Last time on our baby adventure;

You shrugged. "I don't know, maybe we can take them outside or something? They have been stuck inside all day long" you pointed out.

"We can take them out one by one but I don't think it is a good idea" Balin said. Baby Bofur let out a small burp in his arms. "Dwarves are fragile when they are young. We grow stronger over the years."

Dwalin nodded. "The weather especially is something that can effect the little ones strongly. We can't take the risk."

"It was just a suggestion" you mumbled.

The weather was beautiful today. You had stuck your head outside one of the windows this morning, right before Thorin needed another bottle.

"What is this?"

"What is it brother?" Dwalin asked, alarmed. He rushed over to Balin's side. His mouth fell open. "That can't be" he said astonished.

You hurried over to them to see what they were talking about. And there you saw it...

"I thought we had two days" you said confused.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All dwarflings were rushed of their small cribs. 

"I've got the hobbit and the Durin princes!" one elf called. His kin hurried around him to grab the others. There was no time to waste.

The cribs themselves were small. Large enough to hold an elven baby or toddler. Just big enough to hold a baby dwarf. But now they would need much, much bigger cribs to hold the small ones.

Possibly small beds so that they could stay together at all times.

The babies started to grow up right before your eyes. It started with Bofur who was being held by Balin. His nose started to grow at first. Then his limbs and eventually his belly followed.

And the crying started all over again. 

Teeth were starting to push their way out, only adding to the distress the baby felt. 

It was quite for a while before the other babies started to grow up as well. All you could think of was to get them out of their small 'cages'. The cribs were far too small. They would break them and that would lead to more crying.

"That wizard has no idea what he is doing. Someone should take his stick from him" Dwalin grumbled.

No one responded because the now toddlers needed to be looked after. 

As soon as the teeth had grown all the way through, the dwarves started to crawl around and explore their environment. 

"We need toys in here!" you yelled to no in particular. The toddlers needed to be busy and learn some stuff during the day. And they needed to nap, and needed to eat and play and... You were going to lose your mind over this.

If that was Gandalf's plan then he was doing an awesome job. 

"What we need first is enough diapers to get us through the next two days" Balin called out from across the room. He was trying to keep Nori from climbing out a window. "Who put a chair in front of this!" Balin shouted.

Dwalin had Ori and Dori hanging on his pants, almost dragging it all the way down, so he almost fell to the floor. You rushed over to him and pushed him back a bit.

It was just enough to keep him standing on his own two feet. "Thank you lass."

You nodded. "Can we take them outside now?" you asked nicely. 

"Perhaps that is a good idea. There is more than enough room there. They will only start fighting if we keep them this close together" Dwalin said thoughtfully.

"Attention!" he shouted.

All the grown-ups in the room quieted down. Their eyes didn't leave the toddlers for a second. No one wanted to find out what would happen if they did.

"We are going to take the dwarflings outside. Two grown-ups will take three of them outside. You should be able to manage that" he finished with a roll of his eyes. The elves appeared to be nervous at this new plan.

You stepped forward. "Balin, you go outside with Arwen. You can take toddler Bifur, Bofur and Bombur. Bombur is probably not going anywhere."

Dwalin nodded. "Good plan lass. You" he pointed at two young, male elves in the corner of the room, "you can take Ori, Dori and Nori outside. They are the ones who are huddled together and the one who is trying to escape beneath the table."

"If you will allow me, I will take Gloin and Oin with me. And that leaves the two of you with Thorin, Fili and Kili." You turned around to find Elrond back in the room. 

"Thank you for your help" you said, bowing deeply. 

The elven lord smiled kindly, taking Oin in his arms. "No need to thank me. I have raised some children myself. I'll admit that it was some time ago but it shouldn't be a problem to watch the two of them."

Behind you, Dwalin snorted. "Clearly you have no experience with dwarflings. Lass, follow me." He lead the way out and you followed without complaint.

You walked for a few minutes. On your way to one of the open fields, you crossed many confused looking elves.

Apparently not all of them were aware of the 'situation' the visiting company was in. Dwarves were known to be loud so it wasn't a surprise when they heard making a lot of noise. But this, this was confusing.

Suddenly there were toddler dwarves walking around everywhere. Well, not everywhere since there were only eleven of them. And they weren't exactly running around either...

Let's just say that it didn't make a lot of sense to the elves who ran into them. 

Without uttering a word to tell you Dwalin had found a good place, he simply put Fili and Kili down on the grass. "You two can play with this and behave yourselves" he said. Dwalin put a wooden pull horse down and a stuffed bear.

"Where did you get those from?" you asked. You sat down a little away from the two brothers with Thorin on your lap. 

Dwalin pointed back to the nursery. "From the there. I found it in a closet and figured we could use it." He grabbed his pipe and lit it. For the first time in one and a half days, he relaxed while being around his friends.

"Amalume" Thorin mumbled. He looked at you with watery eyes. 

"He is trying to say 'âmrâlimé'" Dwalin said casually. 

Thorin cast him a glare. "Amalume" he repeated. "Wowa e bug."

You frowned. "Sweety, you can't talk just yet. Maybe you will be able to do that tomorrow. For now you will have to be content to glare at your best friend" you said in a soothing tone. 

A few inches away from you, Fili had decided that he was the one who was going to play with the cool toy. That being the stuffed bear of course. But as soon as he reached for it, his brother decided to do the same thing.

"Me" Fili said, pouting to let his brother know that it was his.

Kili pulled on the leg of the bear he was holding. "Noooooo! Me!"

Both brothers started to pull on a limb of the poor bear. If he had a voice, or any feelings at all, he would surely scream his little stuffed lungs out.

Kili was about to win when Fili got an idea. He lunged forward before you knew what was going on and hit his brother on the nose. "Lef to!" he squealed. He didn'' care when his brother started crying his eyes out. He finally had his bear.

And then it was pulled out of his arms.

"Fili! You can't hit your brother!" you chastised the young child. Thorin was looking at his oldest nephew with an impressive glare. Though it would have probably been more effective if he hadn't been a toddler himself.

"Ju mane" he said. His brows grew closer together when he heard the words that left his mouth. 

"Can you just stop talking? No one can understand you" Dwalin growled. "Now, for you two. Why can't you just share the stuffed bear? It isn't that hard." He sat down in between them. "Look, you can play with it together by simply playing with it."

Fili and Kili looked at each other. "Do no way ith imp" Fili said, crossing his arms stubbornly.

"I thought they liked each other" you said tiredly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An hour later

"So they are grown-up inside?"

"Only their body is in a younger form?" The elves shared confused looks.

Gandalf nodded. "Aye. Otherwise they wouldn't learn anything, would they? That was the whole point of this little experiment."

An annoyed sound left Dwalin's lips.

"To me it looks your plan kind of backfired" you pointed out from your chair. 

The wizard huffed. "That is a matter of how you look at it, I believe."

"Is it really? Wasn't it your whole point to not let them age before two days had passed?" You looked straight at him. "Last time I checked only one and a half days passed since you turned them into babies."

Gandalf paced around, taking a few huffs from his pipe so he wouldn't curse out loud. "I do not know what went wrong. This is hardly my fault!"

Dwalin snorted. "Aye, hardly. Do you see any other wizard in here with a magical stick?"

You got up to stand in between them so no fight would break out. Balin helped by pulling his brother back a bit. "I think that my brother is trying to say that we shouldn't put blame on anyone. After all, at this rate it will all be done a lot sooner than we expected."

"Master Balin is right. We should look at the positive side of this situation. If I remember correctly you mentioned that there are only three stages left after the toddler one" Elrond jumped in.

The wizard put his hands in his sides. "Yes, that is true. After this we only have child, teen and young-adult left. You see, there is nothing to worry about."

"Nothing to worry about? Do you have any idea what dwarves are like when we enter out teen years? Many run off to go on adventures to prove their worth!" Dwalin

Gandalf laughed, not seeing the problem. "And why would they do that now? Like Glanduil just mentioned, they are only young physically. Mentally they are adults. They won't run off once they are teens."

Balin and Dwalin weren't convinced.

"We will just have to wait and see. There is no point in worrying for the future when we are not sure what will come." You looked from one to the other. "All I know is that we have to stick together to work this out. And that includes you Gandalf."

You walked off to look after Thorin. 

He outstretched his arms once he noticed you walking towards him. Now that he was a little older it was easier to leave him on his own for small amounts of time. 

Because he would still throw a fit if he couldn't see you. Or if you were gone for too long.

"Amalume" he tried to say again. But the same gibberish left his lips.

"It must be frustrating, knowing what you want to say but not being able to do so" you said. You laid back down in your oversized chair. Thorin cuddled up against your stomache, feeling content in your arms. 

"Sometimes I feel that way when it is just us" you murmured.

Thorin did catch what you said. "Amalume?"

You pushed back your tears. "Maybe I shouldn't be telling this to a toddler," you inhaled deeply, "but you are still my husband." Finding the words wasn't easy.

"It is just that sometimes I feel like you forget I am not a dwarf. I am human and there are certain things that are just different between our races. Like our marriage" you said, sniffling as the tears demanded to be set free.

Thorin mouth hang open a little, wishing that he could comfort you right now.

"Don't get me wrong, it was lovely but... you didn't leave any room for rituals from my race. Ever since I was a little girl I dreamt of my wedding day. There were a few things that I would have loved to have that day."

Your mind wandered of to the dream you had had since you were little.

One of the things that meant a lot to your people was getting married in a white dress. It represented purity. Color meant that your future husband thought lowely of you. A colored dress represented disgrace.

To dwarves the color of the dress was very important too. Showing your love for your One was very important especially on your wedding day. The richer the color of the fabric the more you valued your One.

So you had walked down the aisle in a bright red dress; the color of passion and fiery love. 

Or the color of shame and sinful temptation.

"I never told you because you were so busy making sure everything was perfect." You hiccuped. "I was convinced that even if I would speak my mind, that you wouldn't listen" you finished in a whisper.

Silent tears left the corners of Thorin's eyes.

"But that is in the past now" you said determined. You pushed your own tears back, cuddling the toddler closer to your body. "I am very happy that we got married Thorin. You have no idea how much I love you." You placed a soft kiss on the top of his head.

Thorin closed his eyes. "I wuve ou" he spoke softly. 

You drifted off into a deep slumber while your toddler husband didn't get any sleep that night.