A Time to Grow

School Days Part 1

Addie – Age – 6 Years
Clara – Age – 10 Weeks

"Addie, can you come down here? Papa and I need to talk to you for a minute." Peta yelled for her daughter.

"Yes momma?" Addie said appearing holding her American Girl doll.

"Come sit with me and papa please?" Peta said patting the spot on the couch next to her.

"Am I in trouble?" Addie asked nervously as she scrambled up next to her mother.

"No, sweet pea? Why would you think that?" Peta asked laughing.

"Did you do something to be in trouble?" Maks asked looking around his wife.

"No!" Addie said clearly flustered.

"Whoa, it's okay baby. We were just teasing." Peta said seeing that this wasn't settling her daughter at all.

"Okay." Addie said leaning back and pulling her knees up. If Maks wasn't concerned at the movement, he'd have laughed. He had seen his wife curl up into that position many many times before. It meant she was upset and nervous.

"Where's Clara?" Addie asked realizing her sister was missing.

"She's napping so she's in her crib." Peta said. They had just started working on getting Clara to sleep in her crib so they were trying to consistently do one nap time a day in there.

"Oh." Addie said quietly

"Momma and I wanted to ask you something, Addie Girl."

"Yes?" She said as she rested her head on her knees looking at her father.

"Well, remember how we went school shopping last year. You, me, and Momma?" Maks asked.

"Yes." Addie said and she turned her gaze away from her father at that moment and focused on something across the room. Peta looked at Maks with a raised eyebrow and sighed. They had kind of been prepping for something like this to go on when it was time for Addie to go back to school.

"Okay, so we were going to see what you wanted to do this year? Do you want to go with me and Momma? Or do you want to plan something with Momma and Aunt Sharna?" Maks asked as his hand slipped into his wife's giving it a tight squeeze.

"Nope." Addie said as she went to stand up from the couch and leave the room. Maks was thrown off for a moment but Peta's instincts kicked in and she reached for her daughter's elbow.

"Whoa." Peta said keeping her standing next to her.

"What?" Addie snapped turning to look at her mother. Peta closed her eyes and counted to 5 before trying again.

"First, don't be rude. Second, I know you're upset but we can't do anything if we don't talk about this."

"I'm sorry." Addie said as she looked down as the floor and Peta could see her bottom lip tremble a little bit.

"It's okay. It happens sometimes but you need to try to not make it happen okay? I know it's harder when you're upset but that's just something you have to think on some okay?"

"Okay." Addie whispered as she nodded.

"Come here Addie Girl." Maks said reaching for his daughter and pulling her into his lap.
He cuddled her up into him and she grasped his shirt sleeve as he pressed a kiss to her head.

"So you don't want to do a day of school shopping? Should I just get you new clothes from the computer?" Peta asked gently trying to get her daughter talking.