The next day, after we all get ready and have a small lunch, Edward puts Abby down for a nap and we hang out in the living room, wrapping some last minute gifts to put under the tree, before we have to go to his parent's house to make Christmas cookies. It's a family tradition that his entire family gets together to do.
"Edward," I say walking into our bedroom. "Do you want to take both cars since you're on call?"
"Yeah, that's fine. Do you need anything done?"
"The stuff that we're taking needs to be brought out to the car. And Abby still needs to be woken up from her nap and get ready."
"Ok. I'll get stuff ready if you want to get her ready."
I walk into Abby's room. She is peacefully napping in her small bed. I stand at her bed for a minute, watching her. Abby gets her looks from her father's side. She has Carlisle's blond hair that drops in long curls past her shoulders. The green eyes from her father will have the boys chasing after her when she is older. The only thing she gets from me was the Swan nose. For a minute, I wonder what the new baby will look like.
I walk over to the bed. "Abby," I say, gently shaking her arm. "Abby, wake up. Abigail." She stirs for a second and rubs her eyes. "Abby, you need to wake up. It's time to go to nana's and grandpa's house."
She gets up and goes to the bathroom quickly. I put her hair in a ponytail, as requested by her. I help her put her shoes and coat on. I grab her head band and she jerks her head away from me.
"No. I'm not wearing that."
"Abby, it's too cold for you not to wear it. Your ears will get cold. Come on. Put it on."
"No. I don't want to."
I sigh. She has been difficult with some things lately. "Abby, put it on now."
"No."
Edward walks in at that moment hearing the conversation. "Abigail Anne, put the head band on now or you aren't going." he tells her in a stern voice.
She finally brakes. She has been like this for a few weeks. I ask her to do something and she refuses. Edward intervenes and she obeys. She isn't happy about it usually, but she will do it. I mouth a 'thank you' to Edward and he nods.
"Do you want to ride with mommy or daddy?" I ask her.
"I want to ride with daddy." she says and I'm not surprised. She picks him over me to do things. I wonder if this has something to do with the baby coming in a few months and make a mental note to ask Edward's sister-in-law, Rosalie, about it. She and Edward's brother, Emmett, have five-year-old twin girls, Emmalie and Paige, and then a four-month-old son, Broden. Maybe Emmalie and Paige went through something similar to what Abby was doing when she was pregnant with Broden.
We get into our separate cars, Edward and Abby going in his silver Volvo and I going in my Explorer. Before backing out of the driveway, Edward texts me about Abby.
What was up with the head band thing? She's never like this.
I don't know. This has been going on since Thanksgiving. I'm going to talk to Rose. Maybe the girls did the same sort of stuff when she was pregnant with Broden. If she is like this now, then I can't imagine what she'll be like when the baby gets here. But it has to stop.
I know. We'll figure something out.
The drive to Edward's parents' house is short. They only live a few miles from our house. Everyone is already here it looks like. Rosalie's big Expedition js here, parked next to Edward's sister's, Alice's, car.
Abby gets herself out of her car seat and carefully walks up the sidewalk to the front door. Edward's mother, Esme, greets her and lets her in. Edward comes over to my car to help get things out of the backseat. We walk in and are greeted by his mother.
"Hi, Bella and Edward." she greets with a hug and a kiss on the cheek for both of us.
"Hi, mom." we both say.
"I'll just set that stuff on the counter in the kitchen. I think we'll start in just a few minutes. You can put your coats in the bedroom." Esme says as she starts walking towards the kitchen. Edward takes my coat and puts it in the bedroom and we go into the living room where the rest of the adults are.
"Where are the girls?" I ask no one in particular.
"They're in the play room." Rosalie replies. Broden is tucked under her arm, eating from a bottle.
"Hey, Rose, when you get a minute, can I talk to you about something?"
"Sure, we can talk after he's finished. He's almost done."
After a few minutes, Rose hands a sleeping Broden to Emmett. We go into one of the bedrooms to talk.
"What's up?" she asks.
"It's about Abby." I say.
"Oh. Is she ok?" she asks with a quizzical look on her face.
"Yeah, she's fine. She has just been acting weird lately. Since Thanksgiving, I think. Her attitude has changed dramatically and she picks Edward over me a lot. I know she's a daddy's girl, but it's with most things. A few nights ago, she kicked me out of the room so that he could put her to bed. She respects him a lot more, too. Today, she wouldn't do something that I told her to do and she kept arguing with me about it. Edward stepped in and she did it immediately.
"I kind of wonder if it has anything to do with the baby coming in a few months. But she hasn't shown any negativity towards becoming a big sister or having someone else in the house. I just wondered if the girls were the same way when you were pregnant with Broden."
"Yeah, they were a little bit. Not quite like that. Emmalie didn't want anything to do with the baby from the beginning. Remember, she wouldn't come near me in the hospital. It was Emmett that she usually chose. And Paige still has jealousy issues. She did even before he was born. She was worried about the normal stuff. She thought that Emmett and I wouldn't want to spend as much time with her or love her as much. So, yeah, they were the same, just in different ways." She explains.
"How did you deal?"
"Emmett and I are still working with them. We let the girls hold him or help give him a bottle. Letting the girls play and interact with him. Hopefully they'll get used to him soon. But once he starts walking and wanting to get into their stuff, I'm sure it'll still be a struggle."
"So we should let Abby do things with the baby. You think that will help her get used to having a new baby around?"
"It seems to help my girls a little. I'm sure it's different with every kid, though. Have you really talked to her about having the baby?"
"She knows what it means, I think. She thinks that she'll be just like Emmalie and Paige."
She makes a small laugh. "That's a start, I guess. You can start now, too. Let her touch your belly or help get the nursery together."
"I never thought about that." I say. "Thanks for the advice, Rose."
"No problem, Bella." She smiles and we walk out. The guys are in the living room still, probably watching ESPN or talking about guy stuff. The kids are in the kitchen with Esme. Alice is in there helping them. Rose and I walk into the kitchen to see our three girls making cookies. Alice is helping Paige stir some dough in a big bowl. Abby, Emmalie and Esme are putting ingredients into another.
"Is there anything we can do?" Rosalie asks.
Esme looks up for a second. "The batch in the oven should be coming out soon. Those will need to be put on a cooling rack when they do and we haven't made icing yet. You two could do that."
Rose and I start doing that. Some chatter between the adults goes on in between telling the younger ones what to do. I pull out the last batch, putting the cookies onto the cooling rack. The other girls had start icing cookies.
"Look, mommy. I made a blue star for daddy because blue is his favorite color." Abigail says.
"Good job, Abby. I bet daddy will like it. Did you make one for me?"
"No," I frown. "Not yet. What color do you want?" I smiled a little at the question.
"Green." I tell her.
She starts icing another star cookie for me. Soon, all of the cookies are iced and the girls go back into the playroom for a while. We'll get pizza for dinner later, and then they can eat a cookie. Rose, Alice and I help Esme clean up the kitchen. We go into the living room and sit down next to our spouses.
"How'd it go with Rose?" Edward whispers in my ear.
"Fine. She suggested we try a few things with her."
Chatter between everyone goes on. We talk about a little bit of everything.
"How's the pregnancy, Bella?" Edward's father, Carlisle, asks.
"This one is easier than the first." I admit.
"That's good." He says.
"So was my second one." Rosalie pipes up.
"You had twins for your first pregnancy, Rose. Of course the second was easier." I say.
"True. When are you going to have kids, Alice?"
"We're trying." She says softly. Alice and Jasper have only been married for about two years. They recently decided on trying for kids.
"Bella, do you have your exams written up yet?" Jasper asks from his seat beside Alice. Jasper teaches American History and Psychology/Sociology at the local high school, where I also teach English for seniors and Modern Literature. Semester exams are coming up this week, the last week before the holiday break.
"I'm almost done. But I have until Friday. I still just have to add the vocab, Shakespeare and novel information. Not much left to put on there. Do you have yours done?"
"I've had exams for both classes done since last week." He brags.
Abby comes into the living room alone. I can hear that Emmalie and Paige are still in the play room. She crawls into Edward's lap and lays her head on his shoulder. She falls asleep after only a couple of minutes. I look at the clock. It's almost nine o' clock already.
Edward and I decide to go home. Abby needs to be put to bed and I have to work in the morning. Edward puts Abby in her car seat and drives home. Not bothering to wake her up to change into pajamas, he puts her straight into to bed.
Both of us get ready for bed. Edward asks more about what Rosalie had said. He thinks that it was worth a try and that we should start right away. I'll probably let her help me over break getting some things done in the nursery.