As already proved by their somewhat dramatic entrance into this world, the newborn Montgomery twins persistently proved why they would later become affectionately known as a stubborn pair. Driven by the will to never give in, their weaknesses appeared to be nothing to them as they continued to thrive under the care of the hospital staff. And after they had spent two long weeks in the NICU, Jo and Monty's wishes were granted, and their stubborn pair was finally allowed to come home. At first, it was clear that settling into this strange new place was hard for these little infants. But in time, they grew to love their new surroundings, and they dared not stop flourish. Josephine was particularly amazed at how quickly they grew after this. She nearly had to purchase new clothes for them every week!

Monty plunged into his new role as 'Daddy' as if he had been a father for years. Everybody around him was blown away by how good he was with them – especially with Cody. It was clear that she shared his love for animals – even at a month old. Her favourite place in the whole house to play in was the reptile room. Her playmates? Tommy the Tortoise, the Incredibly Deadly Viper, and all the rest of the weird and wonderful creatures that resided there. Josie sometimes felt jealous that Cody would cry more for her daddy, but she bonded better with Dakota, who was the quieter baby with a head for books and grammar – though he was still too young to be able to read by himself; he just enjoyed looking at the pictures. She planned to teach him all she knew about books in the future, and she hoped that it might possibly influence his career choice.

But the Montgomery twins were not the only babies who were growing happy and healthy. Sixteen days after Jo had her caesarean section, Kit went into labour herself and she was blessed with the little girl she never thought she would ever have. This chubby blue-eyed, blonde-haired sweetheart was named Avril. With much protest from Dewey, Kit had named her after her favourite rock star. Now that they were both mothers at the same time, Kit and Josie's friendship only grew stronger, and their conversations would always drift to the subject of parenthood and how fabulous their infants were. And at the beginning of July, Esme announced that she was pregnant with her and Jerome's first child. Once it was out in the open, she felt that she was finally accepted in a group that all had one thing in common. She would often go to her two companions for advice or unload any worries or fears she had. Even though she had always been repulsed by the idea of having a child, Esme was beginning to see how wrong she had been, and this made her a better person as a result.

Towards the end of August when the twins were nearly two months old, Monty and Jo arranged an elaborate gathering at their house. Monty spent all afternoon barbecuing food in the back garden, and he set up a grand, inflatable slide to entertain the babies, and everyone was invited. This largely included the Squalor couple and their unborn child, Lemony and R, Jacques, Kit, Josh, Dewey and Avril, Gladys, Colin, and his wife and son, and Derek and his three daughters. It was to be a true family party.

The boiling hot summer sun beating down on them, the large group of friends enjoyed their time away from being stuck indoors. They laughed, chatted to one another, exchanging amusing stories as they celebrated the start of all of these new babies' lives together. Gladys was busy entertaining her older grandchildren in a comfortable deckchair on the patio. Dewey made tedious small talk with Derek and Colin as a means to get to know them, all three of these men munching on overcooked burgers and chugging cans of cola – this was a family-friendly event after all. Jo was standing in a huddled circle with Esme, Jerome, Kit and Avril, Lemony and R and Josh. They were all hanging on Kit's every word as she told them the witty story of when she unexpectedly went into labour.

" You know, I never thought I'd have her before my due date," she began. She moved Avril into a different position because her arms were getting tired. She smiled and went on to mention, " But then again, Josh was pretty early. Not to mention, Lem here was really premature. I dunno, like, by three months or something. I don't know." She shrugged subtly while Lemony shot her a dirty look. " I suppose I should've seen it coming," she continued, ignoring her younger brother, giving a roll of her emerald eyes. She smiled sheepishly, knowing that she should've known to have been prepared for Avril's unexpected arrival.

Supporting Dakota's head with her hand, a small, simpering smile formed on Jo's lips. " She was a surprise, then?"

" Yeah!" Kit giggled. " I was at the mall, actually, when I went into labour. I was so scared; I was all alone in this busy place…But the pain was worse! It hurt so much. I think it was worse than when I had Josh. Man," she muttered. She stared into space for a few moments with an almost miserable expression on her face. But Avril's sudden cries brought her back to Earth. Her mother began to quietly soothe her, her wails becoming wilder and stronger. Kit chuckled awkwardly. " Excuse me," she muttered briskly before walking away.

" I'm glad I don't have to go through that until February," Esme piped up, breaking the silence. She lowered her eyes to give her near-flat belly a worried look.

" Ohh!" Jerome butted in. " You'll be fine! You'll be the best mommy in The City!" he cried enthusiastically. He then wrapped his arms around her torso. " Hello in there, little guy!" he called lovingly. He gently ran his finger over his wife's navel.

This made all the women coo.

" Oh, Jerome!" R boomed. " That's so cute! Oh, Lemony, why can't you be cute like that?" she whined to her fiancé.

Lemony scoffed. " I stopped being cute decades ago," he retorted smugly.

Placing her hands on her hips, R's hazel-brown eyes did a gambol, and a mischievous smile formed in the corner of her mouth. " Aww, sweetheart. You'll always be cute to me." She leant and lovingly pecked him on the cheek.

Lemony blushed violently as everyone around him gushed.

Across the luscious green lawn, amongst all the daffodils and sunflowers that grew there, the women's chatter became nothing but a low, indistinct hum. And, instead, what occupied this almost dreamlike place were a father and his infant daughter. Monty was laying flat on his back with Cody carefully perched on his beer belly. Without any cares in the world, the old man told her exciting, dramatic stories of his adventures. The young baby listened intently, hanging on his every word, as she daydreamed about all these exotic places. She didn't know how or when, but she knew that she would one day follow in his footsteps. And Monty could tell that this was what she was planning. Grunting with effort, he moved her to his lap as he sat up, crossing his legs as he did so.

He draped his arms around her, patting her blonde curls, and whispered, " One day I'll take you, darling."

Cody gave her father the biggest toothless grin she could muster, making a small babyish noise.

Giggling, Monty imitated her before he continued his story. " Well, Gustav and I walked for miles and miles, but we couldn't find our way back to the campsite, so we were lost in this big, dense rainforest without any food or water. But then, I felt something heavy push against my leg!"

Cody's smile faded slightly and her large bluish-grey eyes widened in concern. How would Daddy get out of this one?

" I looked down," Monty went on, " and guess what was coiled around my leg?"

Cody made another noise, indicating that she didn't know.

" THE INCREDIBLY DEADLY VIPER!" he boomed excitedly. Cody squealed with delight. " He was hissing at me like crazy and his fangs were huge! Gustav was ready to shoot because we had guns, but then I realised I hadn't come across such a snake before. So I told Gustav not to shoot him. And you know what the snake did? He led us straight back to the camp! He saved our lives!"

Cody let out yet another noise. This one sounded eerily like a cheer.

" The team were so impressed with the snake that they made him a hero and they gave him a medal for bravery. But I was the one who got to own him because I was discovered him. I called him the Incredibly Deadly Viper, as you know, just to play a little prank on my colleagues."

Cody let out an infectious giggle. She had heard many hilarious things about that particular story, but Monty had yet to tell her in full detail.

Monty grinned and proceeded to tickle her. " Yeah!" he growled playfully. " Those idiots were scared outta their minds! Weren't they? Weren't they, Cody?"

" Monty? Cody?" came Jo's voice rising over the sunflowers.

The two animal lovers froze, both of their hearts racing. Jo had come to take Cody in for her afternoon nap. Cody loathed the idea of naps. Aware of this, Monty was always more than happy to delay it for as long as possible.

" Cody?" Jo called out again.

Panicked, Monty's eyes darted around the garden to try to find a way to escape. Josephine was beginning to swoop in like a Black Widow. He spotted the fence, separating the Montgomery household from the farmland just outside. But before he could show Cody what he was going to do, it was already too late. With Dakota sitting on her hip, Jo stood next to a sunflower that was exactly her height. Her blue eyes shining brightly, a grin stayed firmly on her lips.

" And what, exactly, did you tell these old fogies?" she asked, chuckling. She stepped further into the enclosed space. " I'd like to hear that story again. I think Dakota would like to as well, wouldn't you, baby-pie?"

Monty's eyebrows shot up in disbelief. Even Cody looked confused.

" It's not time for bye-byes?" he asked tentatively.

Josephine shrugged her shoulders, still smiling under the August sunlight. " We're having a barbecue. It would be awful for them to miss out on all the fun," she answered. " May we sit down?"

Monty's words got stuck in his throat before he asked, " But what about our guests? Wouldn't be rude to leave them on their own like this?"

" They've gone to the living room now because Kit is putting Avril down to sleep in the nursery," she explained. " They're all preoccupied with playing card games, so I think we could get away with just a few moments on our own."

Monty smiled. " Oh, OK, then," he cried happily. He gestured to an empty spot on the ground. " Join us, please. The more, the merrier!"

Josephine sat awkwardly down. As she was wearing a dress that day, she didn't want to be unladylike. " You were saying?"

A huge, toothy grin spread across the old man's wrinkled face. He cleared his throat theatrically and put on his best storytelling voice. " Well!" he cried. " For years, my colleagues had been making fun of my name! It always made me sad, and I always wanted to get my own back. I never had the opportunity until I found the Incredibly Deadly Viper. I knew it was my only chance, so it had to be a good prank! I planned to give a presentation…"

Avril continued to scream and wail, but Kit couldn't do a thing to get her to stop. After she had tried rocking her, Kit grunted a little as she held Avril upright, supporting her head with her hand.

" Ohh, I never had this problem with Josh," Kit mumbled in frustration. Avril's face was turning the colour of scarlet because she was screaming so much. " Why can't you just get to sleep, Av?" the frazzled mother pleaded.

Avril paused for only a few seconds to catch her breath. But then, at that precise moment, Kit swore she heard the distant, muted sound of Jo's laughter. Her interest piqued, she went to the window to see what was going on. At the bottom of the garden, there was the perfect picture of the ideal family. Avril cried more, but was immediately shushed by her mother. She pressed her finger against the glass, showing the little baby what she had just seen.

" Look, Avril. Look!" she whispered, smiling.

Avril looked and she instantly forgot the reason she'd been crying in the first place. For at the bottom of the garden, Monty was running around, waving his arms in a hysterical manner, and he was screaming as loud as he could. Jo was screaming along with him, but with tears of laughter in her eyes. But it was the twins that had caught Kit and Avril's eyes. Both of them could see the two tiny figures of the infants rolling about in the grass, giggling and laughing at their eccentric scientist father. Kit was glowing with the pride, and she felt tears well up in her eyes.

" You know," she began to tell Avril, " just a year ago, they didn't even know each other. Now look at them. Oh, isn't it fantastic, Avril? Oh, this has been a series of romantic events very much indeed!"