Edward carries a basket full of clothes downstairs to the living room for me to fold. He disappears into the kitchen to get started on dinner. Abby's watching TV and coloring in her princess book.

Abby walks up to me and asks, "Mommy, can I watch Imagination Movers?"

"Yeah, that's fine, honey." I reach for the remote and turn the Kids OnDemand channel on, selecting her show. "Which episode do you want?"

"'Nina Gets Giggles,'" She tells me.

Of course. I think. It is the same one she's been watching all week. "Abby, why don't you pick a different one? You've already seen this one a lot of times."

"No, I like this one. I want to watch it."

"Fine." I say, turn it on, and continued folding.

I get done folding and grab the piles of clothes to take upstairs and put away. My phone is ringing when I come back downstairs. Seeing that it is my dad, I answer it.

"Hi, dad."

"Hey, are you still coming in on Christmas Eve?"

"Yeah. We'll be on our way after church. It'll be late, though. Service doesn't start until eight. It'll probably be at least 11 before we get in. Abby will probably go straight to bed when we get there."

"That's ok. I'll be here. Jake and Billy are going to join us, too."

"Good. I miss them." I grew up with Jake. I haven't seen him in months. "Rachel and Rebecca aren't coming in?"

"No. You know Becca; she doesn't want to come back. And Rachel is spending her break with her."

"Oh. Of course. Hey, when are we going to give her the p-u-p-p-y? Last because that's her big gift, but how are we going to keep it quiet?" Charlie insists that she needs a pet. After much arguing about it, we finally agreed that she could get a small dog, so there is a Jack Russell Terrier waiting for her at my dad's.

"Sh," I hear and I turn around to see Abby looking at me. "Mom, I can't hear the TV. Be quiet." I raise an eyebrow at what she told me and walk into the kitchen.

"I don't know, Bells. We can talk about it when the time comes."

"Alright. We'll see ya then."

"See ya."

I hang up and help Edward get the rest of dinner ready, taking the bread out of the oven and getting Abby some spaghetti and green beans on her plate to cool off.

"Did you hear what Abby told me while I was on the phone?" I ask Edward.

"No. What did she say?"

"She told me to be quiet because she couldn't hear the TV."

"Really? You know, with how she's been lately, I don't think she needs to watch TV."

"I agree. She needs to be talked to. I mean, I know she's only four, but she knows better than to behave like this."

"We need to talk to her tonight before it gets worse."

"Edward, you need to talk to her. You know how she is. She's not going to say anything to me. She's going to avoid the subject and say that everything's fine. But she will talk to you, Edward."

"I guess you're right. We can both talk to her at dinner."

Once we're all seated at the table, we start talking about the little things: how our day was, what Abby wanted for Christmas, things like that. Just the normal dinner-time conversations went on. After a few minutes of silence, Edward looks at me to start the next conversation.

"Abby, why did you tell mommy to be quiet when I was on the phone?"

"I couldn't hear the TV. You were talking too loudly." She says matter-of-factly.

"Abby, that wasn't nice. You know that."

"Well I was trying to watch Imagination Movers." She says with an attitude.

"Abigail, you need to stop the attitude you're giving me. It's not nice and you know better than to act like this."

"Abby," Edward breaks in. "You're not watching TV for the rest of the week. You aren't staying up late this weekend either."

"What?" she whines.

"You have had a bad attitude for a while now. It needs to stop and you aren't going to get what you want when you have an attitude. And the whining isn't helping you any."

"Mommy," she looks to me as if I will break the consequence from her.

"No, Abby." I shake my head. "You need to learn that you don't get what you want when you're not nice."

She starts to pout and nobody even mutters a word for the rest of dinner. Edward cleans up as I help Abby get a bath and put on her pajamas. She goes into her room to play with some toys. Edward and I are in the living room- him working and me grading some papers and putting them into the grade book online.

"It's eight o' clock," I say, glancing at the clock. "She needs to get her teeth brushed and into bed. Are you going to talk to her tonight?"

"Yeah, I will." He gets up and goes upstairs.

I hear him helping her brush her teeth and getting into bed. Very quietly, I creep upstairs and stand outside of her closed bedroom door. It takes him a minute to ask her what is wrong. I'm not sure if I want to hear it, but I figure it's best that I know what her problem is.

"Abby, what's up? Why have you been acting like this?" Edward starts.

There is a moment of silence and I wonder if she will answer verbally. Finally she says, "Mommy's going to have a baby."

"Yeah. I know. Aren't you excited for mommy to have a baby? You'll get to be a big sister." He encourages.

"No. I don't want to be a big sister because you and mommy won't love me anymore. You and mommy will only love the baby. And you won't play with me anymore."

"Ab, who told you that?"

"Conner at Miss Courtney's house. He told me that you and mommy won't love me anymore because you will have a new baby to love and play with." I hear her sniffle.

"Baby, that won't happen. Ever, ever. Mommy and daddy will always love you, no matter what."

"That's not what Conner said."

"Don't listen to Conner, ok. You listen to me and mommy. We love you, no matter what. When the baby comes, we'll love you both the same. We'll still play with you and tuck you into bed night and do all of those things."

"Conner said that his mommy and daddy are always with Alyssa because she doesn't stop crying and they always have to stop playing with him to be with her when she cries."

"Abby, babies can't take care of themselves like you can. You know how to get something out of the fridge if you're hungry, but babies can't do that. Remember, Aunt Rose and Uncle Emmett have to feed Broden from a bottle because he can't do it himself. And you know how to use the potty, but babies have to wear a diaper and mommies and daddies have to change it for them. Babies take a lot of responsibility."

"You'll still play with me?" her voice lightens a little.

"Yes, honey, me and mommy will still play with you." He says. "Now, are you excited to be a big sister?"

"A little." Abby says it so quietly that I almost don't hear her.

"Abby, there's something else we need to talk about. You can't keep being mean to mommy. You know better than to be mean to anyone, especially her. You can't do that. You'll make mommy sad if you're mean to her. Do you know how much mommy does for you? She cooks you food and makes sure that you have clean clothes and a bunch of other stuff for you."

She doesn't say anything right away and I feel a tear come down my face.

"Abby, mommy and daddy will always love you, no matter what. And so will nana and grandpa and grandpa Charlie and all your aunts and uncles and your cousins. The baby will just need to have more attention sometimes."

"You promise?" she sniffles again.

"I promise. Hey, mommy and daddy are going to see the baby doctor next week. Do you want to go with us? We get to find out if the baby is going to be a boy or a girl."

"Yeah. Can it be a girl?" she asks with some more enthusiasm.

I hear Edward chuckle a little. "We'll see, baby. We don't get to choose what the baby is."

"Well, if it's a girl, I want her to be named Belle. She's my favorite princess." I smile a little at that.

"I think that Belle is a little too close to mommy's name. Go to bed. Goodnight, Abby. I love you."

"I love you too, daddy."

Edward comes out of the room a moment later closing the door. He sees me standing there with some more tears coming down. He wipes them away and pulls me in as far as my growing belly will allow. "How much did you hear?"

"All of it." I say.

"Come on, let's go back downstairs. I have more work to do and I'm sure you want to get things done, too."

A few hours later while getting ready for bed, Edward and I discuss his and Abby's conversation. Edward suggests that I take her out over break. We can go shopping for the baby and she could help me pick out clothes and some other things. I hope that things will be ok between Abby and I, and I hope that they will stay that way throughout the rest of my pregnancy and after the baby comes.