The following year, a full year after their first pancake day together and the family of four found themselves in the kitchen again in order to celebrate the day.
Miranda was at the stove cooking the pancakes because according to her Andrea had not used the correct recipe, although she did admit that she appreciated the effort that went into making them and the thought behind the action.
Andrea and the girls were both sat at the table, "I'm going to have white chocolate and strawberries on mine", Caroline said with a smile.
"I'm going to have everything on mine", Cassidy declared with enthusiasm.
Caroline cringed, "Everything?", she questioned, "All at once? That's disgusting".
Andrea chuckled at the two of them, "Does that mean you'll be having pickles on them as well?".
"Okay... maybe not everything", the redheaded girl said in response to her stepmother.
Andrea had stayed over on that first pancake day, and the following day, and the day after that before she returned to Serena's apartment. It only took a week, however, for Miranda to convince Andrea to move in with them on a permanent basis. Two weeks later Andrea was moved to the editorial department then after a further three weeks, their relationship was outed by the media.
As Andrea sat at the kitchen table, she placed her hand on her stomach with her engagement ring shining in the kitchen light and her fingers drawing shapes over her stomach where their new baby was growing within. They had been engaged for two months and they were due to get married in April when Andrea would be twelve weeks pregnant.
Cassidy and Caroline were overjoyed when they found out that their mother and newly named 'ma' were wanting a baby, especially as they were allowed to take part in the process from helping choose a donor to going to the appointment where they got to see the baby on the monitor. Neither of the girls thought that the baby looked anything like an actual baby but neither wanted to tell Andrea that her baby looked like a blob-like alien and they did not dare tell their mother that either.
Now, they were at the stage of helping to plan different parts of the wedding and trying to find different names for the baby, so far they had five sheets of A4 filled with names for the baby, although the majority of the names were set aside for if the child was female. Miranda tried to remind the girls that the baby could be a boy but they were adamant that it would be a girl 'just like them' so there was only one page of boys names because they just did not see the point in 'wasting' their time thinking of boys names. They much preferred the idea of having a baby sister which made both of the women hope it was too so that neither of their daughters would be disappointed.
"I'll just have a bit of each of the actual pancake toppings", Cassidy clarified, "I don't want any of your weird pregnancy foods".
"Hey!", Andrea exclaimed, "They're not weird".
Caroline rolled her eyes, "You ate pickles with strawberry jam and cinnamon on toast" when she said it her face contorted in a way that clearly depicted how gross she truly thought that the combination was.
"It was nice", the woman said, defending her food choice, "The baby liked it... and you never tried it".
"I didn't have to try it to know that it's gross, I could smell it", Caroline stated with a sigh, "If the baby liked it then the baby already needs help".
Cassidy was giggling at what her sister was saying, "Poor baby, we'll have to teach it to eat nice food like chocolate and ice-cream instead of gross pickles".
Andrea rolled her eyes, she knew that both of the girls hated pickles and they always pulled faces whenever she ate them but she could not help it because, for some unknown reason, she kept craving pickles with cinnamon although that altered every now and then. The cravings had started earlier than what Andrea had expected but according to Miranda, hers had started at around the same time as what Andrea's had.
"You aren't going to put pickles on the pancakes, are you?", Caroline asked with a roll of her eyes.
"Hmm... I haven't decided yet", Andrea said as she pretended to think about it for a moment.
"You'll ruin Mom's pancakes if you put pickles on them", Cassidy replied with a shake of her head, "You wouldn't want to ruin Mom's pancakes, would you?".
Andrea rolled her eyes, "Fine", she said with a slight chuckle, "I won't put pickles on the pancakes, at least not this time", it was, after all, going to be pancakes cooked by her beautiful fiancee who happened to make the best pancakes that she had ever tasted in her entire lifetime. The first time that Andrea had tried Miranda's pancakes, Miranda had asked if her cooking was better than 'that cook boy's', it was put forward as a joke but due to a couple of previous comments about how the man had taught Andrea a recipe or two, Miranda found herself wanting to better him. It turned out that Andrea preferred Miranda's cooking, something that was perfectly true and the younger woman loved it when Miranda played chef in the kitchen because she loved her cooking so much. The pancakes were amazing but so were the other dishes that the woman made.
"I'm glad to hear that my pancakes won't be tainted by your obsession with pickles", Miranda stated as she approached the table with a stack of freshly made pancakes.
Again, Andrea rolled her eyes, something that she had been doing a lot during the conversation, "It's your fault too, you know", she said with a smirk, "After all, it is your baby that's making me eat them".
"Oh, so it's already 'my' baby when it's misbehaving", the Editor-in-Chief commented with a roll of her own eyes, "So I suppose that when it is behaving that it will be yours?".
"Yep", Andrea joked as she put an emphasis on the last letter with a slight pop of the sound.
Miranda shook her head and cupped Andrea's cheek softly before she kissed the woman lovingly, "I love you, my Andrea", she said gently, "Even if I am getting the blame for our child's mischievous was already".
"The baby isn't mischevious yet Mom", Caroline stated in a serious manner.
"Yeah, we have so much to teach her", Cassidy continued with a grin, a grin that mimicked the same one that her sister had on her face.