The house was an instant hit with everyone - Eider liked having all his books in one place; Rosie and Wren liked the fact that most of the house was all one level, and they decided to break it in by playing tag inside (I wasn't going to yell at them for it, I would have done the same thing if I was a little more childlike); Amy decided to go straight to our new writing station, and write a book, called 'I'm Not From Around Here', which amused most of us since we knew it was kind of a true story; Marcelo decided to work out, since he needed to be more athletic if he wanted to be an astronaut, and I played with my babies. Over all, we all loved the house, and I didn't want to move again for a long, long time.
Eventually, the novelty of the house wore off, and we began to concentrate on more present things. Such as, teaching Eider and Dove their life skills. Eider seemed to be catching on to almost everything we taught him immediately. It was downright amazing, and I wondered if he got my genius. Before we had even worked with him on talking, he was babbling things such as, 'fiftew' (sister), 'mahmah', 'dahdah', and 'poddy'. We were glad about that last one, because Marcelo, being a neat freak absolutely hated changing diapers. I didn't like them, but I'd grown used to them over the years - you kind of have to, raising four children from babies.
Dove, however.. was the exactly opposite. It wasn't that she wasn't smart, it just was that she didn't seem to.. comprehend, or didn't want to. I would sit in front of her to work on her talking, and she'd just stare at me at first, then she'd giggle and try to leave. It was that way on most of her skills - especially using the potty.
It had been a few months since we'd moved in, when I started feeling some pretty familiar symptoms. I was exhausted, no matter how good of a night's sleep I got, and nauseous most of the time. I sometimes debated hiring a babysitter, during the day when Marcelo and Amy were gone and couldn't help, because I was barely awake enough to make it from the bedroom to the bathroom in time, some days.
I was almost positive I was pregnant, and hoped that the nausea would go away as quickly as it usually did - okay, so, after a few months is not quickly when it comes to nausea.. but oh well.
Pretty soon, I bought a test and, sure enough, I was pregnant again. I didn't expect to get pregnant again quite so soon, but now that I thought about it, Marcelo and I hadn't exactly been careful when we celebrated the house. Not that I minded, one little bit - I loved all of my babies with all of my heart, and I had wanted one more. I couldn't wait to tell Marcelo when he got home!
When he got home, I told him and he was just as excited as I was. He wanted another boy, since we were rather over-run with girls - and.. well, I wanted another girl. I wanted Eider to be my little man, my Mama's boy, and I wanted another little princess to dress in pretty things. But I would be perfectly happy with another boy, I just wanted another baby to love.
After I told him, Marcelo almost immediately went to go teach our littlest girl how to walk. She had recently been showing interest in it, but as soon as one of us tried to help her, she'd throw a hissy fit. Maybe we'd have to let her learn it on her own.
As it usually does, life went on while I was pregnant. This pregnancy stayed a little more difficult, even after the morning sickness went away - I was still constantly tired, and pretty lazy, unlike I usually was during my pregnancies. I observed more than I did, and I noticed that my family was still wonderful.
Wren had decided to give painting a try, since it was part of her life goal, and like all of us vampires, she had it mastered within moments.
Rosella and Marcelo were bonding a little more, and would often be found outside playing catch - Marcelo couldn't do it too long, since he would start to burn up, but they would do it until he felt like he'd been out a little too long.
Amy had become somewhat interest in chess, and decided she wanted to challenge the next ranked chess opponent to a game - turns out it was my cousin, Aeron's wife, Tania. I hadn't met her before, so it was good to say hi. Before we could really talk, though, Amy dragged her out to the chess table. Rather unsurprisingly, Amy won - she was a genius, like me, after all.
It always, always amazed me how much Rosie and Wren loved each other. They loved the weekends, because they could spend most of their day together. One morning, I was awake enough to go around and check on my family members, and I found Wren still asleep, with Rosie standing off to the side, watching her.
I was about to quietly ask Rosie what she was doing, when she looked at me and held a finger to her lips. "Shhh. I wanna play but I'ma let her sleep as long as she can."
I smiled and nodded my head, then whispered back, "Oh, okay. Good morning, by the way."
"Good morning, Mommy, baby brother." Her eyes drifted down to my belly, and I smiled slightly, rubbing said belly. We had decided to find out how many and what gender we were having - one little boy. I was more excited about having a little boy than I thought I would be, and everyone else was just as excited as Marcelo and I were.
A few hours after I left the girls' room, I was passing the front door, and saw that they were playing catch on the front lawn. It was amazing how much Rosella loved playing catch, since she was such a feminine little girl - she almost liked it more than Wren, my little tomboy, did.
Dove was a slow learner, but when she was ready to learn her skills, she was ready, even if we weren't. It was the day that I found Rosie waiting for Wren - actually, also Rosella and Wren's birthday.. how had it come up so quickly? - when Dove finally took her first steps and said her first word. Marcelo was coming out of our room, and Dove was by the easel. Upon seeing him walk out, she giggled, and used the easel to pull herself to her feet. "Daddee!" I was on the computer, so I quickly turned myself around, staring in shock down the hall - how.. not even Eider could say 'Daddee'. His was 'dahdah'. After her chirp, she then full out ran the couple of feet to her Daddy's legs, and hugged them. The rest of the day, Marcelo worked with her on her walking, and she had full out learned it. It seemed she'd just been silently observing this entire time - she was an odd one, but it was absolutely adorable. But we still needed to work with her potty training; no matter how hard we tried to point her in the right direction on that one, she still refused to go in the potty.
The day was much like any other weekend. I asked the girls if they wanted a party, but they didn't seem to want to, so I didn't bother throwing one for them. All of us were doing our own thing, but we made sure to all wish Rosie and Wren a happy birthday multiple times. They were perfectly happy, just spending their day together.
When they were having their birthday dinner - I was going to make them their favorite foods for dinner, but they objected, they were fine with plasma. I tried to tell them that they wouldn't get to have regular food again after they were young adults, but they just reminded me that they were becoming teenagers, not young adults yet. I didn't mention that the teenage years go by faster than they'd think, because I was interrupted by a sharp pain in my stomach.
Everyone was in the room, except for Dove, so they all started freaking out over me. "CALM D-AAAH.. DOWN, everyone~! It's not like I've nnnnggg.. never done this before!"
And though the pregnancy was more difficult than the others, the birth was easier. Before I knew it, my little Finch was in my arms, and I wondered why I ever wanted a girl instead of this beautiful little boy.
Almost as soon as I gave birth to Finch, Rosie grew up, and I felt bad about it later, but I completely didn't think about cheering for her. I was too dazed still, and loving on my little Finch too much to think about it. But later, when I saw her, I noticed how she really was a perfect 50/50 blend of her father and I. Absolutely stunning, and I hoped she was smart enough to stay away from boys who would just get together with her for her looks. The way she'd be talking about boys for the past few weeks, though, I was kind of afraid she wouldn't be..
I also missed getting to cheer for Wren, since she was directly after Rosella, but they cheered enough for each other to make up for me. Wren also grew up beautifully, and she looked much more like me than her Daddy, but I could definitely see him in her. Now that they were older, she and Rosie were even more different than they were before, if that was even possible. I knew they had had different views on make-up when they were younger, but it was just enhanced when they got older. Rosella's opinion was that make-up was an expression of one's self expressed on their face, kind of like curtains for the windows to the soul. Wren's opinion was that it was a waste of time, and if it was needed for a man to see her inner self, than he really wasn't working hard enough to get to know her.
After Finch was born, he took most of our attention, so we had to give the toddlers as much attention as we could, when we could. Their birthday was fast approaching, and both of them were still in diapers. I wasn't going to let my children go to school with diapers - no matter how much Dove hated the potty.
It didn't take long for one of my girls to set her sights on a guy from school - strangely, it wasn't Rosie. I had expected her to be a lot like Lalie, but within the first few days of school, she still hadn't found a guy she was interested in. But Wren.. well, she did find someone.
On Dove, Eider, and Finch's birthday - thankfully, we'd gotten both of the toddlers potty trained, at least enough for them to figure the rest of it out for themselves as children - she didn't come home from school. When I noticed Rosella and Amy walk in by themselves, I asked Rosie, "Where's Wren? Did she get an after school job?"
"Oh, noooo, nothing as responsible as that," she grinned conspiratorially, then clapped her hands rather giddily. "She followed Monte Dragonfruit home, and was hoping to ask him his sign - she'd been obsessing about him since the first day of school, oh my gosh, it's been driving me insane. I'm glad she's finally doing something about it."
I stared at her for several moments, then sighed lightly. I'd heard nothing about this crush.. probably because they knew I wasn't a big fan of Monte's Mom, Amaranth, since she'd been the first girl Quin went after when he was confused. Then she went and got pregnant with Monte - she'd even had, what.. two or three more children since him? All with different fathers. I didn't completely approve of Wren and Monte, but I wasn't going to be that parent, the one that denied their child love just because I have a problem with the parent(s).
Later that day, it was time for the younger twins to become school-aged children. First up was Eider, naturally, and when he grew up, he needed glasses - it seemed that, until he was an official vampire, he was still human enough that it cancelled out the perfect vision for a while. He didn't mind, though, he said that it made him look smarter. He was absolutely adorable in them, too, so I really didn't mind.
Then it was Dove's turn, and she grew up even more into her own person. She was a very unique girl, and though she didn't need them, because her twin had glasses, she decided she wanted them too. And the first chance she got, she painting her face. I didn't completely know what to make of her, but I knew that she was going to make all of our lives' interesting. I didn't love her any less than any of my other children, I knew that much at least.
After the twins grew up, it was Finch's turn, and he grew up even cuter than he was already. He looked a lot like his big sister, Wren. I could already tell, though, that he was going to be a handful - he was already clumsily trying to get into as much trouble as one in their terrible twos could.
Eider and Dove didn't have school for a while yet, since I hadn't enrolled them quite yet, so the first while after they were children they did as much they could while at home. Dove, for instance, went to take a painting class at the school, while Eider stayed home and worked on his chess skills.
I would have taken more time to spend with them, get to know them better now that they could have full conversations with me without getting too bored, but Finch took all of my attention. He wasn't my favorite.. I refused to play favorites, but I didn't love spending time with my last baby. And he was constantly hurting himself - a little klutz. Thankfully, he usually didn't cry too much about it, usually just giggled when I picked him up, then whined a little when I checked to make sure he wasn't hurt too badly.
Things between Wren and Monte weren't exactly heating up, but.. they were definitely getting closer, and one day, she brought him home after school. I spied for a little bit, but then noticed Rosella doing pretty much the same thing, messing with the mailbox very slowly, so I decided to ask her later. And ask her what she was doing with the mailbox, too.
I waited until I saw her come inside to ask her what was going on, and she smirked slightly. "Well, what I was doing with the mailbox was donating the money from my paycheck," she worked as a receptionist at the spa, I forgot to mention, "to a charity. What Wren and Monte were doing was flirting, but they didn't do it nearly long enough, 'cause Wren got tired and Monte decided to go home."
Well.. at least Wren knew to not put a boy above everything else, and especially to not invite a boy to sleep over.
I was beginning to notice, after Eider and Dove had started school, that Dove seemed to often be in a huff over something. And she'd withdrawn into herself. It worried me a little, but not too much. But when her teacher called me, and told me that Dove had told her that I neglected her. It shocked me to learn that she thought I was neglecting her - I wasn't doing it intentionally, I just.. Finch constantly needed attention. So, I sat with my thoughts after that, having my lunch, mulling over what should be done to show Dove that I loved her as much as her siblings.
Finally, it came to me - I had been called a while back, then told that Until My Last Breath was banned in China, and a bookstore owner there wanted to own a copy for themselves. China - the perfect opportunity to get closer to my family again. So I called and made the arrangements, then called Eulalie and Willie up to ask if they'd be willing to watch Finch while I was away, so that he and Jedidiah could get to know each other. They accepted, so as soon as the kids got home from school and Marcelo got off work, we'd be on our way to China.
(A/N: TA-DA! Possibly Dahlia's last chapter, and certainly the last chapter before the heir vote. Yep, you guessed it, coming up next is the heir vote! So I'm not going to bother telling you Rosella, Wren, Eider, Dove, and Finch's (new) traits, since I'm just going to be posting the heir vote with all of their information in a moment. Letting you all know now, I do have favorites, and I almost just went with my current favorite, but.. I like all of them too much to not give them a chance to tell their story. OH, and the call about Dove being neglected? Yeah, the reason I decided to send them to China is because I got a warning from the social worker because Dove and Eider were too lonely. DX So hopefully they get enough attention there that they won't get taken. Yes, this is exactly where I got off, so they haven't even gone to China yet.)
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