still attempting to eat his costume.
“Maybe I should feed her again before we leave?”
“Tess, she just nursed like a half hour ago…besides it’s already six, so if we want to make it trick-or-treating and then get to my parents house and home before bedtime, we really have to start now.”
“Mooommmy,” Mary whines, “I wanna go now.”
“Okay, okay! Let’s go get you some candy!”
“Baby Audrey too?”
“Baby Audrey only has two teeny, tiny teeth, how is she going to eat candy?” Scott tickles Mary behind the ear.
Tessa has already clipped on the waist band of the Tula and motions for Scott to hand her Audrey. She holds her baby against her chest while Scott helps her into the padded backpack straps and does up the buckle between her shoulder blades.
“Good?” he asks.
She pulls the straps to tight it a bit, then kisses the top of Audrey’s head, breathing in her sweet baby scent.
“Perfect.”
Scott grabs the keys off the key hook next to the door and pockets them, having to awkwardly lift his cheese costume to do so.
“Mary, don’t forget your pumpkin bucket.”
The four of them, a cat, a mommy mouse and a baby mouse, and a piece of cheese, walk out the door into the crisp autumn air.
They return a few hours later, Tessa with a sleeping baby pressed against her chest, and Scott carefully carrying their sleeping five year old, whose hood has shifted to cover have her face and who is also inexplicably missing one shoe. Careful not to wake their sleeping children the two of them quietly ascend the stairs, both making sure to avoid the creaky fourth stair from the top.
They part ways at the top of the stairs, Scott heading to Mary’s room and Tessa into the nursery. She doesn’t turn on the light, afraid to wake her sleeping baby, who has been both teething and going through some kind of sleep regression lately. She had already changed her into a cozy sleeper before they had left Alma and Joe’s, so she slips her straight into the crib.
Gently she runs her fingers through her daughter’s dark, thick, curly hair and admires how much she resembles her dad.
“Happy first Halloween, baby girl,” she whispers.
Audrey lets out a little sigh as she withdraws her hand and Tessa freezes for a minute, praying she doesn’t wake up. When she is sure she is in the clear, she tip toes out of the room and heads to the master bedroom, where Scott has the light on.
He is sitting on top of the duvet, leaning against the headboard.
“Mary didn’t wake up at all when you put her down?”
He shakes his head, and she climbs onto the bed and then onto him, straddling his lap.
“Hi momma mouse,” he says, playfully tugging at the mouse ear headband she is still wearing.
“Hey,” she responds, a little low and throaty. “Where’s your cheese costume? This mouse is a little hungry, she was looking for a snack.”
She nibbles at his ear, and he lets out a huff of a laugh.
“Oh yeah?” he says, putting both hands on her ass and pulling her in closer.
“Yeah.”
She kisses him, long and hard and he tastes like candy.