chapter 3

Claudia was very healthy Lion-o was holding her. "Look at you, you're so tiny." Lion-o said. Lion-o remembered something he had to call the hospital they were late for work. He gave Claudia to Liosella.

He got out his cell phone and called in Dr. Vitter who was in charge of attendance that day. "Hello Lion-o where are you and Liosella?" she asked. "Really? That is wonderful news, congratulations. I hope Liosella enjoys her time off. We will see her in seven weeks." she said. Then she hung up and told the others the good news.

Lion-o made it to work and did his shifts and then went home to make sure everything was ready for the baby. Snarf was happy to see him and snuggled up to him. Lion-o cleaned the litter box and then checked on the nursery. It was complete and ready for the baby.

The next day Liosella and Claudia came home. They introduced Snarf to Claudia. Snarf sniffed her and started to purr. "Look he likes her." Liosella said.

Caring for a new baby wasn't easy both of them lost a lot of sleep. But by the time March rolled around things had improved. Liosella was back at work and Leona had retired and become the baby sitter. But the hospital was kind enough to give Liosella different hours so she could be with Claudia more often and same applied for Lion-o. But they still had plenty of work to do.

Claudia continued to grow. Once July came around Claudia was crawling all over the place. Lion-o, Liosella and when they had guests had to be careful Claudia was crawling on the ground and her arms and legs tend to get under foot. When October came around they all dressed up. Lion-o and Liosella were bees Lion-o was a bee keeper, Liosella was the bee hive and little Claudia was in a bee costume. That day Liosella brought Claudia for work so she could do daycare.

All the doctors, and nurses gushed about how cute Claudia was in her bee costume. "Awe all of you look like a cute family costume." Dr. Alden said. Dr. Alden was wearing an elephant costume and Claudia grabbed his trunk and started to chew.

"Oh sorry," Liosella said.

"It's okay I have two kids of my own I am use to baby's chewing on things," he said.

Then Claudia began to cry. Lion-o got out her favorite toy it was plush animal he got at the store last week that looked like Snarf. It was Claudia's favorite she was try to talk now to but not a word came out yet. "Look Claudia it's your favorite toy," Lion-o said.

Claudia brightened up and Lion-o handed to the toy to her. "It's her favorite toy when she gets fussy we give it to her and she calms right down." Liosella said.

"Is she talking yet?' Dr. Vitter asked.

"Babbling yes, real talking no," Lion-o said.

"That's true," Liosella said. "But she does sometimes try to say a real word but had trouble with it," she said.

Soon Claudia turned a year old she was sitting on the ground petting Snarf. Snarf was purring the whole time he liked Claudia. Looked at Snarf for a bit and pet him. She was babbling while doing so. Then she said: "Snarf,"

Lion-o and Liosia looked shocked. "Can you say that again Claudia?" Lion-o asked.

"Snarf! Snarf!" Claudia repeated.

"Her first word!" Liosella said.

They wrote it down in her baby book and called their parents. They were thrilled to hear that Claudia had said her first word.

Soon Claudia was an energetic little toddler. Lion-o was busy working, Liosella was at the store with Claudia who was sitting in the infant seat. She ran into Doctor Alden who was shopping with his two sons ages 5 and 8. They saw Claudia who waved at them. "Hello Liosella, Claudia looks very healthy." he said.

"She is, she has a very good appetite, and is growing like a weed." she said. "Your boys seem pretty healthy too," she said.

"Yes they are in school now Vanx is in Kindergarten sand Stephon is in second grade." he said. "The school year is almost over too," he said.

"Yes Claudia will be starting nursery school next year, since she'll be turning four and she's potty trained now and is very good about it." she said.

"Mommy," Claudia said.

"Yes sweetie," Liosella said.

"Hungry," Claudia said.

"Don't worry Claudia we'll be getting Lunch soon." Liosella said.

Once coming home everything continued to run smoothly. Claudia continued to grow and grow. She loved Preschool a lot. Soon she went into Kindergarten. She loved it a lot. She played with Bengali often.

She was growing up really fast. Soon she would be going into the numbered grades. She was becoming a big girl.