(yYes, I know I'm slow.... but I finally got the time to do the pics, so here is the 6th chapter. Hope you like it 
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Chapter 6: One step at a time
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"Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" Tony yelled from the living room.
I came running, hoping for all in the world it was not another emergency involving Aidan.
According to Tony's face expression, it wasn't, and I could finally breathe again.
"Look, Lily is walking!" Tony smiled from ear to ear, as Lily took some of her first wobbly steps toward him while he stood ready to catch her if she fell.
I hurried over to the drawer where I always had a video camera lying - for reasons just like this. I got Lily's three last steps on tape, before she wobbled, and plumped down again, straight on her butt.
She giggled when she hit the floor, smiled and looked up at Tony.
The twins were thirteen months now. Lily was still a bit behind babies her age, and a little bit smaller - but not by much. Aidan was even further behind. He had barely started sitting up without support, but was struggling a lot to keep himself upright. He could crawl a little, but I couldn't see any signs of him starting to walk anytime soon.
Almost every motion he did seemed awkward for him, and sometimes it seemed as though he didn't really know how to use his legs. Two days ago he had seen Lily getting up by gripping the table edge, and had tried himself - but hadn't even gotten his butt up from the floor.
I didn't really worry, at least for now. The doctor had said there could be some more time before Aidan started walking. After all, he was almost three months premature, and he had spent his first six months in the hospital, so it was not exactly a surprise he was a bit behind.
"Did you get it?" Tony asked, and went over to peek at the camera screen as I put it on play.
"A little of it, anyway," I said, smiling a little when I saw the clip before the one of Lily. The last clip on the camera had been five minutes of Peter's feet. He always forgot to turn the camera off while filming.
"It's soooo cool!" Tony said, grinning from ear to ear. "I was the first to see her walking!"
"Yes, you were," I said, and ruffled his hair.
"I hope I'll be the first to see Aidan walking, too," he said excitedly, and sat down next to the twins.
I hope I'll someday see Aidan walking, I thought.
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Aidan didn't take his first steps until he was almost eighteen months old. By then, Lily had already started running around.
As Aidan took his first awkward steps, finally managing to get up using the table edge - but with much more difficulties than his sister - I already had the camera ready.
I got every single one of those five first steps, before he plumped down again on the floor.
After this I finally managed to calm down a little, thinking he was on the right track again, and gaining in the lead Lily had on him.
But it did not last for long. Only a couple of weeks later, Aidan got a chest infection after catching the flu in daycare - and then it was back again to the hospital in a hurry, with his fever rising over 40 C.
It was a short hospital stay, and after only a week he was mostly healthy again.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the troubles. Two months later, he got another infection. Luckily, this time he didn't need a hospital stay - only two weeks home from daycare, and antibiotics.
Only a few months later - five weeks after the twins' second birthday which had been celebrated in a flurry of cake-smeared children from daycare, tons of balloons, and two hours of opening gifts - Aidan started complaining about "ouches" in his chest.
Life isn't easy when you have sick children.
