"It is kicking again, come feel Naomi." I said to my youngest daughter.
"I feel it mama!" She replied excitedly.
In the months that passed all had been well. It seemed that the bigger I got, the more interested Naomi got. She always wanted to feel the baby kick and was constantly asking Shem and me when it was going to come.
"Four more months." We would tell her.
"Ila please pass the bread." Mother asked me.
Shem and I had invited mother and father over to discuss what to do with Japheth. Evi had become a woman within the past week, which means that it is time for her to marry.
"I do not like this idea." Shem said, as he had every time this conversation came up. "Besides how do we know Evi would even make a good wife? She isn't very maternal either."
"Shem will stop listing things you find wrong with your daughter!" I scolded him.
"I have to agree with Shem. I believe Evi needs more time to mature." Mother said.
"What if they marry now, but wait a little while before having children or we wait until Adah is a woman and then she and Japheth can marry." Father suggested.
"That could work, Adah is better suited to be a wife and mother than Evi is." I agreed. "What do you think Shem?"
"Maybe we should ask Japheth and the girls." He said.
"I think that is a good idea Shem, I will get them." Mother said, getting up.
Father, Shem, and I sat in silence until mother returned with the others. Evi ran and sat in Shem's lap, resting her head on his chest while Adah sat cautiously down next to me. Japheth sat in between father and mother.
"We have brought you in here to discuss the terms of marriage." Father told the three. "Japheth, you have a choice, you can marry Evi now or wait until Adah is ready."
"I don't want to get married papa!" Evi cried to Shem, "I want to stay with you and help you build with Elijah!"
"How do you feel Adah?" he asked her while handing me a now hysterical Evi to comfort.
While I rocked Evi in my arms and tried to soothe her, I looked at my eldest child. She didn't look hysterical like Evi was, she looked almost happy.
"Does that mean that if I get married when I am ready, that I get to have my own baby?" Adah asked me.
"Only if you want to and are ready Adah." Shem replied, glaring at Japheth.
"I hope you are not insinuating that your youngest brother would do anything to hurt Adah." Mother said to Shem, hurt and shocked.
"Shem was only being protective of his daughter Naameh." Father told his wife.
"What do you think Adah?" Japheth asked her.
"If it is what the creator intended than I will do it." She said boldly. "It would be fun to have baby like mother."
"Not for a few more years love." I told her. "Here Shem can you take Evi to her room, she has fallen asleep?"
Shem took his daughter and left.
"Well that was fun. Come Noah and Japheth, let us leave and let Ila rest." Mother said.
"Goodnight Ila, Adah." Japheth said.
Mother gave my belly a rub, "Goodnight daughter, you rest now."
"Goodnight mother. Adah say goodnight to your grandparents and Japheth." I said.
After another round of goodnights, they left and Adah was helping me clean up. Shem had put Evi to bed and was trying to get Naomi back to sleep. Elijah was bathing.
"Are you sure about this Adah?" I asked my daughter.
"I am mama; I cannot wait to be a mother." She replied.
"Am I going to have to be a father?" Elijah yelled from the washroom.
"Most likely." Shem told him. "Ila go lay down, I will finish. Adah go try and get your sister to go to sleep."
"I can clean Shem, I am pregnant not incapable. You are welcome to help, though, if you'd like." I snapped at my husband.
"I am clean mother." Elijah said, walking out of the washroom in his nightclothes and his hair soaking wet.
"Dry your hair and then go to sleep. I love you." I told him.
"I love you too mother." He replied and went to his room.
"He is such a sweet boy, just like his father." I said to Shem.
Before he could reply, I whine came from the direction of Naomi's room, "Papa!"
"You should go deal with her, tell Adah to go to sleep." I told him.
Shem sighed and left to go deal with Naomi. She was difficult and was constantly bothering Shem, but she knew that he secretly loved it.
"I can't wait to see what she will be like when she is older." I thought to myself and then went back to my cleaning.