Nine Months - Month Five

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It was a sunny Sunday morning. Frank had slipped out to go for a walk, and Caroline was fast asleep. Two tiny weights climbed onto the bed, and sat beside their mother, in their Muppet nighties.
Hannah's eyes widened. "Oooh."
"What?" Elle asked.
Caroline awoke to someone jabbing her in the stomach. "Hey!" she cried.
The twins giggled.
"Mammy...you have a bump," Elle grinned.
"Yeah, just like this," Hannah told her, sticking a pillow up her nightie.
Caroline narrowed her eyes. "First of all, it's not that big. And second of all, it is not nice to poke people awake."
"Okay, Mammy," Elle replied. She looked at Hannah and they began jumping up and down on the bed. "Out today, out today!" they chanted.
Caroline groaned and flopped back onto the bed.
Hannah tugged on her mother's hand. "No, no sleep, Mammy! Up!"
Frank appeared in the doorway. "Hey! I thought I told you guys to let Mammy sleep in."
Elle looked at Hannah. Hannah looked at Elle.
"Don't remember that, Daddy," Elle told him.
Frank looked pleadingly at his wife, who had her hand draped across her eyes, keeping the sunlight out.
"Girls," Caroline said, waving her free hand at the door, "go watch some cartoons. Daddy has to shower otherwise he will start to smell."
The two girls quickly cried "EW!" and pinching their noses, ran out of the room.
Frank grinned and kissed his wife on the cheek. "Morning."
"Mhm," Caroline said, rolling over. She waved a hand at him. "Go shower. Smell bad." In a few moments, she was back asleep.
*************************************************************************
Lily pulled her longest pair of white socks over her arms, matching those worn by Bridal Beauty Barbie. She went to scratch her nose, but thought the better of it, and scratched with her wrist instead. Lily hauled open the lid of her dress up box and heaved out a selection of clothes. Dissatisfied, she scampered to her bedroom door and peeked out into the corridor. Lily scampered into her parents room, and crawled along the floor to avoid her mother seeing her. She peeped over the top to see if she was still asleep. She was. Lily dove for the first drawer she saw, but couldn't get a grip on it. "Stupid sock,” she muttered and tried to peel the sock off her right hand. But she couldn't get it off! She whimpered, and looked helplessly at her socked hands. There was only one thing left to do. Lily gripped the drawer handle with her teeth and pulled back as hard as she could.
"Ow!" she yelped as the drawer fell all the way off its tracks and squashed her foot.
She glanced up sheepishly up at her mother, who was now awake and giving her one of her best Looks.
Lily held her arms out. "I couldn't get my socks off," she explained innocently.
********************************************************************************************
Caroline groaned into her pillow. The shower had just stopped, so she presumed Frank was getting dressed. The cartoons were blaring at full volume. She was never going to get anymore sleep. She rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling, her hand resting on her tummy. Caroline yawned slightly, dreading the activities of the day. She was beginning to regret agreeing to take the twins to the fun fair. That was when she felt it. Her eyes widened and she pressed harder on her stomach. That little fluttering feeling was eerily familiar. "Frank!" she called. "Frank! Get out here!"
There was a slight crash and scuffle from the bathroom and Frank ran out into the bedroom. "What is it? Are you okay? Are the girls okay?"
Her eyes still wide, she grabbed his hand and placed it where hers had been. "Wait for a moment," she told him.
Then he felt it. "Oh my," he said, smiling. "Wow."
Hannah and Elle glanced at each other dubiously, as they watched their parents kissing. Hannah raised an eyebrow. "What is going on with them?"
Elle shrugged. "Who knows! I mean, I run all the way up here cause Mammy's yelling like a nut and then they're doing icky stuff."
For a moment, Caroline and Frank were broken from their private moment and Frank beckoned the girls over.
"Here," he said, taking their little hands and placing them on Caroline's tummy. "Feel that."
Hannah quickly pulled her hand away. "Mammy! Whatcha got in there!?"
"Mammy! You're possessed!" yelped Elle.
Frank looked at Caroline who rolled her eyes.
"You guys have been talking to Lily again, haven't you?" Caroline asked them.
Frank smiled fondly at his daughters. "That's your baby brother or sister."
Hannah craned her head and looked at her mother oddly. "You mean that's it? Mammy's tummy and some weird scary thing kicking against it?"
Caroline sighed. "No. In another four month's there will be a real baby."
Elle looked at Hannah. Hannah looked at Elle.
"Okay, Mammy," Elle nodded. She and Hannah climbed off the bed. "Give us a call when it's here."
The twins scampered back downstairs to watch cartoons, leaving their parents to retreat back to their own little world.
*************************************************************************************************
"We're nuts," Andrea said, as Giles neared the corner to turn into Sharon's street.
"Um, okay," Giles replied. "May I ask why?"
"We're taking two over exuberant four year olds and a Barbie obsessed six year old to a fun fair! Think of the sugar!" She moaned. "Just shoot me now."
Giles chuckled. “I’m sure it won’t be that bad.”
Andrea frowned. "So says Lurch. You're like 500 million feet tall! I'm almost the same height they are!"
Giles raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think you're overexaggerating slightly?"
Andrea glared darkly at him.
"Okay, maybe not," Giles said, facing the road. They pulled into Sharon's driveway.
"Let the games begin," Andrea sighed, unbuckling her belt.
*******************************************************************************
...Ding, dong...
Elle shrieked. "Mammy! It's the doorbell! You have to go downstairs because the door rang because someone's at the door because we're GOING TO THE FUUUUUN FAAIRRR!!!"
Hannah shrieked with her sister. "FUN FAIR! FUN FAIR! FUN FAIR! FUN FAIR! FUN FAIR!..."
Caroline held her head. "Can you get the door?" she asked Frank wearily.
Frank kissed her cheek. "Lie down until we go, okay? I can handle this."
"No you can't," groaned Caroline. "But I'll lie down anyway..."
Frank opened the door. "Hey," he greeted Giles. "Where's Andrea?"
Andrea poked her head out from behind Giles. "Hiding from your daughters."
"UNCLE GIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!" Right on cue, Hannah and Elle tore out the door, almost knocking Uncle Giles over.
Elle wrapped her arms around her Aunts legs. "Auntie Andrea, why are you hiding behind Uncle Giles? Are we playing Hide And Seek? Me and Hannah want to play Hide And Seek at the Fun Fair today but Mammy said no."
"Yeah," agreed Hannah. "Then we asked Daddy and he said to ask Mammy."
"But we'd already asked Mammy, so we told Daddy that and he asked what Mammy said and we said that Mammy said no," explained Elle
Andrea blinked. "Um... Hi?"
"Hello!" grinned Hannah.
"Where's Mammy?" asked Andrea.
Elle shrugged. "I think she has a headache. She always has headaches. Why does Mammy always have headaches, Auntie Andrea?"
"Um..." Andrea turned to Frank with a pleading look on her face.
"The baby is giving Mammy headaches," explained Frank.
"Well that's not very nice of it!" frowned Elle.
"Yeah," frowned Hannah. "Daddy, you should tell it to go to its room."
"Yeah, we have to go to our room when we give Mammy headaches!"
"Well, that's different," said Frank.
"How?" asked Hannah.
"Yeah, how?" echoed Elle.
Andrea opened her mouth to begin explaining.
"If it's about tunnels, we're not going to believe you."
***************************************************************************
Caroline, Sharon and Andrea sat down at a picnic table at the funfair. Jim, Gavin, Giles, Frank and Nea had volunteered to take the twins and Lily on the ghost train. The others frankly...couldn't handle it.
"We have a legitimate reason for not going on the ghost train," Sharon said, poking Andrea. "Why aren't you going?"
Andrea looked at her feet. "You guys remember what happened when Jim took me on it."
Caroline glanced at Sharon. Sharon looked at Caroline. They burst out laughing.
"Look! I was only four! And when Jim said that we were going to be eaten by the ghosts, I believed him!"
Caroline and Sharon continued to giggle and Andrea folded her arms. "Fine! Just to prove that I'm not a scaredy cat, I'll go on it!" She jogged over and joined the rest of the gang in the line.
Sharon rolled her eyes and sipped at a bottle of water. She heard a gasp from her sister and turned her head. "What? Are you okay?"
"Fine," Caroline smiled. "The baby keeps moving, that's all."
Sharon's eyes widened. "The baby's moving?"
Caroline nodded. "Mhm. Started this morning. The twins thought I was possessed."
Caroline waited, expecting her sister to laugh, or swoon as Andrea had done. There was silence. She turned and looked at Sharon, who was frantically patting her stomach.
"Sharon? Sharon! What the heck are you doing?" Caroline asked, raising an eyebrow.
"It hasn't moved! Maybe there's something wrong with it! It hasn't moved at all yet! Caroline...get Gavin."
"Oh geez," Caroline muttered. "Sharon...calm down. There is nothing wrong with you. I'm sure it will move soon. Don't be so impatient."
Sharon began to stop hyperventilating. When she had calmed down, she turned to her sister. "You did it again!"
"Huh?" Caroline was amazed at her sister's ability to change moods like lightening.
"You stole my thunder again!" Sharon said. "First you get to tell everyone you're pregnant first, and then you get to feel your baby first!"
Caroline sighed and was about to reply when the twins and Lily, walking like zombies approached the two.
"What happened?" Caroline asked, scooping a shivering Hannah up into her arms.
"I think the ghost train was just a little too real for them," Frank said, picking up Elle.
"Where's Andrea?" Sharon asked, hugging Lily.
"Giles took her to the refreshment area. I think the words alcohol, drugs and murder Caroline and Sharon were involved," Gavin told them.
"She stole my thunder again," Sharon said, pointing at Caroline, who rolled her eyes.
"Don't be a baby," Caroline told her.
****************************************************************************
Hannah tugged Elle's sleeve. "Look at that guy," she whispered.
Elle looked around. "What guy?"
"There's a guy taking pictures of us!" said Hannah, wide eyed. "Should we tell Mammy?"
Elle frowned. "Mammy said if anyone's taking pictures to ignore them..." She paused. "But does that mean we don't tell her?"
"I don’t know! That's why I asked you," explained Hannah.
"Plus you're my bestest friend and you tell me everything," added Elle.
"Yeah. That too."
They both stared at the guy, who was clicking away.
Caroline came up behind them. "What are you two looking at?" she asked.
"Nothing," replied the girls simultaneously, with identical innocent expressions.
"Mhm," replied Caroline, disbelievingly. "Well, don't let go of our hands again, okay? We don't want to lose you. Remember what happened last time?"
"That was fun!" cried Elle.
"Yeah!" agreed Hannah. "We got stuck in the cotton candy machine, remember?"
"I remember," Caroline replied dryly.
"Just hold on to my hand, and Daddy's and don’t let go, okay?"
"Oookaaaaaaay," sighed the twins.
************************************************************************
Andrea sipped on the coffee. "Ah. Better."
Giles watched her intently. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Andrea nodded. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"
"You looked kind of pale when you came out from the ghost train."
Andrea waved a hand around. "Of course I'm okay. It was nothing."
Giles narrowed his eyes. "Andrea you screamed louder than the kids."
Andrea folded her arms. "Don't be mean."
Jim came and sat down beside them, looking decidedly worse for wear.
"What happened?" Andrea asked.
"Frank and Caroline bought the twins some fairy floss." Jim picked a stray piece off his shirt. "They had fun."
Andrea shrank behind Giles. "What are they doing now?"
"Waving their sticks around pretending to be pirates," Jim replied. He stole Andrea's coffee and took a sip. He grimaced. "I hate coffee at fun fairs."
Nea walked up behind him and kissed him on the cheek. "Never mind Jim. Nookie later if you stay around."
"That's blackmail," Jim groaned.
*********************************************************************
Lily watched dubiously as other children threw balls down the holes in the plastic clowns. She frowned. "Mammy? Why are they trying to choke the clowns?"
"Sweetheart, the clowns aren't real." She tapped her finger on top of one. "See? Plastic."
Lily wrinkled her nose. "So that means that there isn't any disgusting spit either?"
Somewhat hesitantly, Lily moved up and watched as the balls hit the bottom of the wooden plank. She sighed, and lifting one up, watched intently as the clown moved its head back forth. Carefully, she tried to stick the ball in but it fell down.
"Mammy! The clown spit the ball out!"
"It's okay, honey. You accidentally dropped it. Try again," Sharon encouraged her.
Lily glared at her mother, but picked up a ball and watched the clown again. She stuck her hand out and as she put the ball in, she whacked her little hand on the plastic clown. "OOOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!! MAMMY!!!!!!! THE CLOWN BIT ME!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Sharon sighed, and seeing the dark look on the vendor took her daughter's hand. She noticed that Caroline and Frank were coming with the twins, and she beckoned her sister. "Caroline...Why don't you let the twins have a turn on this?" As she led Lily away, she smirked. That vendor wouldn't know what hit him.
*********************************************************************************
There was a thunderstorm raging outside but apart from that, the Woods household was silent. The twins had been exhausted after their day at the fun fair, and Caroline and Frank were perfectly happy to indulge in a little “us” time.
A huge clap of thunder sounded...and the race was on.
The twins screamed, Caroline started scrabbling around the bed, tossing Frank his shirt. She missed and it landed on his head. The thunder of little children raced down the hallway. The couple realised just how little time they had to get decent.
"We're not going to make it, we're not going to make it," Caroline panicked, searching the room for her pajama top.
"Don't panic!" Frank told her, buttoning his shirt.
"Don't panic?" Caroline cried. "The twins are racing down the hallway and I'm half dressed!"
In attempt to be fully clothed by the time the twins arrived, Frank managed to fall off the bed. It did have one benefit though. "Here!" he said, tossing Caroline her pajama top.
Caroline just managed to slip it over her head as there was a frantic knocking at their bedroom door.
"Mammy! Daddy!" the twins cried.
Caroline slipped under the covers as Frank called, "come in."
The twins ran into the room and dove under the covers of the bed.
"You guys aren't scared of the storm, are you?" Caroline asked, peeking under the covers.
Hannah nodded and stuck her thumb in her mouth. Frank hugged Elle as Caroline took Hannah.
"It's nothing, guys. It's just people playing bowling balls up in heaven," Frank explained.
"We don't care, it's still scary!" Elle cried.
Hannah's lower lip trembled. "Can we sleep here tonight?"
Frank looked at Caroline. Caroline looked at Frank.
"Of course you can," Frank told them.
The twins snuggled down between the two and almost instantly fell asleep. Almost.
Frank leaned over and gave his wife a long kiss.
"EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!" the twins said.
"Don't think we didn't see that," Elle told them, disgust evident in her voice.
Frank and Caroline looked at each other regretfully, and Frank turned out the light.
******************************************************************************
Caroline frowned. Her feet were cold. Her feet were REALLY cold. In fact, her entire body was cold. She noted that her two daughters had stolen all bedding from the bed and were currently wrapped up in it, smack in the middle of the bed. Caroline narrowed her eyes. Frank was missing.
-Whack!-
Hannah rolled over and her hand whacked her mother on the nose.
Caroline hmphed. That did it. She was going to look for her husband.
She detoured past the linen closet and wrapped a blanket around her cold body. She tiptoed downstairs and into the loungeroom, where she heard the TV going. "You better not be watching anything dirty, Mr Woods," she murmured, grinning slightly.
Frank turned around and grinned at her. "We don't have dirty channels on our TV, Mrs Woods. We have kids instead." He held his arms out to her and she snuggled up next to him. "Did our wonderful daughters steal the bedclothes again?"
"And Hannah whacked me on the nose," Caroline pouted.
"Aw, poor baby," Frank said, kissing her on the nose. "All better?"
"What are you watching?" Caroline asked, turning her head towards the TV.
"Sesame Street," Frank replied. "Did you know that Maria and Gordon had a baby?"
"No," Caroline replied. She kissed him. "Did you know that the twins are fast asleep?"
"Yeah, I kind of cottoned on to that when they stole the blankets," Frank said, engrossed in Sesame Street.
Caroline grinned and kissed him again. "Frank...the twins are fast asleep."
"Yeah and then I said....Oh," Frank murmured. He looked at Caroline who smiled, nodding. "Oh."
After making out for a few moments, Frank pulled back. "Caro?"
"Mhm?"
"Is it just me, or does it feel kind of strange to be making out in front of Sesame Street?"
Caroline shrugged and kissed him again. A few moments later, she pulled back. She looked at the TV, then at Frank. "Race you to the guest bedroom?"
"Race? You? In your condition? Bugger that!" Frank picked her up and they made their way upstairs.
********************************************************************************
Lily sat at the kitchen table, colouring in the pictures next to the music in her violin book.
"Mammy?" asked Lily, looking up from her colouring. "Mhm?" replied Sharon.
"I don’t like these songs," Lily frowned.
Sharon put down her coffee. "Why's that?"
Lily held up the book. "Mammy. The song is called Seagull Dance."
Sharon smiled to herself. "Okay, I see what you mean."
Lily wrinked her nose. "I wanna play So Young! Can I? Pleeeaaase?"
Sharon sighed. "Lil, I still think it's too hard for you..."
"No it's not!" protested Lily.
"Honey, you've had 7 lessons."
Lily nodded. "I'm practically an expert!"
"Tell you what," offered Sharon. "I'll play a dancey, seagully duet with you."
Lily considered her offer. "Maybe... only if Daddy doesn't pretend to join in. He can’t play air violin."
“I promise."
*******************************************************************************
"Jim, honey, mail is here!" Nea called from the kitchen.
Jim sauntered into the kitchen, happy that Nea had made good with her promise for his staying at the fun fair.
He flicked through the usual bills and junk mail, until he came to an envelope without a postmark.
He frowned at it. "Nea? Where did this come from?"
She glanced over, from where she was cooking pasta. "The mailbox?"
"It's unpostmarked." He shrugged and ripped the envelope open. "Woah!"
"What?" Nea asked. She wandered over to the table and wrinkled her nose. "James Steven Ignatious Corr! I thought I told you to cancel any subscriptions like that when we got married!"
Jim stared at the naked pictures of the women in front of him, with the faces scratched out. "Okay first, I never subscribed to anything like that, and second, I have no idea who these are of."
"I'd bloody well hope not!" Nea told him. She frowned. "Throw them out. Probably someone got the wrong house."
Jim sighed and threw the photos in the trash. He decided to call his sisters and see if they had ever been sent anything like this.
There was squealing and arguing at the other end of the phone. Then a murmur of "Give me that!" and Caroline answered the phone.
"Hey Caroline, it's Jim."
"Hey. Hang on." There was more scuffling at the other end of the phone and Caroline was back. "Sorry, go on."
"I was wondering, have you ever gotten any weird letters lately. Well, envelopes with pictures of naked people in them?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Then "Frank, play with the children for a few minutes, I think I'm going to be here for a while." There was a sigh. "Jim, have you been drinking?"
Jim let out a groan. "No! This person sent me naked photos of a woman with her face all scratched out! It's creepy!"
There was a scream from the other end of the phone and more scuffling. "No, Jim. That's just weird. I'll tell you what's creepy! It's creepy reappearing boy becoming obsessed with our house instead of Sharon's and two four year olds who are convinced he's one of the Candyman's victims!"
There was a crash and Caroline groaned. "Look, Jim, I'm sorry, but I have to go. Someone's broken something. Try Sharon. Maybe she will be more help. Bye."
With a hurried click, Caroline was gone. Jim sighed and dialled Sharon.
"Hello? This is Lily Georgia Bonnar speaking. How may I help you?"
Jim grinned. "Hey, Lily. Is your mum there?"
"MAMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!" Lily called from the phone. "UNCLE JIM IS ON THE PHONE!!!!!!"
Jim held the phone away from his hear and heard Sharon's "don't yell".
"Hello?" came Sharon's exhausted voice.
"Hey Sharon, it's Jim. Did you ever have any envelopes delivered with pictures of naked women inside?"
"No, my day's been fine, thanks for asking Jim. And no, that's just disgusting. If anyone was going to deliver me naked people, I'd hope they'd have the courtesy for it to be a man."
"Oookay and I think that has just freaked me out more than the envelope," Jim murmured. "Talk to you later, Sharon." He quickly hung up the phone and took a deep breath, trying to shake the mental image from his mind.
"Hello, you've reached Andrea Corr. I'm in therapy working on my mental stability. Please leave a message."
Jim rolled his eyes. "Andrea, stop playing with your answering machine. I know you're there."
There was a click and Andrea picked up the phone. "Really? I didn't think that one was too bad. What did you want? I'm just about to go out with Giles."
Jim frowned. "Why are you playing with the answering machine if you're about to go out?"
Andrea sighed. "Because he wants to take me to a football game."
Jim chuckled. "Learn to love it, Andy. By the way, did you ever have any envelopes delivered to you with pictures of naked people inside?"
"Oh? What was that? Oh, Giles is calling me. Sorry, I'll have to talk to you later."
Jim hung up the phone. Some help his sisters were.
"Jimmie?" Nea called. "I need you for a moment."
Jim knew that tone. It could only mean one thing. Pushing the pictures from his mind, he ran to the bedroom.
*******************************************************************************
"So what have we all decided?" asked Caroline. "We have to vote soon."
"The Santa Clause!" cried the twins in unison.
"Spiceworld!" cried Frank.
Caroline gave her husband a look. "Spiceworld? You have got to be kidding!"
"It's a classic!" defended Frank. "And you've got to admit, it's good for a laugh."
Caroline couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Okay, what have you chosen, Miss Perfect Taste?"
"Beauty and the Beast," said Caroline, with dignity.
"Spiceworld is better."
"Pleeease," groaned Caroline. "Don't make me watch them try to act! I'm going through enough pain as it is!"
"You know there's only one way to solve this," piped up Hannah.
Elle held out The Santa Clause DVD. "We outnumber you anyway! Two versus one versus one."
"It's a lost battle," said Hannah solemnly.
Within 10 minutes, the family were settled on the couch, watching the beginning of the movie.
Elle turned to her mother. "See those kids with the pointy ears?" she said, pointing to the screen. "They're not kids, they're elves!!"
"Shhhhh!" whispered Hannah. "I'm watching."
Elle blinked. "But you've seen it before."
"Hey guys," whispered Caroline. "Watch the movie okay?"
Peace was restored for a few minutes, until Neil appeared on the screen.
"Boooooo!" heckled Hannah, and threw a fistful of popcorn at the screen.
Elle laughed. "I want to do that!" Before Caroline or Frank could stop her, she had thrown two handfuls up in the air.
"Hey!" exclaimed Frank.
Caroline took their wrists. "If you two can't watch the movie quietly, then you'll just have to go to bed instead," she threatened.
They sat down. "We'll be good," they promised.
All was going smoothly until, about an hour into the movie, Elle got bored.
She hopped off the couch. "I'm going to the toilet," she announced.
Hannah was entranced in the movie. Caroline and Frank were asleep. Elle rolled her eyes. Parents. Why do they need to sleep so much, anyway?
Elle skipped off to the bathroom. After she was done, she scrutinized the bathroom carefully. Her eyes widened when she realised that both her parents were alseep... at the other end of the house... No one telling her what she wasn't allowed to do! The bathroom was her oyster!
She wrinkled her nose. Oysters. Ew.
She shrieked happily and pulled on the roll of toilet paper. "Spin, spin spin!!!" she cried.
She frowned as the roll ended, and the cardboard cylinder spun itself around. "Uh oh," she frowned.
She picked up all the toilet paper around the floor, and tried her best to stuff it back on the roll. No, that wasn't going to work. "How do they get it on it the first place?" she wondered out loud. "It doesn’t fit..."
There was only one obvious solution. She stuffed the bumdle into the toilet, and pressed the button.
-flush!!!!!!!-
Elle giggled happily as the toilet ate up the big bundle of paper. But she stopped as the toilet stopped flushing... and there was still half the bundle of toilet paper left.
She pressed the button again, and waited for the rest to flush down. She pressed it again... and again... and again...
"Uh oh..." her eyes widened.
She grabbed the toilet brush and attempted to poke it all out of sight, but when she tried to pull it back out again, it wouldn’t budge.
*******************************************************************
Caroline rubbed her eyes as the ending credits rolled down.
"What a great movie," she lied. She turned to her daughters. "Either of you need to go to the toilet before you go to bed?"
"No," Elle replied quickly.
"Okay, well I'm going to go... Honey, can you put them to bed?"
"Sure," Frank replied. "Come on, you two."
Hannah reached up her arms to be picked up, and Elle hovered around behind her dad.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "Hiding?"
Elle's eyes widened. "No! I'm not hiding! I didn't do anything!"
Frank shrugged, and took her hand to take her upstairs.
"WHAT THE HELL?"
***************************************************************
Caroline folded her arms as she watched the plumber attempt to unclog the toilet.
"What actually happened?" the plumber asked.
"That's a good question," Caroline replied. "Which I'm pretty sure I will get an answer to from my four year old later."
The plumber nodded and continued his work. "Wow, this is really well clogged," he said.
Caroline diverted her head as the plumber's shorts kept riding down and down.
Frank wandered into the room. "She says it was an accident and that she'll pay us back."
Caroline raised an eyebrow. "With what?"
"When I left she was rattling that piggybank that she puts Monopoly money in."
Caroline sighed and wrinkled her nose as the plumber's shorts moved down another notch. "I'll go talk to her."
She walked into the twin's room where Hannah was trying to stop Elle from opening her piggybank.
"It's mine!" Hannah squealed.
Caroline briskly walked over and picked it up. "Hannah, would you go and make sure your toys are all cleaned up downstairs?"
"But Mammy?"
“Please, Hannah," Caroline warned.
Hannah sighed and disappeared downstairs. Caroline sat down on the bed next to her daughter. Elle's lower lip trembled.
"I'm really sorry, Mammy. You can take away all my toys if you want." She thought for a moment. "And make me stay in my room forever! And don't let me play with the new baby!"
Caroline sighed. She hated punishing her daughters. She loved them more than anything and it was certainly not fun to be mad. Especially when they seemed so upset. "I'm not going to do any of that. But we do need to have a talk." She looked at her daughter. "What did you think you were doing?"
Elle shrugged. "I don't know."
"You don't know?" Caroline thought for a minute. "Okay. Well Elle, when the baby's born, you and Hannah are going to be big sisters. I'm going to need you to help teach the baby how to be good. Daddy and I need to be able to trust you to do that. So tomorrow, I want you to sit in the nursery and think about how you're going to help the baby, okay?"
Elle's eyes widened. "All day?"
"For a little while. Okay?"
Elle sighed. "Yes, Mammy. I'm sorry."
Caroline kissed her daughter's forehead. "I know. Now, get some sleep, okay?"
Elle nodded. "Nigh-night Mammy."
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Meanwhile, at COL...
Topic: Pics at the fun fair!
Posted by: Gilly

***Pictures of the group taken while they were at the Fun Fair. Hannah and Elle are staring at the camera***
Posted by: forgiven_dreams

Hey, look at Hannah and Elle! Somehow I think they saw the photographer ;)
LOL, one of their pigtails is wonky :D I dont know which one... the one on the left... How cute :)
Posted by: DARBY

They both look so healthy :) And yes, the kids are adorable :D
Lily looks exactly like her mother. Just... 6 ;)
Posted by: Brookestar