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Chapter Eleven

Parenting Isn't Just A Walk In The Park

Now that all five babies were home things in the Camden home were becoming more stressful. Faith had come home just yesterday from the hospital, after the doctor told them that they had a strong willed child on their hands and that Faith would probably be quite stubborn. Kenny and Hannah were allowed to come home about three days after Andrew did and Emma came home about three days after that. Ever since Kenny and Hannah had come home people were almost always at the house to help Kate and Simon with house cleaning, playing with Alex, taking care of the babies, making dinner or really anything they could do. For this Kate and Simon were very thankful.

When Kate walked into her living room, holding Emma she found her parents, Simon's parents, and one of Kate and Simon's neighbors. Kate's mother, Jen, was changing Kenny's diaper, Annie was trying to calm down a screaming Andrew, Kate's father, Greg, was changing Hannah's diaper, and Eric was playing with Alex. Faith was asleep in one of the swings that were in the living room. Kate put the sleeping Emma in one of the empty swings and then left the room. She heated up five bottles, according to the amounts of formula that were on the chart taped onto the counter and brought them into living room. As she was walking into the living room she heard Emma cry and knew that she was hungry. Emma slept a lot, the most out of all the babies, but when she was hungry or wanted a diaper change she screamed till she got what she wanted. Andrew cried the most when he was awake. It was sometimes difficult to get him to sleep but luckily he wasn't a light sleeper, like the rest of the kids. He would sleep through all the babies crying which was a plus. Kenny loved to see what was going on around him. He was often awake and his big blue eyes were looking around at the people and things that were going on around him. Hannah was the most easy going. It was easy to get her asleep and when she was awake she barely cried. Faith loved to be held and cuddled. She was either giggling and smiling or screaming crying. She didn't know a medium between the two. Although they were quintuplets they were all so different, already and they were only about a month old.

When Kate got into the living room she found her neighbor, Fran holding Emma, Kate handed her a bottle and she started to feed the baby she was holding. Kate also handed Annie, Greg, and Jen each bottles. Then she took Faith out of the swing as she was starting to stir and she started to feed her youngest daughter.

As she was feeding her daughter Simon came into the house and he entered the living room. He had gone out to get some diapers and do some food shopping. As Simon entered, although Simon would never complain, you could tell by looking at him that he was exhausted. There were no people around to help Simon and Kate at night and unfortunately that was when the babies seemedcried the most. At the moment Simon and Kate were only getting about four hours of sleep every night. This of course made them both extremely exhausted but luckily Alex wasn't a light sleeper and he slept through the babies' crying every night. "Let me take Andrew from you mom," Simon said and his mother gently handed her grandson to her son. Andrew looked almost exactly like Simon. He had Simon's blonde hair and Simon's blue eyes. Faith and Kenny had Kate's strawberry blonde hair, while Hannah had white blonde hair. Emma had the darkest hair out of all of them witch was light brown, that was a little curly, just like Ruthie's was when she was a baby. Simon fed Andrew and then burped him and laid him in the swing. Simon turned it on, hoping it would rock his son to sleep. A couple of minutes later all five babies were in their swings, drifting off to sleep. Soon they were all sleeping and Kate went into the kitchen to start dinner.

"I'll make dinner for you," Annie said. "Why don't you go and spend some time with Alex or take a nap? Do whatever you want."

"Thank you. I think I'll go and spend some time with Alex, I haven't really had any time or energy to play with him since the babies have been home," Kate said and she went into Alex's room. She found her son sitting on the floor playing with some toy cars. She sat down next to him and said, "Can I play? We haven't spent any time together since the babies came home."

"I don't really mind. I love having five brothers and sisters. It's great and so far I definitely approve of them," Alex said.

"Well I'm glad but I need to spend some time with you too. Can I play with your cars too," Kate said. Alex nodded and Kate picked up a car and started to play with her son. They played for about twenty minutes until dinner was ready. Everyone ate at the kitchen table and when they were done they all helped to clean up. Once the kitchen was clean Fran, Jen, and Greg all left.

"Is it all right if we leave too," Annie said. "The boys are over at a friend's house right now and I'm supposed to pick them up at about five. It's already a quarter till then."

"It's fine," Simon said. "We can take care of all six kids. Both Kate and I have feeding two babies at the same time down to a science. And if worse comes to worse we can even have Alex feed one of the babies too. You guys need a break, you've been here almost everyday since Hannah and Kenny came home."

"You know we love to help take care of our grandchildren," Annie said.

"I know mom but everyone needs a break," Simon said. He hugged both his parents and then they left. As Simon shut the door one of his children started to cry. Simon wasn't able to tell apart their cries yet but he knew he'd be able to in a couple of weeks.

"Simon can you get that. I'm heating up five bottles," Kate's voice came from the kitchen.

"Of course," Simon said and he went into the living room. When he got there he saw that Kenny was the one who was crying. "Hey bud." Simon picked him up out of the swing and tried to calm him down. Kate entered carrying five bottles. She handed one to Simon and he started to feed Kenny. When Simon was in the middle of feeding his son Hannah woke up and Kate started to feed their oldest daughter. Soon all five babies were fed and laying on a blanket that was on the floor.

Mary sat at the kitchen table paying some bills while Rebecca and Jake took naps. She knew that she had to get this done before they both woke up because she needed to concentrate and with a two month old and a two year old it was almost impossible to. As she was finishing up she could hear that Rebecca was waking up. Mary put away the bills in the cabinet and she could hear Rebecca's little voice over the monitor as she sang to herself. Mary always thought it was cute when Rebecca did that, she was definitely the most musically oriented out of all the kids. She was always singing to herself, even when she was only a couple of months old.

Mary went upstairs and into the room that was shared by Rebecca and Maggie. She found Rebecca standing up in her crib waiting for some one to take her downstairs.

"Momma!" Rebecca exclaimed as she threw her hands up into the air, wanting her mother to pick her up.

"Hey 'Becca," Mary said, using the nickname she had given her daughter. Mary took her daughter out of the crib and took her downstairs. "Do you want some lunch?" Mary asked, once she got downstairs.

"Yeah!" Rebecca exclaimed. Mary put her daughter in her high chair and started to make her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. While she was in the middle of doing this Jake started to cry in the nursery. Mary brought him downstairs and put him in his blue and green plaid high chair and then continued to make Rebecca's sandwich.

Once Mary was done she gave the sandwich to Rebecca and then got out some baby food for Jake. She fed Jake, while watching Rebecca so that she didn't choke and soon everybody was done eating.

"You can go and play," Mary said. "But first let me clean you up." Mary brought her youngest daughter over to the sink and started to wash her hands and face.

"No! Stop mommy!" Rebecca squealed.

"I'm all done. You are all clean," Mary said and she set her daughter on the floor.

"Finally," Rebecca said and she ran off to play in the playroom.

"Come on Jake," Mary said and she took Jake out of his high chair. She quickly cleaned off his face and then brought him into the living room. She laid him on a blanket with a toy and then went into the kitchen to clean up.

Soon Maggie, Connor, and Charlie came home from school. They came into the kitchen and said hello to their mother. "Aunt Sarah drove you guys home?"

"Yup," Charlie said.

"Who has homework?" Mary asked.

"I do," Connor and Charlie said and they raised their hands in the air.

"Okay, you guys sit at the table and do your homework. Maggie you can go play, Rebecca is in the playroom," Mary said. Connor and Charlie sat at the table and Maggie ran into the playroom.

"Mom, the teacher wanted me to give this to you," Connor said and he handed his mother a note that he had just gotten out of his folder.

Mary read it and then looked up at her son. "Connor do you want to tell me what happened at school today?"

"Nothing happened," Connor said, without looking up from his homework.

"Charlie can you go and finish your homework at the dining room table. I need to talk to your brother" Mary said. Charlie nodded his head and then left the kitchen. "It says in this note that you hit someone at school. You know that you are not allowed to hit anyone."

"He said that I was dumb," Connor said. "So I hit him."

"Connor you are not allowed to hit people, even if they something mean to you or if they hit you first. The teacher said that you have to stay in for lunch the rest of this week and I'm afraid that your father and I are going to have to punish you too," Mary said to her son.

Connor groaned and then said, "But dad said that if someone hurts me I should hurt them back."

"Well that's not right and I'm going to talk to your father about that. You can't hit people even if they hurt you first," Mary said. "Finish your homework and then your father and I will talk to you about your punishment."

"Alright," Connor said and he went back to his homework. Mary told Charlie he could come back in and Mary went back to cleaning up. About a half an hour later Carlos came home from work.

"Hi honey," Carlos said and he quickly kissed his wife. "Where are the kids?"

"They're in the playroom and upstairs and Jake is in the living room," Mary said. "We need to talk." Mary grabbed her husband's arm and pulled him into his office.

"What's up?" Carlos asked once Mary let go of his arm.

"I got this from Connor's teacher today," Mary said and she handed Carlos the note that Connor had given her earlier that day. Carlos read it and then looked up at his wife. "Connor told me that you told him it was okay to hurt someone if they hurt him first. Did you tell him that?"

"Yeah I did," Carlos said.

"Why did you do that?" Mary asked. "He is not allowed to hit anyone, none of our children are."

"It's just that he came to me and told me that this kid has been picking on him for the past month. I didn't know what to do. He never listens to me, why would he listen to me now?" Carlos said.

"Come on," Mary said. "You had to know that he would listen to whatever you told him."

"I know," Carlos said. "I was wrong and I shouldn't have told him to hit that kid. I'll explain to him that I was wrong." Carlos said and he got up from the chair he was sitting in.

"Thank you," Mary said and she pulled Carlos closer to him. She kissed Carlos and then said, "I love you."

"I love you too," Carlos said and he leaned into kiss his wife. As they were in the middle of kissing Maggie and Rebecca came into the office.

"Ew!" Maggie and Rebecca squealed and Mary and Carlos broke apart.

"What's up guys?" Mary asked.

"Can we play outside?" Maggie asked.

"Get your jackets and shoes on and I'll be out in a little while to watch you," Mary said and both Maggie and Carlos ran from the room.

A couple of seconds later Maggie poked her head in the room and said, "you can go back to kissing now." And she ran away giggling.

"Our children are so funny," Carlos said in sarcasm and he went back to kissing his wife.

A couple of seconds later Mary pulled away from her husband and said, "now go and talk to your son. You can tell him that he has no punishment but if he ever does something like this again he will be punished."

"Wait," Carlos said and he pulled his wife toward him.

"That's not going to work. You can't get me to kiss you so that you don't have to admit to your son that you were wrong. Now go," Mary said and Carlos left the room and Mary went into the backyard to supervise her children.

Once Carlos entered his son's room he cleared his throat and Connor turned around from where he was sitting on the floor playing with toy cars. "I have to talk to you."

"Okay," Connor said and he sat on his bed and Carlos sat next to him.

"Well, remember the other day when I told you that you should hurt somebody if they hurt you."

"Yup," Conner said.

"Well, I...um...I was wrong. It's not right to hit anyone, even if they hurt you first. I shouldn't have told you that and you can't hit anyone anymore. So you can't hurt anyone," Carlos said. "I'm sorry I got you in trouble at school today."

"That's alright," Connor said. "And don't worry I won't hit anyone anymore, I promise."

"Your mother and I have decided that you're not going to get punished because of my mistake but if you hit someone again you are going to be in a lot of trouble," Carlos said.

"Yes!" Connor said. "Thanks dad."

"Your welcome," Carlos said and he hugged his son. "Do you want to go outside? Your mom and your sisters are already out there."

"Okay," Connor said and he and Carlos went downstairs and outside. They found that Mary, Maggie, Rebecca, Charlie, and Jake were already out there.

"Ding dong," the doorbell rang through out the Camden house. Kate ran to the door and opened it. She found a couple of people who she had never seen before.

"Can I help you?" Kate asked politely.

"Are you Kate Camden?" one woman asked. Kate nodded and the woman continued, "we're from the California Daily, the newspaper who interviewed you. can we come in and talk to you and your husband?"

"Yeah, of course," Kate said. she lead the people from the newspaper into her living room. "Sorry about the mess we haven't had much time to clean."

"That's fine."

"Simon come in here. There's some people from the newspaper here who want to talk to us," Kate said and Simon came into the living room holding Emma. He sat down next to Kate.

"Well ever since we heard about you having quintuplets, we've been interested in finding ways to help you. So when we heard about your living conditions we knew we had to do something for you. So...we bought you a house. It's in the town next this one, about two minutes away," one woman explained.

"Oh my gosh!" Kate exclaimed. "They bought us a house!"

"That's amazing! I can't believe it!" Simon said.

"You guys deserve it. You have six kids and you both work really hard. You guys definitely don't have room in this house, and you need a bigger one."

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" Kate said.

"Your welcome. The house has four bedrooms and a master bedroom, four bathrooms (including the one in the master bedroom), a den, a kitchen, a living room, a dining room, a basement, a pantry, and a two car garage. It also has a big backyard and it's in a nice area."

"Wow, this is amazing," Kate said. "I just don't know how to thank you. This means so much to us."

"Yeah thank you so much," Simon added. The reporters stayed a little while and after about twenty minutes they all left. Simon and Kate fed each of the kids and then put them back to bed in the nursery.

"I can't believe we're moving!" Simon exclaimed.

"I know," Kate said. "I'm so excited!" Kate hugged Simon and then she started to walk away. Simon grabbed Kate's arm and turned her around. He pulled her toward her and then kissed her.

"I love you," Simon said.

"I love you too," Kate said. "We have to tell Alex."

"You're right," Simon said. "Alex come into the kitchen please." Alex ran into the kitchen and he sat down at the table with his parents. They told him about what was going on and he too was very excited.

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