Wednesday June 19, 2030

"Aw, hi baby." I smiled as I picked my crying daughter up out of her bassinet and carried her over to my bed. I put my pillow behind me for back support so I could feed her easily. I hooked her onto my breast and brushed her the top of her little head with my finger. "I can't believe you'll be two months tomorrow."

After I fed her, I changed her diaper and then walked up the stairs to the kitchen to make some breakfast for me. As I sat at the table, eating the kids slowly started to come down, one by one with Brendan being first surprisingly.

"Morning B."

"Hey mom."

"Hey, happy birthday. I can't believe you're already fifteen. I feel like just yesterday I was holding you in my arms just like I'm doing with Claire."

"Is Claire going to be your last baby?"

"I honestly don't know. I thought Andra was going to be my last and then Cara came and then here is Claire. I feel like your father is purposely getting me pregnant. I think he's trying for another son."

"Aren't you like thirty-five or something? Dad could get you pregnant like three more times."

"First of all I'm thirty-four and second I doubt it. I don't want eight kids, I didn't even want five for a matter of fact but life goes on. Can you hold your sister for me while I put the dishes away?"

"But mom, what if she cries?"

"I'm just a foot away from you." I gently placed his baby sister in his arm. "There, make sure her head is always supported."

"Like this?"

"Mhm… You know, you and her are very similar, I mean when you were a baby of course."

"Like how?"

"I mean obviously you were both born earlier, you two months and she three months. You didn't cry much and neither does she unless she's hungry, diaper needs to be change, or just wants to be held. I mean of course you gave me a lot more trouble because of my age and trying to go to school but everything worked out at the end of the day."'

"Would you ever go back in time and change the fact that you got pregnant with me if you had a chance to?" Brendan asked.

"When I found out I was pregnant with you, I wished each night that the night your father and I had never happened. Same when you were about six months and I decided to go back to school. It was hard studying with a baby who always loved to be held or make noise but now, no. I wouldn't change it. I can't even imagine you not in my life and if I went through with the abortion I was going to get when I was pregnant with you, I probably would have regretted it. I probably would continue to think, what if? What if I didn't do it? Where would I be? How would life be different for me?"

"I'm happy you didn't decide to kill me."

I turned around and leaned against the counter. "Once I heard your heartbeat I was in love and couldn't do it. You know, I remember your father was trying to convince me to name him after him, name you Spencer Jr."

"Oh god, I'm happy you didn't. My friends would probably make fun of me and call me Jr. my whole life."

I laughed. "Don't worry, it was never considered. I thought you deserved your own name, not your father's used one. We spent a good hour looking through our phones at baby names and their meanings the day I was able to leave the hospital. I wanted you to have a meaningful name since I could have lost you. Brendan means prince and Mathew means gift from god." I put the last dish away and then took the baby from Brendan. "I hope you and Claire will have a good relationship even with the big age difference. Don't be like Charlie and me."

"Why is she so distant from us, from her family?"

I sat down at the table in front of Brendan. "It started when my dad's cancer came back about ten years ago. Charlie didn't want to lose our dad at such a young age. I don't know how much you remember but she started to act up as his cancer got worse and when he died she just, I don't know, it crushed her. He died when she was in either fifth or sixth grade. Just imagine how hard that must have been." My eyes started to water up. "I saw how crushed she was so I gave her my video diaries I filmed for her because I thought it would help her."

"Video diaries?"

"They are just basically home videos with me giving her advice if she encounters a situation I encountered. I have them saved on my computer and tablet because I like going back and watching them to the time when we were the happiest. It makes me happy and sad seeing my dad in some of them, just hearing his voice again. You know, I started doing them at your age and Charlie was nine months. I filmed them until I graduated high school and did a few updates on me in college."

"Oh, are you happy you did even though she could care less about them?"

"Very happy. I like being able to go back to my teenage years having memories come back that I've forgotten about. Your father is even in a few of them, two or three of them if I remember correctly. I probably wasted a bunch of time doing them as a teenager but in reality I didn't because now I have the memories forever. Do you wanna see the first one I ever filmed?"

"I guess."

"Can you go down and get my tablet for me. It's on the bed."

"K."

A minute later Brendan came back up. We walked into the living room and sat on the couch. I pulled up my video diary file and opened the very first one called study date.

"I'm assuming the name means you went on a study date with some guy." Brendan said.

I smiled "It wasn't just some guy, now shh..."

When the video started to play, we heard a young fifteen year old me talking with the video camera pointing at nine month old Charlie who was eating in her high chair.

"Hi Charlie! There you are, nine months old and look how cute you are! Yeah… And look how cute I am. It's your big sister Teddy here and I'm making this video diary here to help you survive our… special family. Oh, hey looks like dad taught you how to eat bananas. And there's mom looking lovelier than ever this morning."

"Not in the mood." Mom said covered in baby food and her hair messed up. "Okay I think you've had enough bananas so we're switching to sweet peas! You're gonna love them, look mommy think they're so yummy look. Mmmm…." She spit them out.

Brendan laughed a little. "Look at grandma."

Very smart, always let mommy try it first, kay? Oh, there's your older brother PJ doing today's homework at the last minute as usual." I said pointing the camera over at PJ.

"This isn't today's homework, it's yesterday's homework."

"There's a chance you two will be in high school together. Oh, and there's dad preparing for another's day work, he kills bugs for a living." I said as I walked over to the couch where dad was sitting on.

"Honey, come on, we've been through this. I don't kill bugs, I'm a pest control specialist." Dad said staring into the camera.

"Either way." I moved my finger across my neck, signaling death. "So, now you met the whole family."

"That's grandpa." Brendan said.

I smiled and cried a little. "Yeah."

"Forgetting somebody?" Eleven year old Gabe asked walking down the stairs wearing a yellow shirt.

"Gabe! No, no, no, I, I didn't forget about you! I was just saving the best for last! Charlie, that was your younger, older brother Gabe. You want to say something to Charlie?"

"You ruined my life."

"Okay, so it's taking Gabe a little longer to get used to you. You're kind of a surprise…"

"Thought surprises were supposed to be good."

"And cut…"

Few Moments Later…

"And that's how Dad got my first kiss and you flew for the first time." I said chuckling. "But the good news it… No there is no good news." I said disappointedly. My phone beeped showing I got a new text. I Looked down at it and read it. "I take it back. It's a text from Spencer!" I said excitedly. "He wants to hang tomorrow night… as his house. YES!" I was jumping up and down around my room excitedly. "Oh, I gotta wash your puke out of my jacket." I ran away but immediately stopped. "Oh and uh… one more thing. When you are my age and you meet a cute boy, do not, under any circumstances ever, EVER, bring him home… Because if you do well good luck Charlie."

"So is the Spencer you're talking about dad?" Brendan asked.

"Mhm… I had a major crush on him. He liked me too but took him a while to build up enough courage to ask me out. Actually now that I think about it, he never did. He asked me if I would wear his jersey and I said yes."

"Wow… You guys looked so happy I mean besides grandma."

"Well that's what a baby does to you and having us as kids." I turned my tablet off. "Okay, go on and get dress so we can go do something today."

Okay so some of you guys wanted a Brendan, Teddy moment so here it is. I hope you liked this. Sorry it wasn't up sooner but it's really hot and I don't want my laptop to overheat and just die. I have chapter 2 of my newest story almost done but I don't know when it'll but up because like I said, I don't want my laptop to overheat. I hope you liked this chapter and remember to review!