March 14, 2012, 4:46pm

Meena could scarcely believe how quickly the past month had gone. Three days from now, her beautiful, twin baby girls would be a full month old, and it felt like it had barely been days--or perhaps it had been almost a year already. With two infants, it was hard to tell whether she was coming or going most days, and sometimes she wanted to cry from sheer exhaustion, especially when one or the other started crying themselves--but just before she reached that point, Cole always seemed to sense that she was heading there, and would shoo her off to the bathroom to take a long luxurious bath with some soothing music playing. Even when she wasn't reaching her snapping point, he always seemed to know just when she needed him; she was pretty damn sure she couldn't have done it without him.

That wasn't to say, of course, that she was thrilled to pieces to have the girls; she'd trade exhaustion and mental health for those precious little bundles every day if given the choice. Harmony and Melody were her life, her sweet little ones, and they were beautiful and perfect. Their smooth skin was a soft brown, a few shades lighter than her own, and the thatches of hair growing in on their little scalps was fine and dark; Harmony had her eyes, she thought, the same ones she'd inherited from her mum, and Melody looked just like her dad when she got thoughtful, mimicking his expression perfectly in miniature.

"Harrie, Mellie," she cooed to the little girls, who lay on their play mat on the kitchen floor; the former had her fist in her mouth, and the latter was batting futilely at a toy hanging from the plush arch over their heads. "Do you know what today is? Today is pi day. 3.14159... I don't remember the rest. But it's pi! So we're going to finish up this pretty pie for your daddy, aren't we?" She spoke softly, though not in 'baby' tones--she'd read that speaking often to your children actually increased their intelligence later in life, even if they didn't understand what the hell you were saying at the time. And so, when it was just her and the girls, she tended to ramble to them; they seemed calmer when someone was talking to them, anyway, though they were sweet, cheerful babies anyway.

She finished crimping the dough cover of the chicken pot pie she was making for herself and Cole for dinner, and cut a few slits in it before popping it into the preheated oven. It was a simple enough dish, and had little cleanup, which was a blessing--especially since Meena had enough cleanup to take care of with the little girls. Once the timer was set, she leaned down to gather up first one baby and then the other, tucking them into the big sling she wore over one shoulder and around the other hip. She couldn't carry both of them like this for long at the rate they were growing, but for now, it was a convenient way to move around the house when she had both. "Yes, Daddy's going to be home soon, and then we'll have dinner and bathtime and snuggle time and we'll all go to bed..." she murmured, shifting Harrie onto her tummy on a blanket on the living room sofa--a pillow between her in the edge--for some tummy time, while she settled in to nurse Mellie. Gods, it was a tiring life right now, but it was such a very good one...

Cole was exhausted. Completely and utterly exhausted. Yet, he couldn't be happier. Well, maybe if he were back in his roll as the pianist for the New York Philharmonic; but other than that, he couldn't be happier. He was happily married to a wonderful wife and had two beautiful baby girls who were almost a month old. Sure, he didn't get much sleep nowadays, but he could deal with that. After all, he wouldn't be sleep-deprived forever. The only thing was, it made his work a little harder as it made it harder for him to concentrate and remember things.

At his job at Momma Lucchese's, he had to make sure and write down everyone's orders, when normally he could remember them in his head and make sure the orders got back to the kitchen staff. It made him feel slightly inadequate that he couldn't do it like normal, but he knew that the sleep-deprivation and all that came with it would only be temporary, so he put as much of a positive spin on it as he could. Besides, he had three amazing ladies at home, all three of whom he was on his way home to see.

Once he was able to start home from work, it didn't take Cole long to reach the house; and once home, he quickly and eagerly made it inside. As soon as he made it through the front door, he could smell the aromas of something baking in the oven in the kitchen and he heard the murmurs of Meena talking to the twins in the living room. After merely a moment's pause, he made his way into the living room to see all three of his girls. "Hello," he said softly as he moved over to the couch and leaned over to give each female a small kiss on top of their heads, starting with Meena and then moving to Melody and Harmony in turn.

Then, he pulled back just enough to be able to reposition himself into a sitting position next to the couch so he could be at eye level with them and so he wouldn't have to strain his neck or his back just to be able to lean over and talk to them. Once he was situated, Cole spoke softly--so as not to talk too loudly right in their ears and so as not to get his daughters too stirred up when they were supposed to be relaxing and nursing--yet excitedly, "Happy Pi Day!" grinning as he remembered how Meena and he had joked about that this morning as he was getting ready for work. After he greeted her, Cole paused for a moment before he asked his wife with genuine interest, "So how was your day, my dear?"

Meena couldn’t help but smile when Cole joined them, looking tired but content. That was probably the best way to describe her life now, actually; everything was just going so well, aside from the consistent and pervasive lack of sleep. Not only were the girls healthy despite their prematurity and developing beautifully, but her husband was as devoted a father as he was a husband, and on top of all that, the owner of the Evergreen Inn had mentioned to her that he was selling. Meena couldn’t help but want the Inn and Restaurant for her own; it was such a darling place…

She smiled widely as he kissed her and then the girls, crouched beside the sofa. It was the only time she’d ever get to see the top of her tall husband’s head, so she reached out to brush the fingers of the hand that wasn’t curled around Mellie, holding her against her breast, through Cole’s hair. “Hello, my love. Our day was absolutely fabulous, wasn’t it, ladies?” she asked, looking down briefly at the infant breastfeeding and the identical one on her tummy, fumbling with clumsy fingers at a little plush elephant, beside Meena on the sofa.

“Dinner’s in the oven,” she continued. “Chicken pot pie. I thought it might be appropriate.” Though she wasn’t nerdy at first glance, there was a definite ‘geek’ streak in Meena, buried though it was under recipes. She had, after all, started out as a pre-med student before rebelling in favor of the culinary arts. “How was your day, darling?” she asked, returning her head to fuss a little bit with the slowly thickening, feather-soft strands of dark hair clinging to Melody’s head as the baby suckled contentedly.

Cole grinned when Meena smiled at him. He felt as if he could stare at Meena's smile all day, but he also knew that he would never get anything done if that were the case. He loved seeing her happy, though, and he loved seeing her face light up with glee, in general, but especially if it were something he had done to make her happy. Even though he had only walked in the room right now, it caused Meena to smile and Cole could only smile lovingly back.

Stretching his legs out in front of him, he leaned his top half against the front of the sofa where the top of his head were resting next to Meena's head and near the baby girls. He smiled at Meena again and then looked down at the babies on top of her as Meena spoke to them. Cole loved practically everything that Meena did, down to the way that she talked to Melody and Harmony and even how she referred to them as 'ladies'. Cole himself would even occasionally refer to them as 'his little ladies' - when he wasn't referring to them as 'his little princesses' or some other sappy nickname. "I'm glad you three had a wonderful day," he told all three of 'his ladies' adoringly.

When Meena told him what she had made them for dinner, Cole's grin widened and the corners of his eyes crinkled as he laughed. "Very fitting, my love, very fitting," he replied with a nod. "It sounds wonderful. I could smell it when I came home," he added. After a pause, he responded to her next question. "My day was alright. I couldn't use the clean plates as a pillow or anything like that, and I had to make sure and write down everyone's orders so I could remember them - but it was fine." A smile working its way across his lips once more he added with a short nod, "We're still getting congratulations on our little ones, you know?" As he spoke, Cole motioned toward himself with his hands and arms, silently indicating that he could take one of the twins if Meena had her hands full and wanted to hand one of them over for him to hold.

Meena smiled back at him; she knew that his job could be a thankless one (didn't she have a few servers of her own at the Inn, and didn't she always try to make time to let them vent to her about some of the bad customers that came through once in a while?), so she liked to try to make his time at home as light and amusing as possible. It wasn't always easy to do, given that they had the twins around, but her sense of humor and Cole's met so perfectly in the middle that she always seemed to know what to say to amuse him. It made her feel a little bit better.

"Poor lover," she said then, using her spare hand to floof his hair; Mellie was still suckling away happily, and Harrie was happy on her little blanket on the sofa beside Mum, having some tummy time and grabbing at her plush elephant. "You should go to bed early. We all should, really. Harrie had an upset tummy during naptime, so of course Mellie was awake the whole time too..." she laughed softly, shaking her head. Oh, these girls. They were such perfect little mirror images of each other.

She couldn't help the proud smile that crossed her face as he told her about how they were still getting congratulations. "Well, of course we are," she teased him lovingly. "We have the most beautiful babies in all of Evergreen, if not Indiana." She looked down at Mellie, who'd stopped suckling and was sleepily rubbing her eyes. Clicking her tongue softly, she handed Cole a little hand towel to put on his shoulder, then passed Melody to him gently for burping, before picking Harrie up and blowing a kiss against her cheek before settling the second twin in for 'dinner time.' "Oh, your mum called today while you were at work... she sends you her love, and says she'll call again sometime in the morning, to try to catch you. She wants us to bring the girls out for a visit when they're old enough."

Cole smirked at Meena's teasing tone as she began to play with his hair. He thought it was cute when they used affectionate or pet names for each other, even if it were merely in the case of a term like 'my love' or 'lover'. It was cute, but not in a sappy, 'we're teenagers and have to use a pet name for each other every time we say something to the other one' way. It was their own grown-up way of showing their affection and adoration of one another.

He closed his eyes for the briefest of moments as a slow, content smile spread across his face when Meena touched his hair. Cole loved having his hair played with. After a moment of the hair-floofing, Cole opened his eyes back up and focused in on Meena's face and what she was telling him. He nodded at her words, his brow creasing slightly on a somber note. Yet, the facial expression only lasted a moment on his face before he grinned again, over-exaggerating a yawn for fun. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea. I know we could all use the sleep. Maybe the girls will sleep better tonight since they didn't sleep well during their nap."

Cole's grin grew at her next words. "That we do, my love, that we do," he replied with a nod. "But I couldn't have done it without you," he added with a wink. "They'll be so beautiful and creative when they grow up, too, if not also the best cooks in town," he chuckled. Cole then took the pro-offered towel and rearranged it on his shoulder before he gently took Melody from Meena and settled her on his shoulder before he began to gently pat her back to help burp her. "Hmm?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and looking over at Meena when she mentioned his mother. "Oh, yeah. I'm sure she's dying to see them. She might not let us have them back once she gets to hold them!" he joked with a laugh. His mother could be slightly-smothering in showing her affections, but Cole knew that babies were always a joyous thing to share with one's family, and especially with the children's grandparents.

Meena was one of those people who tended to use affectionate nicknames for the people around her; perhaps it was a side effect of having been raised in the UK, where -- at least in her neighborhood -- it had been common practice for women (and sometimes men) to address people by diminutives. She tended to use "luv" quite a bit, though there were a few nicknames reserved for specific people: "lover" for Cole, of course, as he was the only one who was, literally, her lover; "dearheart" for Remy, because the man was just the sweetest thing to ever walk the planet; "lovely" for Macey, who always seemed to need the reminder that she was beautiful; "sweetheart" for Ephraim, who just tickled her to bits.

She chuckled softly when Cole suggested the girls might go down easily; being well-attuned to their sleep habits, Meena knew quite well -- as did every woman who'd ever raised a baby -- that infants were contrary little creatures. If they missed a nap, they didn't get more tired; the lack of sleep seemed to energize them, and make it that much harder for them to go down afterward. Luckily, Harrie and Mellie were relatively good sleepers, all told, so Meena was still in a better place than many new mothers. She was grateful for it. "We can only hope," was all she said to her poor, sleepy husband, not wanting to deprive him of that -- hope.

"I want them to be brilliant and save the world," she murmured with a fond smile, looking down at the sleepy, cafe-au-lait bundle of sleepiness and hunger in the curve of her arm. She watched then as Cole took Melody and began to expertly burp her -- really, he should get a gold star in it. Since she breast fed, he often got stuck with burping duty, something that she was grateful he'd take on. She smiled at him. "Tell her she can have them between now and three, and then she can take them back between thirteen and fifteen," Meena said impishly, naming the trouble years for children. "We'll take care of the rest."