"How long do you think it'll take her to hug us both?" Joel asks in return, his voice dry. "Forty-five seconds?" And for as amused as he sounds, he's very much looking forward to having his mother offer him the sort of advice he had honestly never imagined himself needing. For the most part, Joel thinks he and Spencer will turn out to be far more capable than they expect, he thinks they'll have good instincts, they'll know what to do and he really believes they're going to be good fathers because they want to be. More than anything, he and Spencer both really want to be good for their child and that need alone is going to drive them both to try so hard. But instincts and the need to be good aside, he knows sometimes there will be situations where he won't know what to do. In several books and online articles now, he's read there are several different ways to sooth a colicky baby and he's certain if their baby turns out to be that fussy, he'll forget them all in the moment. He'll need someone like his mother to be there on the other end of the phone line to tell him to calm down, to remind him that he knows what to do and to bring them back to him when he feels like he's forgotten.

But he's going to be grateful for that, he knows he is. It's the sort of thing he's going to need, her calming presence, his father's laid back advice. He's fairly certain it's near impossible to truly rile his father and that's something he thinks he and Spencer will both need at one point or another. He'll be relaxed where he knows both he and Spencer will be anxious and it's likely going to be up to his father to calm them down. They're lucky they have his parents.

He only wishes they had Spencer's family as well.

He hangs a few more ornaments before he speaks again, grinning to himself as he hangs a little bear in a Santa hat that was clearly made by Spencer or Dane. "July," he says with a soft sigh. "I want it to be July. I can't wait to meet our baby and to hold him or her. It's... it's funny, I never thought about this. About being a parent. It wasn't something I ever imagined myself and now that we're doing it, it feels like exactly what I'm supposed to be doing and I can't wait. I really can't wait."

He has to, he knows he has to. They can't just skip ahead to July and he knows the time will pass by quickly enough as it is, but he still really wants to. Most days he doesn't want to take a second of his time with Spencer for granted and when the baby is finally here, he knows he's going to miss these quiet nights, but right now, it's all he wants. A baby and Spencer, the three of them lying in that bed upstairs, their new little family.