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Chapter Fifty One - December 31

"I can't believe that last year at this time we were at the hospital."

"That was the scariest thing I've ever experienced in my life."

Brooke came up and offered me a fake hamburger. She had been 'cooking' up a storm at her stove. I took it and made a big show of taking big fake bites.

"Delicious," I said. I handed it back to her and she went back to cook something else. I looked over at Liv. She was hovering over Noah with her 'Tickle Monster' gloves which were big huge honking blue mitts with fur all over them. Noah's face was squished up and he was giggling, his legs kicking up in the air.

We had decided to be house hermits for New Year's Eve. We were taking off for Mexico City late tomorrow afternoon and it didn't seem like a good idea to go out and party until the wee hours of the morning.

The TV was on and shots of Times Square flashed on the screen periodicially intermixed with performances by special musical guests. The guys and I had done Time Squares before and I still remember freezing my ass off.

It was much nicer to be at home.

Angel had been living with us since Christmas. She had decided to go out tonight. I had called Matt several times but he never returned my phone calls. A source told me he was hiding in L.A. I had a feeling that the first chance I got, I was going to take a flight out there to 'check' on things.

"Mama," Noah gasped. Liv had finally sat back and let my son breath. He sat up, his hair flying crazily in the air. He reached for one of the mitts and smashed his face in it.

"Daddy, eat."

Brooke was back with another plastic creation. I scooped her up on my lap and pretended to stuff the hot dog in my mouth. She leaned against me and giggled.

"You think they're going to last 'til midnight?" Liv asked.

"They took a long nap. My guess is yes."

I was right. Two hours later the ball began its descent and Brooke stood right there, her hands on the TV watching it.

"Three...two...one...Happy New Year!"

Noah began to clap. I stood up and leaned over Liv. She smiled up at me.

"Happy New Year," I whispered. I kissed her softly.

"Happy New Year, Nick," she whispered back.

"NEW!" Brooke squealed. I turned around and flipped her upside down. I kissed her little cheeks.

"Happy New Year!"

--------------------------------

January 1

"My buddy! My buddy!"

Brooke was trying to squeeze as many stuffed animals into her bag as possible. Whenever I would relent and stuff another in, she seemed to find another one in a second and it would start all over again.

"Honey, we can't take your whole room!"

"Daddy, buddy!"

Buddy was a really sad tattered little green stuffed worm that she had dragged through the dirt outside most of the summer.

"Honey, buddy needs to stay here. His food is in the garden. Num, num."

"Nick, honey, we need to get the bags in the car if we're going to make it to the airport in time."

Brooke was clinging to the damn worm like she was going to pass out if she had to leave him. With a sigh I grabbed him and squished him into the bag. She turned around but I wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Time to go! You have to go potty?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yup!"

I carried her in one arm and her bag in another down the stairs. Liv was heaving our bags in the back. Noah was already in his car seat.

"How are you so organized?" I asked. Liv laughed.

"I'm just good like that."

I got Brooke buckled in and helped load up the bags.

"You ready for tour?"

"I was born ready," Liv said. She brought her huge equipment back up to the front and got in after it.

The ride to the airport took no time at all. We had a short flight from Tampa to Miami where we were meeting the others for the flight to Mexico City.

"BOOK!"

"KAYKAY!"

I set Brooke down and she took off towards Kayleigh. Brian and I looked at each other at the same time. We dropped our bags.

"NICKY!"

"BRIBRI!"

Bri flew at me and his scrawny legs wrapped around my waist. I held onto him for a second and then dropped him. A couple teenage girls walked past us giggling.

"You know, once your daughters grow up they are going to be so embarassed to claim you," Leighanne said. She nodded her head. "Kind of like your son's doing now."

Baylee had a BMX biking magazine smashed up to his face. Even his forehead was red.

"IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!"

Shelby was holding a McDonald's bag. She was wearing a tiara, Mardi Gras beads, and red sunglasses that had birthday candles poking out of the top.

"I'M SIX YEARS OLD...AND I GOT A HAPPY MEAL!"

I glanced over at AJ. He stuffed a fry in his mouth and laughed.

"I'M ALMOST SIX! I'M ALMOST SIX!"

It was Mason's turn to run by me with a Happy Meal. Shelby turned around.

"YOU'RE FIVE AND A HALF!"

Mason looked like she had just slapped him. "But that's close to six."

Shelby opened her bag and took out her burger.

"Do you want my pickle?"

Mason smiled. "YEAH!"

"Now boarding for Flight 632, Mexico City, Mexico."

"That's us!"

The last time that we had taken the kids on a flight was when we had gone to Kentucky for Kev's wedding. But that had only been flying with AJ's crew. Now we had all the kids with us.

"How long is this flight?" I asked.

"Three and a half hours," Howie said.

I groaned.

It took us forever to get everyone settled in first class. Shelby and Mason insisted on sitting together. They lined up their french fries in order by size before eating them. James was running up and down the aisles singing the theme song from Scooby Doo.

"James get over here. I've got to buckle you in."

"DADDY!"

I'm surprised the stewardesses didn't kick us off the plane before takeoff. Luckily one of them must have been a mom because she produced packages of cookies and we have nine happy kids as Miami disappeared from view.

"Cowd, cowd!"

Brooke perched on my lap. She pointed out at the clouds. I grinned.

"Yup, there's lots of clouds!"

"Hey Nick?"

Liv had her laptop open. Noah was happily watching a Baby Einstein DVD.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking that the fans might enjoy some more of your tour blogs. Y'know, like Sam had you do?"

I laughed. "Really?"

"Sure."

"All the girls love Nick-isms," Brian called out.

"I'd love to do more blogs," I said loudly.

The flight was pretty uneventful for about the first hour. Mason and Shelby were roaming around and then disappeared all together. I was too busy watching Brooke and Kayleigh walking up and down the aisle to think about anything else.

Until the screaming started.

"What the--"

"DADDY!"

I grabbed Brooke just in time to save her from being run over by Mason. He tore up the aisle straigh to Kev. He looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"I'M A GIRL! I'M A GIRL!"

Shelby tore up the aisle after Mason, but Molly swooped down and intercepted.

"What are you talking about?" Molly asked. Shelby looked up at her.

"Mason said someone cut off my wiener, but I told him I'm a girl!"

Sometimes the best things in life were free. This was one of them. I peered up a couple aisles.

"Hey Kev, I think you need to have a talk with your boy!"

"Hold it. Shelby, how did Mason find out you didn't have a wiener?" AJ asked suspiciously.

I glanced over at Liv. She had quietly snuck the video camera out of her bag. She had a huge smile on her face.

"We wanted to play doctor," Shelby said. She shrugged as if it was obvious.

"KEVIN!"

It was a great five minutes. AJ went all into 'shotgun' dad mode and Kev just sat there looking up at him in frustration.

"He obviously didn't mean anything," Kev said impatiently. "He's only five."

"And he thinks girls have wieners!" I called out. They both looked at me. Obviously I wasn't helping.

"I have a wiener!" James called out.

"This makes me wish we had the Black & Blue plane back," I heard Leighanne tell Bri. Baylee was acting like he didn't know any of us.

I'm pretty sure the other passengers in first class had never heard the word 'wiener' so much in their entire lives.

After Kev had a little anatomy talk with Mason and AJ made Shelby swear she'd never play doctor again, things settled back down.

"It's going to be a long ten months," Howie said as we descended into Mexico City. I laughed.

"Something tells me we're just getting started."