Watermelon

Matchy Knees

Camila opened the door to their house after a long day at work to Maggie standing in the middle of their living room scream-crying. Shawn was sitting on the couch in front of her, his elbows resting on his knees. He appeared calm but tired.

"Everything okay?" Camila asked, gently touching her husband's shoulder.

"She's upset that I won't let her have cake for dinner." Shawn sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I don't think she's feeling well. She usually doesn't throw tantrums like this unless she's sick."

Shawn was much more well-versed in dealing with toddler tantrums than Camila was, but she couldn't help but try. She walked around the couch and squatted down next to Maggie. Almost immediately, the little girl held her arms out for a hug. Camila happily obliged, hugging Maggie close and feeling the little girl hiccup against her. "What's wrong cutie?"

Maggie didn't answer — at least not coherently. She just continued to cry and babble some nonsense.

"Guess what I picked up on my way home from work? Chicken fingers and mac 'n cheese..." Camila sung. Suddenly, Maggie perked up.

"Matchy knees?" Maggie sniffled, which was as close as she had gotten so far to correctly saying mac 'n cheese. Camila smiled and nodded.

"Mhm. And I stopped by the store and got some more apple juice. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah," Maggie whined, wiping a tear from her face with the back of her tiny hand.

"Okay. Why don't you go with daddy to get cleaned up a bit and I'll get dinner set out."

Maggie waddled over to Shawn, who picked her up and carried her to the bathroom in the hall to clean her face up. Camila overheard her mumbling an apology to her foster-dad about the tantrum as they walked down the hall. She smiled to herself and pulled her phone out, texting Jace that she had come home with dinner. He climbed down from his bedroom in the attic just a couple minutes later.

Camila usually tried to make dinner as often as she could, but some nights she was just too exhausted. And this was one of those nights. She decided to pick up carry out from one of their favorite local restaurants instead. She put a paper plate at each seat of their little four-person dining table and started setting out the meals they had each requested. Jace dug into his hot wings almost immediately. Camila carefully transferred Maggie's mac 'n cheese and chicken tenders to her paper plate, being sure to rip up the chicken into slightly smaller pieces for her. Maggie came running out to the dining table a minute later squealing her excitement for her "matchy knees".

"How's Chloe doing?" Camila asked Jace as she dug into her grilled chicken caesar salad.

"Physically, she's doing okay. She was really nauseous at first but that's starting to go away now. She's still having a hard time with her family, though. They aren't coming around to the idea of her being pregnant as quickly as she'd like. And I guess now they've started making rude comments about how they aren't looking forward to having a baby in the house all the time."

"I guarantee they'll change their tune once the baby is here," Camila noted. "As soon as they meet their grand baby, they'll be obsessed."

"I can only hope," Jace sighed. "I hate the idea of bringing such an innocent baby into a family with so much...tension."

"For the record," Shawn wiped his face with one of the paper napkins that the restaurant included with their food. "If needed, Chloe is more than welcome to move in here with us if it ever comes to that — whether it's before or after baby gets here. I know the attic isn't the most ideal but we've already started the process of looking for a new house so hopefully we'll find something with a better layout soon."