Disclaimers: I do not own CM or the characters. I do own all OCs.
Spoilers: none
Rating: T
Notes: Here is the next chapter. It is the second part to their road trip. They have their morning routine and do a science experiment!
Reminders: Only Emilia "understands" JJ. She is babbling according to Kathryn.
Enjoy! :)
March 28th, 1979
Susan and her husband Warren have 11 children; their first born when Susan was only 16 years old. Ernest is the oldest at 21; then comes Barbara, who turned 20 just last week. Jody and Pamela are next at 18 and 17, respectively. Sherry is 16, but no longer lives at home, due to some unfortunate circumstances.
They have six children, all boys, living at home. The oldest, Jimmie, is 12; the youngest, Marc, turns six in a couple of months.
Susan dropped out of school just seven months after meeting Warren. They married, she moved in with him, and became pregnant with their first child.
Since then, she has been the usual SAHM. She cleans the house, cooks dinner, tends to the laundry; everything a woman is supposed to do.
So far this trip has been fabulous in terms of Billy, Kathryn, and the children being welcomed into Susan and Warren's home.
Jimmie adores Jennifer; Marc is enthralled with Lucas, and wants to narrate all during their playtime. The boys love playing with Emilia, teaching her the names of different items and how to speak proper English.
At six o'clock in the morning, their kids are awake. Warren and Susan check on their boys periodically, helping with whatever is needed, and cooking breakfast for their bunch.
"Quietly, everyone come to the kitchen!" Kathryn calls out, making sure to keep her voice to a low enough volume as she does not want to wake their sleeping guests.
"Mornin', Mom!" – "Good morning, Mama!" – "Morning, Mommy!" They greet as they file down the stairs one-by-one.
"Good morning, my loves." She gives each boy a kiss to the forehead as they pass her. Thankfully, even Jimmie has not entered the "kissing my forehead is for babies, Mom!" phase yet. "I hope you all had a good sleep?"
They all answer in the positive. Warren sets out eight plates; sausage, bacon, toast, eggs — scrambled and fried — biscuits, gravy, and milk and orange juice – the Bach Family Breakfast of Champions.
Soon, the kids are off to the bus stop. Warren drives in the opposite direction to work, and Susan is left home with their guests.
*7:00 a.m.*
They get up to the alarm clock. Kathryn checks on Emilia and Jenny while Billy heads down to the kitchen. Since it is seven in the morning, this is when Jenny usually wakes up.
Billy came in just a few moments ago to get Lucas. The little boy is now downstairs happily eating some peaches & pears and yogurt for breakfast.
Kathryn finds both girls awake, and Emilia reading a book to the baby girl.
"Good morning, you two. Let's get Jenny changed and you fed, ok?"
"Okay." Emilia gently picks Jenny up. She was using her baby-seat, and cooing each time Emilia pointed at a picture. "Jenny, we go eat. We have lots of yummy food." Emilia carries her down the hallway, pointing and commenting on everything they pass. "That is door and doorknob. That is light and steps. 1…2… 3…"
"Tiá Kathryn?"
Kathryn glances over from where she is measuring out the correct formula/nutrients. Emilia has a bowl of cereal — Lucky Charms — and a glass of chocolate milk, and she smiles as she watches Emmy gets a spoonful of cereal, place three marshmallows on it, before eating it.
"Yes, sweetie?"
"Jenny says…" Cereal… three marshmallows. "That she…" Cereal. 1 marshmallow. 2 marshmallows. "Wants…" She pauses, eyes squinted in concentration, trying to remember the proper way to word this sentence. She is getting better at it, but sometimes she still leaves important words out.
"Jenny wants to choice?" She looks at Kathryn.
Her aunt smiles, "Choose?"
'Yeah! Jenny wants to… choose… color."
Okay, what? Kathryn thinks before she instinctively looks down. Ah. Jenny's bolster and feeding tube items are color-coded. The bag, syringe, and connectors are grouped by red, blue, purple, green, and white.
"Oh, she wants to choose the color?"
Emilia nods, expression extreme seriousness with wide eyed. "Yes, TíaKathryn. Jenny telled me."
Raising an eyebrow in amusement, Kathryn notices Billy watching them from the doorway. "Oh? She told you, huh?"
But Emilia is the utmost serious, and either ignores or does not pick up on Kathryn's joking tone.
"Yes, Tía Kathryn. She… wants purple!" At that Jenny cuts in. She makes her "happy noises" as Emilia calls them, squealing loudly. "See?" Emilia is convinced it is her best friend agreeing with her. "Pur… pull." She drawls in a slow voice, making Jenny squeal again.
"Purple, purple, purple!"
"I think the Princess has spoken." Billy steps in, laughing at the scene before him. "Purple makes the Princess happy." He reaches into their bag and pulls out all the purple items – syringe, feeding bag, and the tube, which the formula will pass through, that attaches to the outside of JJ's G-tube.
Emilia watches closely. She is quite familiar with all of these items. She knows how to attach, how to administer formula or medicine, and how slow to push the syringe so JJ's stomach does not cramp due too much liquid at once.
"Purple make her happy!" She declares, sticking out and crossing her eyes, causing the baby girl to giggle.
*9 a.m.*
Once Jenny is changed and fed, Kathryn runs them both a bath. This is part of their routine — bath, then naptime for JJ — and Emilia is a big help during it. Billy has Lucas at the moment; he is downstairs with Susan.
Once they are undressed, Kathryn places Jenny in her special baby-tub.
Kathryn grabs a book and sits back to let the two play for a while. Emilia is so good at being gentle and mindful of Jenny's size and fragileness, especially regarding her feeding tube.
"Jenny, vamos tomar um banho. Isto é uma banheira." Emilia's says. Jenny, we are going to take a bath. This is the bathtub.
"Vamos usar este sabão! Não é amarelo ou laranja. Acho que vai gostar." Let's use this soap! It is not yellow or orange. I think you will like it.
"I don't like yellow or orange. Those are yucky colors."
"Este é um patinho de borracha. O nome dele é Alfred." This is a rubber ducky. His name is Alfred.The duck is one of Em's toys; she has had since she, herself, was a baby.
"Alfred is such a good friend."
"Alfred vai nos ajudar a tomar um banho. Primeiro, o Alfred diz para se molhar." Alfred will help us take a bath. First, Alfred says to get wet. Emilia gently pours a cup of warm water — not too hot, but not too cold — over Jenny's arms and legs.
"What does Alfred say to do next?"
"Em seguida, Alfred diz para colocar o gel de banho na flanela." Next, Alfred says to put the shower gel on the flannel.
"Seja gentil, Emmy." Kathryn reminds her as she watches her niece wipe Jenny's arms, legs, belly, and face with a soft cloth.
"Temos de ser gentis porque a Jenny é um bebé. É mais pequena que eu e tem uma pele sensível." We have to be gentle because Jenny is a baby. She is smaller than me, and has sensitive skin.
Emilia entertains Jenny until she is no longer comfortable in the water. She starts to whine and that eventually turns into a wailing cry. Kathryn hurries to get them both out before Emilia becomes distressed also.
:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/:/
About 15 minutes later, Emilia lays with Jenny in the darkened room with her ocean waves sound-effect machine. She talks softly to her, and pats her belly three times, stops for 5 seconds, and then pats again.
It is a rhythm that she swears helps Jenny fall sleep. And it has to be exactly 3 – 5 – 3. If you do four pats, or stop for only three seconds, or do 10 pats, or stop longer than five seconds, Jenny becomes upset.
It has to be three pats, five seconds, three pats.
While this is happening, Kathryn rocks Lucas to sleep. The two babies will have their nap for around two hours, give or take, before waking up just in time for lunch.
"TíaKathryn." She glances up, she can see Emilia on the bed, and Jenny beside her. It is quite obvious the seven-month-old is not asleep. Even Kathryn is confused by this. Emilia's insistence on the patting routine may sound odd, but Kathryn has to admit it does work.
And usually within about five minutes.
She looks closer.
Jenny's face is scrunched up, and she knows what is coming. Even Emilia appears distressed by the baby girl's uneasiness.
"WAAAAH!"
"Tía!"
"All right." Kathryn gently shushes Lucas before he can get too irritated from Jennifer's cries. She stands and walks to the doorway. Once Billy has come, she hands him Lucas, letting him know he is in charge of getting the seven-month-old to sleep.
She the refocuses on Emilia, and the baby girl who she already wholeheartedly thinks of as her niece. She tries to help Emilia calm Jennifer down but with her so upset, she realises it is not going to be feasible.
The babies need their naptime. All babies need a naptime.
But Jennifer is distraught, and the new, unfamiliar, and somewhat uncomfortable environment is not helping things. She craves routine and familiarity too much.
A new house, unfamiliar people, strange rooms and sights and smells… It is all too much for the baby girl.
So Kathryn makes up her mind.
She grabs the chest-carrier, straps it to Emilia's body, and places the tiny infant into it. Emilia wraps her arms around her best friend and slowly but surely, begins to calm enough so that her focus is now on the baby.
*10:30 a.m.*
By the time Emilia is calm, Jenny is cooing, and Lucas is now asleep in his crib, everyone else is outside in the backyard. They are going to do a science experiment, and Susan is helping Billy set everything up in the yard.
This is one of the favorites among the kids – the Mentos & Soda experiment.
It has been done several times, and each time, they perfect it more. For example, room-temperature soda works better than soda straight from the refrigerator. Likewise, the 2L bottles are best, instead of a smaller bottle.
There also needs to be at least five mentos, and the most important: Diet soda. It creates less of a sticky, sugary mess.
"Okay, Millie. Do you have the checklist?" The 8-year-old has Jenny in the chest-carrier, and she stands beside Billy with a clipboard, decorated with Scooby-Doo, Sesame Street, and Looney Toons stickers.
Emilia nods. She gazes up at him seriously, pencil poised in one hand, ready to mark.
"Table?"
Experiments like this is also good practice for her English. The translations for each needed item can be said, and it is a fun way to memorize the vocabulary.
"Check." Billy pats the wooden table with his hand. Emilia nods.
"Table claw-cloth?"
"Check." He straightens the plastic covering.
"Soda?" … "Mentos?" … "Rain jah-jah… jacket?" … "Safety glasses?"
With everything set out, it begins.
"Susan! You want to film?" Susan comes running with her handheld video camera. "I'm ready when you are." She winks at Emilia, as the little girl bounces on her heels.
"This so fun!" She grins, grasping Jenny's hands and waving them. "Jenny, you fun… watch."
"Jenny is going to have fun watching?" Kathryn repeats the sentence, letting her hear the missing words. Emilia nods.
"Yep. Jenny have… f-fun watching."
There are four bottles of soda, — two Diet Cokes, one Diet Pepsi, and one Diet Mt. Dew — and Billy takes two bottles, and Kathryn and Susan take one bottle each.
"Emmy, you want to do a countdown?"
"Sí, por favor!"
Emilia rubs her hands together… "10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3! 2! 1!"
They release the mentos into the bottle and…
FOOM!
Jenny is the first to react, squealing loudly and happily. The soda fizzles and bubbles up immediately; it shoots into the air, easily five to six feet up into the sky, fizzy soda splattering all over the adults and kids.
Susan tries to shield the camera amongst the laughs and shouts and yells of excitement. She tilts it back to capture how high it goes. This is definitely going to be something her boys would be interested in doing.
"Woah! Look how high!"
"I think that's the highest it's gone!"
"Ahhh!"
It slows down just as quick as it had shot up, but the excitement and reactions of their nieces says it all: experiment successful.
"Well, it sure was messy." Emilia giggles as Kathryn takes her glasses and shakes the droplets of soda off of the lenses.
"All right, how about we clean up here, then take you two in for another bath?"
Susan sets about gathering the soda bottles into the trash can before grabbing the garden hose and spraying down the table, grass, and anything that might have been in the geyser's aim.
"That… was… fun!" Emilia chatters as she follows Kathryn up to the back deck. "We…" She stops, thinking of the word. She really does enjoy speaking English, but the language barrier prevents her from being as fluent as those around her.
"We do… over?"
"Over?" Kathryn tries to keep her voice non-judgmental. She does not want to embarrass or frustrate her niece.
But Emilia nods, saying "Over." However, she uses the sign for 'again'. And that definitely helps her understand.
"Ah. You want to do it again."
"A… gain." She slowly pronounces. "Again. We do… that… again?"
Kathryn promises that, yes, they can do it again. It is actually quite simple, albeit messy as well.
Once they are in dryer clothes, Jenny finally has calmed enough that the "nap routine" actually works. By the third round of "pat and stop", the smallest Jareau falls asleep. Kathryn puts in a movie, knowing that Emilia will eventually be out also.
The adults fall onto the couch.
Who knew taking care of two babies and an eight-year-old was such hard work?
Even when the eight-year-old is basically taking care of the babies herself.
"Who's up for a round of coffee and mid-morning television?" Susan offers as she comes back from putting a load of laundry out in the line, and placing the dried breakfast dishes away in the cabinets.
Billy tells her to sit. He goes to get the coffee started while the two woman flip through the TV channels. Lucas also wakes up from his nap, so Billy goes to get him, changing his diaper, making him a bottle, making sure he did not wake up the girls.
"And here you go, Big Boy."
Lucas's favorite spot is on his textured blanket, playing with his blocks and a stacking ring toy that Warren brought down from the attic last night.
"Did Lukey have a nice nap?"
"Babababa… ahhh."
"You did? That is wonderful, sweetie." Susan bends down beside him. "I'm going to kiss your forehead, ok?"
"Baba!"
"Yes, a kiss. Mwah! There you go."
They settle in for a couple of hours worth of peace and quiet. Eventually, Emilia and Jenny wake up, and they have lunch, and later, the kids start arriving home on the school bus.
The boys are all eager to compete their homework, as they have been promised playtime with the babies. Dinner is cooked on the grill tonight. And they end the evening with a family movie before being hustled off to bed for another day of school tomorrow.
I hope you enjoyed. If you'd like to see something in particular, for Emilia and JJ to do together, please feel free to prompt.
Please review and let me know what you thought. :)
