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

laughed again.
All the girls had gone for scans. Kathleen was having a girl and they were naming her Megan, Joon was having twin girls and they were going to name them Sharon and Shannon. Charlie was having a boy and to his father’s delight was naming him Charles the third. Hans and Nyla were having a little girl and naming her Ruth and DJ and Grace were having twins and naming them Isaac and Irene. The two couples had gotten married in a double ceremony in July after the girls got pregnant.
All of the pregnant women and Harry formed a club and went for walks and exercised together and of course made donuts which was an all day affair to make enough for the whole community. And when they passed out ten dozen and six boxes of donut holes everyone knew to take them and freeze the extras. Harry and Jake kept all the food stores opened all the time and everyone could go in and fix anything they wanted anytime they wanted to. But making donuts was hard work and few tried, so when Harry was in the mood and made enough for everyone, they loved him.
Adam who was crawling early decided to walk early too and was making his first attempt at ten months and walking by the end of the month. Now that he wasn’t bumping into his brother and sister they liked him better and the three played together in harmony and lots of giggles.
Harry brought out the potty chair and tried to teach Jackson to tinkle in the pot. Fran laughed and said it was much too early but the little boy liked to play with it and every once in a while actually peed in it and when he did, Harry and Jake clapped and cheered so he did it again. Emma liked this and began sitting on it in her diaper so Harry put pull-ups on her and she got the hang of pulling them down. And Adam didn’t want to be left out and at a year-old was peeing in the potty with his brother and sister. Fran was amazed.
“If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” she gushed. Harry grinned.
“Well, there is one good thing to spacing them like this,” he declared and they all laughed.
Actually it was a lot of fun having two almost two year-old and an eleven month old in the house. The house was filled with laughter and joy and lots of game playing and teaching them their numbers and colors, little animals and lots of toys and books and rocking to sleep. It was a very happy house. The only dispute came whenever Harry served the children green cottage cheese with fruit, then Jake had to make his comments. No matter how many times Harry scolded him, Jake would make a face and the comments would come.
“Oh, Harry, why are you feeding our children that ca-ca?” he would ask and the kids would giggle. Harry would roll his eyes.
“It’s not that and stop saying it, Jake, you’re going to turn them away from it,” he would scold him. Jake would grin.
“Good, don’t eat that, Son,” he would tell Jackson who would giggle and eat a big spoonful and Jake would groan which made them giggle. Harry was relieved the kids thought it was a game; he dreaded the day one of them would look in the bowl and decide that it did indeed look like poop and refuse to eat it. On that day he was going to have to kill his husband.
Harvest came and everyone went to work and Farm Four won the biggest pumpkin once again with a seventy-four pound beauty that was carved for the big party. Then they went out the field for the pumpkin chunking contest and everyone laughed at the failures and cheered the successes once again. Kate did a catapult this year and it sailed past Harry’s previous year’s record and she shot him a triumphant glare. Barb giggled and they kissed and then Harry brought out his cannon and everyone laughed.
“Didn’t your mom do this last year?” Max shouted. Carl grinned.
“He’s going to blow pumpkin all over us,” he declared and people stepped back, especially when Harry loaded two pumpkins in. Then he fired the cannon and one pumpkin blew up but the other sailed past Kate’s and she glared at him.
“Cheater, you’re only supposed to fire one pumpkin, Henry,” she declared. He grinned.
“There’s no rule about that, Mom, only that the farthest pumpkin wins and mine is farther than yours so I win,” he said and the judges agreed, there was no rule that said you couldn’t fire two at once. She fumed and his cannon replaced his catapult in the place of honor and everyone laughed.
“How did you know that only one would blow up?” Carl asked him. Harry giggled.
“I practiced, silly goose,” he told him. Carl laughed.
“I guess I should have thought of that,” he said and everyone laughed.
For Halloween Harry dressed the older children as Hansel and Gretel and the little ones as Prince Charming and Cassie as Cinderella. Fran went as the evil witch and Harry as the oven they put the kids in and Jake as the gingerbread house. Jewel dressed as the fairy godmother. Everyone gushed at their costumes and Harry and his family won the most original costume award for the sixth time in a roll. All the women were jealous.
“You win every year, give the rest of us a chance,” Jenna said. Harry grinned.
“I don’t make the costumes to win the silly contest, I make them to have fun at the party,” he informed her and she didn’t believe him but he didn’t care. He loved making the costumes and taking the pictures with the kids. He pretended to put them into his oven and they giggled. It was great fun. And they hung real candy off of Jake so all the kids could eat it and he loved that.
“Is there anything that kid can’t do?” Linda remarked to Shelley as they watched Harry pretend to put little Georgie into his oven. Shelley grinned.
“You should see his house, you could eat off of the floors and they have those two big dogs and I don’t see any dog hairs anywhere when we go over to visit Emma,” she boasted. Linda looked surprised.
“But those Goldens shed like mad,” she protested. Shelley nodded.
“Fran told me Harry is like a neat freak or something and he’s always picking up or cleaning something,” she told her. They both giggled.
“I’ve heard that about them, some of them are like that,” Linda said.
Thanksgiving came and the turkey hunt was on and they found the silly birds in the exact same spot as the seven years before.
“The stupid birds are really stupid,” Charles remarked and David Marshall giggled and his gun went off, blowing a big hole in the ground and knocking him flat on his back like the first year. The turkey’s all flew away and everyone rushed to fire. David rushed to fire and almost blew a hole in Max but missed and only got his gun but the force of the ricochet sent the man wheeling into Jan and caused her to trip into Jewel and four other people went down. Steve on the far end saw this and laughed his head off.
“Marshall, you idiot, you could have killed me, you ruined my gun, I’m never taking you hunting again,” Max shouted and grabbed the rifle out of the man’s hands. David giggled and looked sheepish.
“I couldn’t help it, I think the trigger’s broken, it just went off,” he whined. Max looked at it and found it was indeed broken so he had to apologize.
“You’re right, it is broken, I’m sorry,” he said grudgingly and David looked smug all the way home.
When Harry heard the story, he laughed until he had tears in his eyes.
“Oh, man, I wish I had been there, Max apologizing to David Marshall,” he said and Jake hugged him.
“Just two more after this one and you can go hunting again, babe,” he reassured him. Harry sighed.
“After giving birth, Jake, I don’t think I can, I think I’ll leave the hunting to you,” he told him and Jake grinned and they kissed.
The next day they went fishing and the whole community came out and snatched up shrimp, salmon, cod, flounder and tuna. They were used to the weird colors now and didn’t even blink. Martha, of course, growled and climbed Harry the minute he opened the door and walked in pushing the bin full of fish. They all laughed as he peeled her off his legs.
“Martha, Martha, don’t worry, darling, I’ve got a piece right here for you,” he cooed and put her down on the floor and handed her the big piece of salmon. She snatched it out of his hand with a loud hiss and growled and ran from the room. Jake laughed and put George on the floor and handed him, his. He took it with quiet dignity and walked to the corner to eat it.
“You’d think after seven years that dumb-ass cat would have figured out by now that we’re not going to steal it away from her,” Jake said and Harry laughed.
“She’s got character,” he informed him. Jake laughed.
“She’s a character you mean,” he told him.
They ran the fish through the fish processors making nice fillets and bags of shrimp and Harry made scampi for dinner with salad and garlic bread and all the kids ate it up like it was going out of style.
“I think they like shrimp,” Fran remarked and they all grinned. Adam especially porked out and his little belly got as big and round as the cats. Harry grinned as he carried him in to the dining room to play.
Thanksgiving dinner came and the whole community went to Church and then had dinner. They were just finishing up when they all heard a strange sound outside and it sounded like a spacecraft. They all shot to their feet with panicked expressions. Jewel screamed.
“The Galaticans have found us,” she shouted and a few women screamed and some children began to cry. Then they heard another strange sound, it sounded like bells singing. Jewel threw back her head and laughed.
“It’s my father, he’s found me, we are rescued,” she shouted and ran for her coat. Everyone ran for theirs and soon the entire community was outside and watching a small spacecraft landing in the field just beyond their cars. They all rushed to meet it and a ramp pulled down and three men in fancy robes walked down the ramp. They looked identical to Jewel with reddish gold curls and green eyes. The older man in front held out his arms and with a squeal Jewel rushed to him and they hugged. Then Jewel took him by the hand and pulled him down to meet them.
“Everyone, this is my father Baron Stratsky,” she announced very proudly, “And my brothers Yuri and Chance.” Max stepped forward.
“I’m Mayor Max Tyler and I welcome you to Eden,” he said formally and they shook hands. Then the man turned to his daughter.
“Jewel, you have worried your mother very much, she has become sick with worry, we