Two weeks later, when things were finally calming down, and family and friends had seen the new babies, the Delko's were starting to get into a routine. Eric had the first three weeks after the twins' births off and Calleigh, of course, had much longer. So the two of them were home all the time. Mornings were spent feeding, changing and putting the twins back to bed, feeding Adriana breakfast, and Eric driving her to preschool. When he returned, either one or both babies were awake and eating. He would usually talk to Calleigh for a while and clean up around the house.

After lunch time, Eric would pick Adriana back up from preschool and bring her home. Calleigh would spend some time with Adriana. Eric would handle Patrick and Alyssa. Each night he made dinner, bathed Adriana and put her to bed, allowing Calleigh ample time to regain her strength after just giving birth. After they had gone to bed for the evening, he and Calleigh would take turns getting up to soothe or feed Patrick or Alyssa. Though exhausting, most days went by with little hassle. There were times, however that both Eric and Calleigh felt like Adriana might have needed more attention and they really tried to make sure she got to help or hold Patrick and Alyssa or play a game with mommy and daddy.

One afternoon, Calleigh was napping. Eric had just gotten Alyssa used to the bouncy seat that morning. She had never liked it for more than a few minutes but for some reason, slept soundly in it that afternoon. Adriana ran past the bouncy seat and accidentally hit it with her foot, shaking it a little bit. It didn't even wake Alyssa up, but Eric still felt like she needed to know to be careful.

"Adri, please be careful." He whispered. "I just got Alyssa to sleep."

"Sorry!" she whispered back.

Eric could almost pick up a hint of frustration in her voice as she left the room.

Five minutes later Adriana called out. "Daddy! Can you get my green marker from my desk."

"Princesa, I really can't right now. I am feeding Patrick his bottle." Eric answered. "And please, don't yell. Your sister is sleeping."

"Can I help?" Adriana asked, walking in the room.

"Sure, you can. Come here." Eric told her as he stood up and Adriana climbed onto the couch. Eric lay Patrick in her arms and gave her the bottle. Patrick drank happily as Adriana fed him. When he got a little fussy and was obviously finished, Eric reached to take him from her.

"No, daddy, let me do it. I can burp him. I watched mommy do it." Adriana told him.

"Adriana, please let me do this. His head is still really floppy, remember?" Eric said.

At this point, Patrick started crying. "Adriana. One...two..." Eric said, with a slight tone.

"Ohhh...kay" Adriana said, letting Eric take Patrick from her and getting off the couch. She went right over to Alyssa and lightly shook the bouncy seat. "Hey Lyssa!" she said, waking up her little sister.

"Adriana! Please...go color. I can handle them." Eric said, now starting to get pretty frustrated himself. He didn't want both babies crying because of something like this and he definitely didn't want to wake Calleigh up.

Adriana made her meanest face at Eric and ran out of the room, stomped up the stairs and when she got to the top yelled, "Eric! I am so MAD at you right now!" and slammed her bedroom door.

Eric could feel his face turning crimson. Had he not been holding his two week old son, Eric would have been up those stairs and placed a firm hand on her bottom. He'd never spanked her before, but this would certainly warrant that. Adriana rarely acted up and had never yelled at Eric or Calleigh before. He heard the door of his and Calleigh's bedroom open.

"Eric, what just happened down there?" he could hear Calleigh ask.

Eric laid a now quiet Patrick into the portable crib beside the couch and walked to the bottom of the stairs. Calleigh was halfway down the stairs so Eric met her the rest of the way.

"Adriana accidentally kicked the bouncy seat where Alyssa was, then she insisted that she could burp Patrick by herself which I'm not comfortable with her doing yet and then she woke Alyssa up. I asked her to go color so that she'd be out of the way for a little while. I feel like I've been on her case since she got home, which is probably why she just stormed off and yelled at me."

Calleigh let out a deep breath. "I know she feels like she has to walk on egg shells around here with the twins, but she cannot get away with the way she just acted. Mind if I talk to her?" Calleigh asked.

'I guess so. I'll go ahead and get a bottle ready for Alyssa." Eric told her.

Calleigh went back up the stairs and poked her head into Adriana's room. She didn't immediately see her, but them saw her foot sticking out from under her bed.

"Adriana," Calleigh said softly. "Come out. Mommy needs to talk to you." Calleigh sat on Adriana's bed and waited. "Adri. Please. Mommy is not mad at you, but you need to come out so we can talk."

Calleigh could hear her sliding around under her bed before finally sliding out. She slowly got onto the bed and curled up on Calleigh's lap.

"Adriana, what happened when mommy was taking a nap?" Calleigh asked her.

"Daddy wouldn't let me burp Patrick and then he made me go color. He doesn't want me near him." Adriana told her.

"Oh... hmm. I don't think that's what daddy meant. Didn't we already have a talk about not burping the babies right now because they are too small?"

"Yes m'am." Adriana said.

"And didn't we talk about being careful around the babies because we don't want them to get hurt?" Calleigh said, firmly but still a touch of sweetness.

"Yes, momma, but I didn't mean to bump into Alyssa."

"I know you didn't mean to, but she was asleep, and daddy told me that you bumped into her and then a little while later, you shook her bouncy seat and she woke up. Did that happen?"

"Yes m'am."

"Adri, honey. I know this has been hard for you, because for a long time you were the only little one around here, but now you have a baby brother and a baby sister and you have to help me and daddy with them so they can learn and grow and be happy. Do you understand that?"

"Yes."

"So when mommy or daddy or anyone else asks you to be careful with Patrick and Alyssa or if we tell you that you are not allowed to do something with them you need to listen the first time." Calleigh was now at eye level with Adriana. "If you break that rule, you'll have a very big time out and you might even get a spanking."

"Okay, mommy."

"Good girl. Okay, Adriana, you were ugly to daddy and yelled at him. Also, he is your daddy and you may call him daddy, not Eric. You need to sit in your room for 4 minutes. When this timer goes off," Calleigh set her digital timer for the four minutes, "You may come downstairs and you need to apologize to daddy. Do you understand?"

Adriana nodded her head yes and looked as if she was going to cry. She rarely needed to be put in time out except for an occasional occurrence. The rule was, Calleigh and Eric agreed, that minutes in time out would be equal to the child's age. Since Adriana was 4, she would sit in her room for 4 minutes.

Calleigh shut her door and met Eric downstairs.

"Well?" Eric asked.

"Well, she thinks you don't want her around you, that's why she got so frustrated, but she had no right to stomp up the stairs and yell. She's in her room for four minutes and then she has to apologize to you." Calleigh told him as she picked up Alyssa.

"Hey sweetheart, how's my little angel?" Calleigh cooed sweetly.

" I can't believe she yelled at me and said what she said. You've never said that you were so mad at me before like she just did so I have no idea where she got that from. It really surprised me. I'm glad you handled that, because I think I would have spanked her. Then I would have felt worse, because I'd see my hand print on her leg. I just..." Eric said.

"I know. It's hard. This has been a big adjustment for everyone and I guess she reached her breaking point. She's just going to have to understand that she can't yell like that again." Calleigh said.

"Yeah, really. Hey, buddy. What's up little man?" Eric said, picking up Patrick, kissing him and then laying him back into his crib.

----

Around four minutes later, Adriana appeared in the living room. She shyly walked to Calleigh and hid behind her.

"Adri, do you have something you need to tell daddy." Calleigh asked.

"Sorry." She whispered.

"I don't think he heard you. Why don't you go over to him and tell him?" Calleigh said, moving to the side and nudging Adriana from behind her.

Adriana walked over to Eric and with her head down, whispered "sorry" again. She looked up at Eric and tears fell down her face.

Eric pulled her towards him and picked her up, sitting her on his lap. "Adriana," he said firmly, "You hurt my feelings today. I was very upset. I forgive you but you have to promise me that you will never yell at me like that again."

Adriana nodded her head. True to her nature, she cried silently in Eric's arms. Eric rocked her back and forth.

"You still love me, right daddy?" Adriana finally said.

"Of course, Adri. You know mommy and daddy will always love you no matter what." Eric told her. "I know it's hard for you with Patrick and Alyssa here, but I promise it will get easier. They just a lot of attention right now since they're really little."

Adriana breathed in deeply and let it out slowly. "Daddy?" she asked, "Will you color with me?"

Eric looked at Calleigh, "Well that was a quick turn around." he said, then looked back at Adriana, "You know what, I'd love to color with you."

"Okay!" Adriana said excitedly as she pulled Eric's arm, "Come on! Come on!"

"You sure you're good with the little ones for a few minutes?" Eric asked Calleigh.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Calleigh said with a smile. "Go color." She sorted through some magazines and found the remote to the television and clicked it on, leaned back on a pillow with Alyssa sleeping soundly on her chest and watched TV, halfway listening to Adriana chatter on with Eric, a sound she knew she would never get tired of hearing.