~July 18th~
Today was Jamie and Eddies 1 year anniversary. Jamie worked late tonight but promised he'd make it up to her. He was working a double which meant Eddie had both kids by herself for that time. It was supposed to rain all day and storm later so they'd be stuck inside. Great...
Jamie got up at 3:45 by the sound of Scarlett crying. He didn't have to be up until 5 but he didn't really have a choice now. He went to pick up Scarlett.
"Shh, it's okay shhh." He rocked her and brought her to Eddie who had to wake up and come to life to feed her.
"Here ya go mommy." He said passing her off.
"Thanks." She said taking the almost 2 month old,still trying to wake up, she pulled out her right boob and brought Scarlett to it.
"Hey." Jamie said bending down to Eddie. She looked up at him. He kissed her forehead.
"Happy anniversary" he said and then kissed her on the lips. She smiled half forgetting it was today.
"Happy anniversary." She said back to him smiling. He went off to get dressed and head to work. Maybe he could get off earlier if he went in early.
He made a quick breakfast sandwich and popped back in the bedroom to see Eddie burping scarlett with her eyes closed. She was still obviously tired.
"Have a good day okay? I love you, I'll see you tonight." Jamie said bending over to kiss her goodbye.
"Love you be safe." She said.
"Always." He winked and left. Eddie finished burping Scarlett and laid in bed with her both falling back asleep until Emmalyn was whining over the monitor at 6am.
Eddie got up and barricaded a few pillows around Scarlett who was still sleeping in their bed. She wasn't going to go anywhere but Eddie just wanted to be safe. She left to go see what Emmalyn's problem was.
"What's the matter sweetie?" She asked approaching her sitting up in bed.
"I want daddy." She whined rubbing her eyes.
"Daddy's at work. Why don't you lay down and go back to sleep okay?" Eddie told her and laid her back down. She didn't argue back so Eddie left her room. She figured she wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep at this point so she went and grabbed a cup of coffee. As she stirred it Scarlett started crying in their room.
She picked her up and brought her out to sit in the bouncy seat while Eddie drank her coffee and watched tv.
No more then 5 minutes later Emmalyn started screaming. "DADDY!" Eddie got up quick and rushed in.
"Emmalyn!" She shouted knowing she just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.
"I want daddy!" She yelled at her.
"Honey daddy is at work. Now stop yelling, it is way too early to be yelling." Eddie told her. She gave Eddie a glare.
"When your ready you come out and eat with me, but the attitude needs to go." Eddie said and left the room. She wasn't going to pick a fight with a 4 year old. She took a deep breathe and sat back on the couch.
Emmalyn came stomping out of her room without her pull up on.
"Um excuse me. What are you doing?" She questioned. Emmalyn stood there and crossed her arms naked. Eddie stood up and Emmalyn ran to her room out of fear. Eddie went after her.
"Put underwear on right now. We are not walking around naked." She firmly told her and went to the kitchen to make a bowl of cereal for her and Emmalyn.
She came out and ate with Eddie and her mood was a little better.
"Why are you cranky?" Eddie asked her.
"Because I want daddy." She said.
"Well you need to knock it off. Daddy works all day and he would want you to be a good girl for mommy." Eddie assured her.
A few hours later Emmalyn was playing with her toys in the living room on the floor while Eddie was cleaning up the kitchen. She had gotten texts from the family saying happy anniversary and it made her smile that they all remembered and were thinking of them.
Eddie nursed Scarlett to sleep and put her in her crib to nap. She came back out to the kitchen to make lunch for Emmalyn. She requested Mac and cheese, so Eddie made that along with a hot dog and peas.
Emmalyn scarfed it down she was hungry. She got down off her chair with her empty plate and put it in the sink for Eddie.
"Good job Em, thank you." She told her as she watched her. Emmalyn smiled that she was getting praised and then ran off to the living room. She started jumping on the couch.
"Well that didn't last long" Eddie said under her breath.
"Hey. No. Get down, You know better." She said from the table calmly. She knew Scarlett was sleeping and didn't want to wake her by starting world war 3. Emmalyn didn't care she kept going. Eddie got up and stood at the couch thinking her approaching Emmalyn would scare her to stop but it didn't.
"Emmalyn Nicole." Eddie said.
"No mommy!" She shouted at her. Eddie grabbed her and stood her on the floor infront of her and got down to her level.
"You do not tell me no! We are not jumping on the couch and your sister is sleeping so you need to be quiet!" Eddie told her only inches away from her face. Emmalyn slapped Eddies cheek as she stood there looking blankly at Eddie! Eddies mouth dropped open in utter shock her daughter just slapped her across the face!
"Huh!" Eddie gasped and stood up, she grabbed Emmalyn by the arm and spanked her. Emmalyn immediately started crying. Eddie dragged her to her room as she kept crying. She was so mad at her. She put her in her bed and told her to go to sleep. She left the room shutting the door. And then it hit her.
She just spanked her daughter. They said they'd never spank her. She felt awful, what would Jamie say? As she stood there in thought she heard Scarlett start to cry in her room along with Emmalyn in hers.
She broke down crying, she was so overwhelmed by this day and it was only lunchtime. She's officially lost her sanity. She went in to get Scarlett. She tried to get herself together as she soothed her. Babies can sense bad vibes so she tried to relax so Scarlett would. She changed her diaper and took her out to the living room.
She sat there just over playing the incident in her head. She wished she wouldn't have done it.
2 o'clock rolled around when someone knocked at the door, she just had nursed Scarlett and put her in the swing so she could clean up the house and do some laundry.
It was frank, she told him to come in.
"You busy?" He asked entering the apartment and observing Scarlett in the swing with music playing on the tv. Eddie let out a breathe.
"Ugh not at the moment ha." She said sighing.
"What brings you all the way over here?" She asked him and he reached into his coat pocket.
"Came to drop this off." He smiled and handed her a card, she smiled.
"Happy anniversary." He said.
"Oh thank you!" She gave him a hug and set it on the counter to open later with Jamie.
"How you holding up? I hear Jamie's been working longer tours?" He asked.
"Oh yeah. Well after I decided I wanted to be home until Emmalyn goes back to pre school in September he picked up more hours so we would be okay financially for a few months." Eddie explained. Frank nodded at her understanding the decision.
"But how are you doing with it all." He asked, it's like he knew this day was bad for her.
"Oh well-" she stopped talking because Scarlett started crying. She went over to her quickly to stop her from getting any louder. She wasn't ready for Emmalyn to get up yet. Frank followed her and sat down on the couch, he could tell Eddie was overwhelmed not being able to stop the baby from crying. Frank watched her rock her standing up for a few moments, shooshing her, but it wasn't working.
"May I?" Frank held his arms out asking for permission to try. She handed her over to him and she slowly stopped crying as he patted her butt and talked to her quietly.
"Shh, hey, your alright." his low voice was so soothing to her.
"Wow thank you." She told him and sat down on the couch next to him. He smiled and said
"Now what's going on? I can read your face." Eddie trying not to cry automatically thinking about her spanking Emmalyn earlier. She looked back at frank as her eyes got cloudy.
"Eddie?" He said and the tears fell down her face.
"I've been stressed out a lot. Trying to balance both kids all day by myself. Emmalyn has been a handful, not listening when Jamie's not here. and today I did something we said we'd never do no matter what.." Eddie cried and Frank grew a concerned face. He asked what.
"I spanked her. She slapped me across the face and it made me so mad my first reaction was to spank her." Eddie said feeling so ashamed.
"Eddie. Don't beat yourself up about it, kids deserve it sometimes. All my kids got spanked and look how they turned out? If any of the Reagans would have done what Emmalyn did they would've gotten it for sure. You need to let her know it's not okay." He said.
"I know and I am not against spanking. But we said given Emmalyn's history we wouldn't do it. And I did it." She confessed. Frank put his hand on her back.
"Her history is why she's acting out." Frank said.
"What do you mean?" Eddie questioned.
"She came from an abusive home. Where nothing she did was good enough or right. Then you and Jamie took her in and treated her like a princess, which is normal given her past. But, she's learned she can get away with anything now. She's no longer scared of authority. In my opinion...you did nothing wrong. It was long overdue." Frank explained to her and Eddie was hearing him through and through she agreed.
"I just don't know what Jamie's gonna say" she said.
"If I know my son, I know he'll understand your reasoning and trusts your judgment." He told her. After the conversation frank handed Scarlett back to her and gave her a hug goodbye. Now she just had to wait for Jamie to get home so she could talk to him.
It was 10:45pm. Eddie sat on the couch pumping and watching tv waiting for Jamie. She heard the keys in the door and took a deep breath hoping frank was right. He walked in holding a bouquet of flowers.
"Oh your up" Jamie called out to her.
"Yeah, needed to pump." she said as he approached her he leaned down for a kiss.
"For my beautiful wife, happy anniversary" He smiled and handed her the flowers.
"Thank you." She smiled back trying to hide her fear.
"What's wrong." He read her like a book. Eddie set the flowers on the coffee table and took a deep breathe as she sat there, and unhooked herself from the pump as she was done. She played with her hands. Jamie sat down next to her.
"I um...I did something today that I feel bad about." She started saying.
"Okay..?" Jamie said confused he looked at her waiting.
"I spanked Emmalyn today." She couldn't look at Jamie.
"What happened?" He asked her a little taken back.
"She was jumping on the couch, being loud, Scarlett was down for a nap. She wasn't listening to me to get down. So I got her down and got in her face to scold her and she slapped me across the face." Eddie explained her story.
"She hit you!?" He questioned in utter shock, Eddie nodded yes.
"Eddie I would've spanked her too." Jamie said, Eddie looked at him surprised what he just said.
"Really?" She asked. He shook his head.
"Absolutely! That's unacceptable." He said.
"Ugh. I'm so glad you think that." She was so relieved. Jamie cocked his head questioning her.
"Were you scared to tell me or somthing?" He asked. She shook her head and explained because they said they'd never do it. She then proceeded to tell him how his dad stopped by and she had a heart to heart with him about it also.
"Honey please don't ever be scared to tell me your overwhelmed. Your the strongest women I know. I couldn't do it all day every day by myself. It's normal to lose your temper. It's a lot. Maybe I shouldn't be working so much so I can help." Jamie told her. Eddie smiled and didn't want to say he should or shouldn't. He took that as a sign he should.
They shared a hug and headed to bed as both of them were exhausted.