State of Origin tonight! Go the Blues! Growing up in a house full of guys, I basically get shot if I don't support our team (I have been known to wear my jersey over my pyjamas, when it comes to Friday night football). In this case, NSW. So, all my darling readers out there, who are you supporting tonight? R&R!
Rhyleigh xoxox

"Look at this, Ellie!" Retta held out a black and white image towards the little girl, the unborn baby slightly fuzzy.

"What is it?" Ellie wrinkled her nose, staring hard at the ultrasound printout.

"It's the baby, Ellie!" Carbo said excitedly, jabbing his finger towards the blob that was his child. "That's the baby that's in Aunty Retta's tummy".

Ellie's eyes bulged and Ben watched the cogs in her head whir, bracing himself for the outburst.

"It's an ALIEN!" she screamed.

Aliens and monsters had recently become a part of the Karandonis house, after Carbo brainlessly told the three year old a story that he thought was appropriate. It was possibly the biggest mistake in his entire life, Ben had declared, upon crawling out of bed to search the house for monsters.

"It's a baby, Ell!" Nathan said quickly, trying to defuse the situation. It seemed his three year old niece had inherited her father's overactive imagination, forcing the adults of the house to check every nook and cranny before even thinking about retreating to bed. it had been going on for a week, and Nathan was well an truly over it.

"You sure?" Ellie asked fearfully, crawling into Ben's lap.

Shifting his daughter onto his hip, Ben carried her over to the bookshelf in the lounge room. Sliding out the pink baby book that had been a present from Sammy (she had sent it over from London, upon learning of the baby shower from Nathan, along with an assortment of baby girl gifts. A bouquet of flowers had been sent to the hospital, after she heard of Ellie's birth), Ben opened to the front page.

Melissa had been good at keeping records- and she had recorded every moment of her baby's life, right up until her death. The rest had been left up to Ben, and with assistance from his mother, he had stumbled his way through.

"Who's that?" Ellie pointed to the little black and white ultrasound image of her unborn self.

Ben chuckled. "That's you, Ell".

Ellie wrinkled her nose, staring down at the picture. "That's not me!"

"Yes it is".

"No!"

"Ellie, baby, trust me, that's you".

"No!" Ellie argued. Crawling off her father's lap, she headed towards the shelf, where Carbo's ceramic rooster and an assortment of photographs lived. Standing on her tippy toes to reach the 'baby girl' frame (just one of the many presents for the new parents, from Jake and Rachel), she snatched it down and carried it back to her father. "Daddy, that's me".

"You were in your mama's tummy, just like Aunty Retta and Uncle Carbo's baby is in Aunty Retta's tummy", Ben tried to explain, putting the baby book and the photo frame aside. Lifting the little girl into his lap, she reached to pat Retta's protruding tummy.

"Aunty Retta, did you eat the baby?"

"What?" Retta choked out.

"How did it get in there?" the three year old was innocent enough, but Carbo was quick.

"Ell, that's a question for you to ask Daddy".

With Nathan howling with laughter beside him, Ben simply glared. "Oh, how I can't wait for your kid to be born. I'm so gonna pay you back for all these years…"

"Daddy?" Ellie blinked her huge blue eyes up at her father.

"There's a whole lot more for me to teach her!" Carbo said cheerfully, poking Ellie's tummy and making her giggle. "She's gotta learn some stuff from her favourite uncle!"

"Hey!" Nathan squawked.

And the monsters? Monsters are going to play a huge part in this story, after Ellie turns four. Because what kid didn't go through a phase where monsters didn't live under their bed? Just putting it out there, I had monster spray. Those suckers went down.