The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

and breathed with him. The baby’s head popped out and he began to cry at once. Everyone laughed. Dr. George cleared his eyes, mouth and nose and wiped his face off. He looked like Jake once again but with a reddish tinge to his curly black hair. Kate gasped.
“He looks just like Rhonda,” she said and Harry nodded. Rhonda Parks had had red hair.
It took two more pushes just like last time and the screaming Adam was out and Fiona had him over to the side and was taking care of him while Dr. George and Kate took care of his father. And like before the contractions to close the belly button caused Harry to giggle and pee himself but this time they were ready and he didn’t wet himself. They helped him onto a gurney and then Jake got to hold his second son.
“Oh, Harry, he’s so beautiful, I love you, babe,” he whispered and kissed him. Harry smiled and closed his eyes, after working all day on the party, he was especially tired. They put him to bed and fetched a bottle for the hungry little beast. He took pictures of Jake feeding the baby and wanted food. He giggled and Jake laughed.
“What kind of sandwich do you want this time, babe,” he guessed correctly. Harry laughed.
“Smoked turkey, I just took some out of the smoker, with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and lots of mayonnaise, please, honey,” he said and Jake kissed him.
“I’ll bring back the babies when I come back okay?” he said and Harry nodded. When Jake passed Fiona in the hallway she asked him what kind this year.
“Smoked turkey,” was the reply.
“Oh, I love smoked turkey,” she gushed. Jake grinned and said he’d bring her back one too and one for Dr. George also. She grinned and said Harry was her favorite patient. Jake laughed.
When he returned with two children, a massive amount of luggage and the food Harry was dozing but he woke up with all the noise and sat up and held his hands out of his children who were happy to see him. They both crawled into bed with him and gazed with wonder at their brother who woke up screaming at the noise. Jake picked him up and brought him over to introduce him.
“See Jackson, Emma, this is Adam, your new baby brother,” he told them. Jackson patted the blanket.
“Baby,” he said quite clearly. Harry beamed.
“Yes, that’s your baby,” he told him and kissed him. Both children giggled. Fiona brought in a bottle and traded it for two sandwiches. They kids played and watched cartoons while Harry and Adam ate and the two fathers talked. It was a family picnic and Harry brought out snacks for the twins who got cookie crumbs all over the sheets but who cared? They were all together and that’s what counted.
“Maybe we’ll have all of them on the same day, babe, think of the party that will be,” Jake remarked and they both laughed.
“Six cakes, that’ll be fun, think of the sugar rush,” Harry said and they laughed again. He finished and Jake handed over Adam so he could hold him and he gazed at the tiny face and kissed it.
“Oh, Adam, aren’t you the precious one,” Harry whispered and felt tears come to his eyes. Jake took a picture of him crying over his son. Harry sniffled.
“Oh, great, I look like a big, fat sissy,” he teased. Jake kissed him.
“You look like a dad,” he told him. He took the older kids to the play room because he knew Harry was going to zonk out like he did last time and when they came back later he found out he was right, Harry and Adam were both sound asleep. Jake grinned and got the babies ready for bed. He put them in the tub and then pajamas and read them a story and rocked them to sleep and put them in the cribs Fiona rolled in the room for them. Then he took off his shoes and crawled in with Harry.
Lily and Cindy came on and took turns with Jake feeding the newborn and Harry slept through it all just like last time which made them all laugh.
“He’s really knocked out isn’t he?” Lily said and Jake nodded.
“I don’t think anything could wake him up tonight,” he observed. Cindy laughed.
“I was like that too when James was born, all the kids were here making noise and I slept through it all,” she told them.
Harry woke up and found everyone awake and eating breakfast. Barb was there feeding the new baby and they all grinned at him. He smiled and stretched.
“Man, I feel terrific,” he exclaimed. His mother laughed.
“An elephant could have charged through here and you wouldn’t have heard a thing, Mouse,” she teased him. He laughed and went to the bathroom. When he came out he kissed everyone and joined them for food. Then Adam and he got scanned and checked out and they took their family home.
“Finally enough babies to go around,” Fran exclaimed when she met them in the garage. Harry laughed and handed over the newest one. She gushed and ran immediately to the group picture to determine the mother.
“Rhonda Parks,” she called out. Harry grinned at Jake.
“It’s hard to miss with that red hair,” he teased. Jake laughed.
They put everything away and got settled in. The babies were excited to have a new baby in the house and spent hours gazing at him in his bassinet. When they finally realized that all he was going to do was sleep and cry though, they lost interest and went back to playing. He just wasn’t interesting enough to hold their attention. This made the adults laugh.
“Blocks and cars are just more fun and you can throw them,” Harry surmised and Jake laughed. Harry was sitting in the dining room playing cars in the garage with Jackson who loved running them up and down the ramp. Emma loved this too and they made little noises when they did it which was so adorable. The garage had all kinds of sounds, little horns and beeps; it was a lot of fun. Just then there was a knock on the door.
“I’ll get it, it’s probably granddad,” Jake said and sure enough it was. When they heard his voice both kids got up, squealed and rushed to the foyer. Dr. Jackson bent over and they rushed into his arms.
“Where’s my grandbabies, there you are, come here for a big hug,” he cooed and he picked them up and kissed them. They kissed him on his checks and everyone laughed, and then the rest of the family arrived and it was chaos for a bit until Harry got everyone settled down with toys and drinks. Then he brought out the new baby and Dr. Jackson and Sissy got to hold him. Dr. Jackson went first.
“Oh, look at that red hair; isn’t he adorable, he looks like his daddy,” the big man gushed. Sissy grinned and made soft noises in her throat. Harry held their ten month old twins Yvette and Yvonne in his arms while they ate cookies. They were the sweetest little girls. With ten children in the house it was a very happy house. Fran was smiling. Then the doorbell rang again and Harry’s moms came with their six children and it was a good thing the house was so big because now there were sixteen children in the house. Fran passed out sliced fruit for the kids and coffee for the adults and everyone gushed over the new baby and Jake took pictures and they had a lovely visit.
Then Jewel arrived and announced that her egg had started to rock and Harry had to rush her and the egg to the hospital. DJ had set up video so everyone could watch the birth of Harry and Jewel’s child. Dr. George and Fiona were there in case they needed to be and it was very exciting.
“Exactly what’s going to happen, Jewel?” Harry asked her. She smiled.
“The baby inside will start to rock back and forth, that shows that it is ready to be born,” she told them. “Then we take it off of the warm bed and the egg cools. Then the baby begins to kick and punch the shell which is now thinner. If the baby can’t break out then it means that it is too weak to survive and then it dies inside the shell. When that happens then the shell is thrown away and the street cleaners take it away.” Everyone looked shocked.
“You mean you just toss it out the window?” DJ asked weakly. Jewel nodded.
“What else can we do with it, it is not a baby yet, it is just a shell,” she reasoned. The humans looked appalled. Then she continued.
“If the baby is strong enough, it will break through the shell and be born. Then it is a baby and we find out if it is a boy or a girl and welcome it into our family,” she informed them. Everyone looked at the egg that was rocking gently and hoped that the baby inside was a strong one. Harry decided he was getting that baby out of the shell no matter what.
“There goes a piece of the shell,” DJ exclaimed and they all saw a piece break off and a tiny hand appear and then disappear. Jewel smiled.
“This baby is strong, it wants to be born,” she said with approval. Harry sighed with relief. Then a foot broke through and everyone cheered. Another foot broke off an entire section of the shell and everyone cheered again. Then a hand broke off a big piece of the head section and they all heard a baby crying. Then another kick broke the egg in half and they could see the tiny baby and hear it quite clearly. That was enough for Harry. He walked over and fished the baby out. Jewel laughed.
“You humans are too kind-hearted, you would allow the weak to survive and weaken the species,” she remarked. Dr. George nodded.
“Even the weak have the right to survive,” he told her. She shook her head and sighed.
“It’s a girl,” Harry announced and handed the baby to Fiona who took it to take care of it. Everyone cheered and hugged each other.
“I’m going to name her Cassandra,” Jewel told them and Harry hugged her.
“Cassie is a great name,” he said and she kissed him.
She brought Cassie home the next day and they baptized them on the same day and everyone thought it was cute that both babies had red hair, it made them twins. Jewel thought this was funny and they both had Harry’s purple eyes. Cassie’s hair was exactly like her mother’s; a beautiful reddish gold and very curly, while Adam’s was a dark brown red. Jewel brought her over at least three times a week for the men to baby-sit while she ran off to Hawaii with the single people to bathe in the sun, sometimes spending the night and coming back the next day. But Harry and Jake didn’t mind, they had three and a fourth really wasn’t that much