"Clemmy, look! Mommy's back from rehearsal!" 44-year-old Jesse St. James said, carrying his youngest daughter, 18-month-old Clementine into the family room where his 42-year-old wife, Rachel, was sitting.

Jesse and Rachel were both actors and had managed over the years to balance prolific careers with raising Clementine and her older sister, 15-year-old Olive. They were ecstatic to finally be the family of four they'd always dreamed of, having struggled for over a decade to get that second baby.

But she was here - and growing fast.

Rachel and Jesse knew you weren't supposed to compare two kids - including siblings, but they were concerned that at 18-months old, Clementine hadn't spoken a single word yet. She'd met all her other milestones at similar ages to the other kids in her playgroup, but the talking thing worried her parents.

Meanwhile, Olive had done just about everything "ahead of schedule" (of course, there truly wasn't a schedule.) And Rachel and Jesse had done everything the same with Clementine as they had with Olive: they didn't use baby talk with her and addressed her the same as they did her teenage sister, read to her constantly, and tried introducing her to new words - pointing out trees, animals, cars on walks, pointing out family members in photos and reiterating their names to Clementine, and looking at the various assortment of flash cards she had while discussing the pictures on them.

But…nothing so far. Rachel and Jesse were planning on getting Clem a speech therapist if she didn't start talking soon. Her pediatrician, who was also Olive's doctor, said she wasn't worried about Clementine yet and told Rachel and Jesse having Olive first and seeing how quickly she had met milestones probably caused them to overthink Clementine's development.

There was never any issue telling how Clem was feeling, though. As soon as she saw her mother, Clementine began smiling and jumping in Jesse's arms and reaching for Rachel, who eagerly took her youngest from her husband.

"Hi Clementine! How was your nap?" Rachel kissed Clementine's forehead.

"She slept like…well, she slept like a baby," Jesse chuckled.

"Good! She barely got any sleep last night," Rachel sighed.

"And neither did we," Jesse yawned. "I took a little nap while she did, actually."

"How's Olive?" Rachel asked.

"Good - she's in her room playing a computer game," Jesse said. "She said ballet class went well."

"Good - she really has become quite the ballerina, hasn't she?" Rachel said.

"Yes. And I should certainly hope so, with thirteen years under her belt…and all that tuition money out of Mom and Dad's pockets," Jesse shook his head, laughing. "But I'm glad she enjoys it. I know I'm biased but she's a star."

"What about you, Clemmy?" Rachel asked the toddler sitting on her lap. "Do you want to do ballet someday?"

Clementine just giggled.

"Is that funny?" Jesse tickled Clementine under the chin, which made her giggle harder.

"Will you answer our questions someday?" Rachel asked, slightly tearing up. "Will you ever say our names or your sister's name or tell me what food you want to eat?"

"I'm sure she will," Jesse put his hand on Rachel's. "In fact, I'd be willing to bet her first word will be Dada."

"Oh really?" Rachel's sadness had turned into competitiveness.

"That's right," Jesse replied with certainty.

"Oh, come on now. Olive looks just like you and said Dada first. Clemmy looks like me, so of course he first word will be Mama," Rachel said. Of course, she knew that wasn't how things worked, but she could dream, couldn't she?

"Wanna make it a bet?" Jesse asked.

"I'm interested," Rachel said, putting Clementine on the floor so she could go play with her toys.

"Okay. If Clementine says Dada first then you have to clean our bathroom and the guest bathroom for the next month. And if she says Mama first - I'll do it," Jesse said. What was sad is how high these stakes were - and he knew Rachel also found the thought of not cleaning the bathrooms for a month appealing. But he also knew that as parents, his and Rachel's priorities had definitely shifted.

"Wow," Rachel said. "That's…that's intense." The couple shook on it and the game was on.

For the next few days, Rachel and Jesse were like opposing politicians trying to appeal to one single voter - and that was Clementine.

Olive, not aware of her parents' bet, thought they had lost their minds - granted, she had started thinking that a while ago given some of their clothing choices.

Once, she had found Jesse holding Clementine in front of the big mirror the family had in the foyer.

"Look! It's Clementine and Dada! Clementine…and…Dada!" Jesse told Clementine enthusiastically.

Another time, Olive had found Rachel sitting with Clementine and showing her something on her phone. Intrigued, Olive entered the room.

"Oh, hey Oli!" Rachel said. "Clementine was just looking at Mama's latest headshots. What do you think, Clem? How does Mama look?"

Olive just slowly backed out of the room. She had no idea why her parents would randomly refer to themselves in the third person around Clementine but she didn't like it.

Shortly after the headshot thing, the whole family was sitting in the family room. Olive, Jesse, and Rachel were watching a movie, while Clementine was playing with her stuffed animals.

At some point, she got up and walked over to her older sister, and lifted her arms.

"Oh, you want to sit on my lap?" Olive asked. She had really just adjusted to having a younger sister - when her mother had announced her pregnancy, Olive had been worried that the new baby would replace her. For Clem's first year of life, Rachel and Jesse did a pretty good job of spending quality time with Olive.

However, once Clementine became a toddler, and with that had become more mobile and needed more attention, Olive did find herself feeling left out. After some failed attempts at rebellion, she did have a heart-to-heart with her parents - and things were much better now.

Olive put Clementine on her lap, and Rachel and Jesse melted at the smile Clem gave her big sister.

What happened next, though, nobody saw coming: not Rachel, not Jesse, and certainly not Olive.

Clementine, looking up at her big sister and smiling as big as she ever had, heaved a happy sigh and said, "Oli!"