Family Life

Alexx Woods smiled as her co-worker Calleigh Duquesne recounted to her how Eric's daughter had called her "mama" the night before. Calleigh was beaming.

"That's wonderful, sugar. But you know you've been her mom all her life. You can't deny that everyone saw that moment you held her," Alexx said. "We all thought Chloe should be your baby as soon as Eric said he was going to be a father. We all knew the wrong woman was carrying her."

Chloe Delko had always known who her mother was. It was a woman with green eyes and silky blonde hair that she liked to touch at night when she was going to sleep. Her name was Calleigh.

As much as Calleigh and Eric were completely committed as a couple and were a family with Chloe, they were in no hurry to rush to the alter. They hoped to get married in the future and for Calleigh to be able to legally make Chloe her daughter as well. Neither took the idea of marriage lightly and they wanted to make sure it right when they did marry.

At home, Eric and Calleigh weren't cops, just two parents living with a toddler was starting to assert her independence. The night that Chloe first called Calleigh "Mama" it hadn't occurred to them to think about how Chloe had got out of her crib. When she did the same a few weeks later at 10:30 at night when the two were in the living room watching tv Eric asked Chloe how she got out.

"I climb. I do it b'fore," Chloe said simply, like it was not big deal to her.

"Chloe," Eric said firmly. "Look at me. Mommy and daddy don't want you doing that. You could fall and get hurt. If you want to get out of your bed, you call out to mommy or me, okay?"

"Otay," Chloe said, staring at Eric. "Me Sorry, daddy."

"Okay. Now, how come you got out of bed? You're supposed to be asleep."

"I wake up," his daughter answered just as simply.

Eric's mother laughed when her son told her how Chloe was starting to show a very stubborn streak; besides getting out of her bed, when she wasn't in the mood, she would not eat her carrots, no matter how long she was made to sit there or that she could have dessert and although bath time was not a problem (she loved that), although Chloe did not throw tantrums, bedtime was a problem half of the time. Chloe had also mastered the use of the word "no."

"It's not funny, ma," Eric complained.

"Yes, it is! She's just like you. Your dad and I went through the exact things with you," Chlorinda said. "I'm so glad I'm around to see this!"

"Geez. Now I feel like I should apologize to you and pop," Eric groaned.

Chlorinda had started to see some of granddaughter's stubbornness, not with grandma or grandpa but with Calleigh and Eric. She had told them losing their patience and yelling at the girl or spanking her, (which they "better not") wouldn't work. Him and Calleigh would have to keep their cool and show Chloe they could "go one longer" than she could.

"She's 2, Eric. She's starting to realize she has some control over things in her life and you have to let her have that in some small ways. Don't be a drill Sargent but you have to let her know you two are in charge, not her.

"But you know, you two had it easy with the main things parents usually have a ton of grief with, Chloe gave up the bottle without a problem and she didn't fight you on potty-training."

The two took Chloe climbing out of her crib as a sign that she was ready for a new 'big girl' bed. Her crib was a 3-in-1 that folded from a crib to a toddler bed then a day bed. Chloe seemed excited to see her 'new' bed. Now her parents just had to see if the little girl would sleep there without a fuss.

Success. Chloe went to bed and stayed there. She had liked the fact that her bed was close to the floor, she was allowed to get out of this bed all by herself. The downside for mommy and daddy in that was now they could count on Chloe jumping into their bed and putting herself between them at 5:45am every morning. Maybe it was a bit of a sleep disruption for them but Chloe would go right back to sleep once she was nestled between them. Neither could say it wasn't nice to have a have a cuddle from the two-year-old shortly before getting up to go to work. When it came down to it, mommy and daddy both enjoyed this time because of long hours they spent away from their daughter.