AN: Hello again lovelies. I thought I'd publish two chapters in a row because honestly I owe it to you all. Anyways in this chapter we're going to skip ahead to Aurora's first birthday. I know it's a little crazy, but I guess I'm trying to cover everything without taking forever and getting us to one of the next plot twists. By the way this story isn't going to be about babies and more babies. There will be action and adventure soon, I promise. I would also just like to again inform everyone that I do not own the Twilight Saga or any of the original characters created by Stephanie Meyer. All new characters and new plot have come from my imagination, and my purpose in writing this fanfiction is for writing practice as well as the enjoyment of the Twihards all over. Now having said that, I give you chapter seven of A Better Forever.

Aurora's First Birthday (1:00 pm)

Bella POV:

The year had flown by. Aurora had grown up to be a happy, healthy toddler. She'd developed like any human baby—though I think teething had been more challenging—just like her cousins. She was walking, and able make little sounds like La, dee, and da, but she still hadn't said a toddler's version of a full word, yet.

Personally I thought—and Edward agreed—that she was used to not having to voice her needs and wants—thanks to Edward's gift—and she simply chose not to speak. That theory was supported when Edward told me that she understood who people were and what she wanted. Well, that and she was very vocal when it came to music. She'd sing along with Edward using her little baby sounds. The only comfort I had with the whole situation of her not even saying Mama, was that she hadn't said Dada either.

To mark the occasion of my daughter's first birthday, there was a "grand" party planned by the new mother Alice and proud grandmothers of the birthday girl. It was nice to see Alice back in the swing of things after Jackson was born. She had become so upbeat after her son was born that all Rosalie and I could do was be envious.

That day welcomed all of our close family and friends to a very nice, small Minnie Mouse party. There was plenty of food for the guest who ate—and by that I mean enough food for our other food eating guest to eat without fighting the wolf packs for what they could get.

Yes, both wolf packs showed up and brought with them all of their imprints. The rest of the guest list included the Denalis, Amelia, and most of the royal guard.

Everyone had gathered in the living room and were socializing while three out of four of the little ones played together. Let me just say, my prediction of them being a handful was an understatement.

Since she became mobile, Aurora tended to follow Brandon and Izzy everywhere, and this included situations that were dangerous for her. She also had become quite the trouble maker in her own right. Luckily she had Edward wrapped around her fingers or she'd have been in more trouble than she ended up in when she did something wrong, including but not limited to ripping up any sheet music that Edward left within her reach.

She toddled by Charlie while following Brandon and Izzy towards the toys, and he picked her up. "How's Grandpa's baby doing? Huh?" He then proceeded to tickle her sending her into a fit of giggles. "You look very pretty, pumpkin. Do you like your party?"

Aurora giggled again just as Alice came in the room with Jackson in her arms. "Okay everyone it is time for the cake. That means that Esme needs Aurora so she can change her into her cake outfit."

"There's an outfit for cake eating? Is that really necessary, Alice?" Edward asked his question from beside me on the opposite couch.

"Do you have a better idea, Edward, or do you want her to ruin her dress," Alice demanded with a scowl.

"Yes, just let her eat in her diaper and after we clean her up afterward, we'll throw a T-shirt on her and then let her open gifts."

Alice closed her eyes and took a deep breath before turning her gaze to me. "Is that okay with you, Bella?"

"Yes, and let's be honest it's probably easier on all of us," I said as I rose from my seat and walked over to my father and Aurora. "Now, let's go get some cake," I told my daughter as I took her from my dad.

In a blink of an eye I had dashed to the dining room, had Aurora out of her little sundress, and in the highchair ready for the traditional cake smashing.

Everyone filed into the room, including Esme and Carlisle carrying the cakes. Esme placed the smashing cake on the table and lit the candle, and we all broke out into singing "Happy Birthday."

Edward came to stand on the other side of the highchair, and when the song ended Esme placed the cake in front of Aurora. "Alright, blow out the candle," Edward told her, but Aurora seemed to be amazed with the candle and tried to touch it. "No, sweetheart, it'll hurt you. Blow like this." He then proceeded to show her how to blow out the candle and when she copied him as best she could he blew out the candle for her.

The room then broke out into applause and Aurora laughed and clapped along with us. "Okay eat your cake baby," I told her and she just looked at the cake as I took off the candle. "Here I'll help you." I took her left hand in mine and gently pushed it into the cake and brought it back up for her to see the cake on it. I couldn't help but laugh at the confusion on her face. "It's okay," I told her and she hesitantly reached out her hand to the cake and looked at me.

When she saw that I didn't reprimand her she grabbed a piece of the cake and brought it to her mouth. Esme then rewarded her with a "Yay," after which Aurora proceeded to rip apart and devour most of the cake, remarkably without making a complete mess of herself.

Edward had come to stand beside me while we watched Aurora eating her cake. "I'm fairly certain she can say 'Mama' and 'Dada,'" he told me quietly.

"How are you so certain," I asked him just as quietly.

"Well, she proved she can say 'ma' and 'da.' I'm pretty sure she can combine the same baby words into one word. And to prove that I'm right, I have a plan, but it's going to require your cooperation."

I looked over at him with an amazing amount of respect for my husband's brilliant brain. "Okay, so what's the plan?" He then proceeded to tell me the genius plan for making our daughter talk, but I couldn't help but be a little unsatisfied with it. After being around Emmett and Jasper so long, I had developed a tendency to join in on some of their bets, and this plan only presented another opportunity to make a wager. "What do you say we make it a little more interesting? I bet she says 'Mama' first."

My husband smiled, knowing that I'd already lost the bet before it had really even been agreed upon. "Okay and what does the winner get?"

"A brand spanking new Aston Martin Vanquish. Alice informed me that they will be revived soon, and I know how much you love the one you have—honestly what would be the harm in having another one? I'm actually pretty fond of that car. I believe I'd rather enjoy having one."

"And what is the price of losing?" Edward's eyes held the little gleam that only came from talking about cars, and that gleam only shined brighter now that a Vanquish was the topic of discussion.

"Diaper duty for a whole two weeks. No shopping trips with Alice, and no hunting trips with the boys unless there is a spot for Aurora in those plans." I had no problem losing or winning. Either way it was a win-win for me. If I lost, no shopping with Alice for two weeks, and if—by some miracle—I won, Edward would still get the car and I would have the satisfaction of our daughter saying "Mama," first.

"Deal," he agreed with his hand outstretched.

We shook hands and I laughed. "Good news, you get to clean up the mess your daughter made of herself, while I go inform my daughter of the plan."

I turned and walked away, leaving Edward with his new task.

Aurora's First Birthday (6:00 pm)

Edward POV:

It had been a great day, and it was only going to get better thanks to my brilliant plan. Nessie had went to her room about fifteen minutes before the mission started. In all honesty it was the best idea. She was weaker around her sister than I was, and she would crack within five minutes.

Bella sat next to me on the sofa while Aurora played in the floor. The plan was to safely ignore Aurora until she had to speak to get our attention. I was absolutely ready and already picking out the interior of my promised Vanquish when Bella raised her shield with worried thoughts.

You'll be listening, right? You won't ignore her if she really needs us? I looked over at her and whispered, "Really, now you're getting cold feet?"

"No, I just don't want her to need us and we ignore her," Bella whispered too low for Aurora to hear. I just continued to look at her and she shook her head and whispered. "I know, I'm overreacting. You'd have never came up with this plan if you weren't going to listen in and make sure it was safe for her."

I smiled at her, and right on time Aurora laughed and I could hear in her thoughts she was trying to show us something. "Charlie really seemed to enjoy himself today," I said with a pointed look to inform Bella that it was time.

"Yes, I don't think he expected to enjoy himself as much as he did," Bella stated, while Aurora still waved her new baby doll, becoming annoyed that we weren't paying her any attention.

"It was nice of the wolves to come, too. It's nice to think that we've worked everything out now."

"I know. It was so good to see all of the children playing together. I did hear something from Jacob today that was interesting and yet still a little sad."

At the same moment Bella had finished her sentence, Aurora stood up and went over to her. She patted Bella's leg, wanting to be picked up, but Bella stuck to the plan and Aurora grew even more annoyed.

"What was that," I asked Bella as Aurora walked over to me and repeated the process she'd done trying to get her mother's attention. Her annoyance was quickly turning to anger, and I knew if I turned to look, her eyes would be a bright, angry brown.

"Sam and a couple of the others have decided to give up their wolves. Sam and Jacob are making the arrangements for him to take over both packs soon." I saw Bella's eyes twitch slightly, fighting off the urge to look at our daughter, who was hitting my legs harder.

"That's—"

I didn't even get to finish the sentence before a shrill "Da Dee," rang out followed by a soft thump as Aurora plopped down and began to cry.

"Oh, sweet girl," I said as I picked her up off the ground, "I'm sorry. Daddy didn't mean to hurt your feelings that much." It was true. I had expected her to be mad, but never did I imagine that it would make her this upset. "It's okay, Daddy just wanted to hear your voice, and to make it up to you. When you're older, Daddy'll give you the new car you just won him." I looked over at Bella with a smug smile as I continued to soothe our daughter.

AN: Okay, so this chapter was pretty short, but I hope to have a new one soon. I am also very sorry for taking so long to update. My life has been completely taken over by work and school, and what little time I've had has been used up on getting into and almost completely caught up with The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Yeah, I jumped on the bandwagon a little late, but now I'm on it and have declared myself a fanpire. Eventually I will be posting a Vampire Diaries/The Originals fanfiction, and maybe even a crossover between them and Twilight (I already have a few ideas). So what do you beauties think? Should I start a Twilight/TVD crossover or maybe even make this story a crossover (I have ideas for this, too)? Let me know my darlings. Until next time SuperBat5795