Happy Halloween! Babies 38 and 39

 Prom night ended, neither Henry nor Leslie won king or queen, but they had the best night of their lives.

 Henry requested birthday time, so they could start their young lives together. I got permission from Leslies parents and we went through with it. Henry was first to blow out his candles, and stood their longing to be older.

 Leslie was next, she blew long and hard, thinking about her wish. She stood next to Henry, and the sparkles engulfed them both twirling them into adulthood.

 Henry, looks so much like Matthew it almost made me cry, was ready for a life with Leslie. Leslie aged into a beautiful young woman, who had a very define personality. I hugged them both and they left to a new house.

 I was relaxing inside thinking about the daunting age of 24. October 24th was my birthday and it dawned on me that it really didn't mean much. I got enough of birthdays and such it'd be a quick day with a lot of happy birthdays given out with thank you's in exchange nothing more nothin less. Then I thought about Halloween, I would need to discuss that with Dani to see if she wanted to age up before or after, I was leaving the choice up to her. I was just fine relaxing with Jon asleep upstairs when Dani burst through the door a large smile plastered on her face. "Mommy! Mommy!" She shouted happily.
       "What?" I asked, noticing the fluff ball in her arm. She held it up so its little eyes gleamed and stared into mine. "Meow." The little creature said. "A kitten?" I asked patting it away so it wasn't a quarter of an inch from my face. "I know! I found him outside all alone meowing! I picked him up and he started to purr! Mom can we keep him please?" She asked, her eyes much larger than saucers. "Please?" She asked holding the kitten up, it mewed at me as if to say please too.

 Me, being the big hearted sucker than I am looked at her then the kitten. "Do you promise to take care of him?" I asked. "Yes!" She almost screamed. "Fine, we can keep him." I gave her a smile and she pulled the kitten into a hug. "Thank you!" She raised the kitten to her level and told him, as if he could understand."Your name is Jumanji. Jumanji this is mom, and Jon's in his room, and you'll meet a lot of other siblings as you get older!" She said happily.

She set Jumanji on the ground and he rolled over in delight on her toes. "Alright Dani, get your homework done." I said quietly. She picked Jumanji up and set him on the table and got out her homework. "Dani, no cats on the table." I said laughing. She set Jumanji on the ground and he ran around the living room, soaking up his environment, as if it weren't true.
    As the days went by I prepared for Halloween. I was going to have a little party a week and two days before Halloween. Another rather large thing on our agenda would be moving. Yes, I decided it would be a fabulous time to move to a far out country town by the name of Appaloosa Plains to outrun the papparozi. Dani was more than excited for the move.

 I aged up Jon as quickly as possible. I blew out his candle and set him on the ground and let the sparkles do the work. Finally he was a little toddler. The party was tonight so I started to prepare. All of our things were already boxed off and sent to the new house, or Goodwill.

 I rummaged in my drawers for a while and finally came up with being a magician. I decided Jon would be my little bunny, even though he was a tad too big for the hat.

 Instead of being a princess, or a fairy, or a ballerina, Dani decided she wanted to be a cowgirl. She helped me set up the rest of the decorations and I tied her hankerchief around her neck. This would be the last night in our little house and she was going to soak it up with the party.

 The party goers contained,Random person who showed up the cavewoman, sarah the vampire (Her fiance had turned her.), Diana who forgot it was a costume party so went as herself, Fredward, Dianas husband, was a murderer farmer, Tori our doctor who randomly showed up dressed up as.... A doctor... Bridget refused to come, she was mad at me for moving, and I had to point out that she had left me too which left even less words exchanged between us. I knew for a fact she would get a hold of me in a while but as for now we we're speaking.

 My mother showed up and hour late. It was blately obvious that her health was failing and she was drunk beyond no means. She had even dressed up! She walked clumsily along the dance floor. Diana Sarah and I had had countless hours of phone calls about our mother. Sarah didn't want to be responsible for her. Diana being the oldest was supposed to be her caretaker but didn't want too. Which left it down to me who would have to take care of my mother in the event of failing health. Which makes perfect sense, pair her with the one she dislikes while she's dying. Of course, thats what you're supposed to do!

 My mother made it to me with a smile on her face. "Why-why h-h-hello." She stuttered, smelling of vodka. "Why hello mom." I replied back with a smile. "You dance pathetically." She said with a smirk. I smiled even larger, I was going to use this to my advantage, to make her say something truthful. "I do don't I. Hm I need some practice." I replied trying to sway her words. "You, would never compare to me." She said grogilly. "Oh really. I know, I don't want you to break a hip or anything"I said, she wasn't going to remember this she was totally out of it. "Would you care to have a dance off?" I asked with a large smile showing my teeth. "You are on my dear." My mother snickered.

 It started off slow. I bolted out questions to her as we danced. She answered them all truthfully. I finally came to the question that I wanted most. "Mom why do you hate me?" I asked swaying my arms so we crisscrossed and faced different ways. "Whatever do you mean?" She asked sarcastically. "We both know it. You've never liked me." I said with a smile.

 I did a sideways step as she pondered the question. "Well uh, there was that time you-" she started then stopped. "That I what?" I asked anticipating the answer. "Nothing." She muttered. "Oh it was something." I laughed and twirled her around me.

 I got behind her swiftly and whispered in her ear. "Don't lie." She looked away then started to dance more. "I believe I never hated you, you were my daughter." She replied. I dipped then stood and did the macarana, horribly if I should add. "Oh, so that's why you blamed me for not having more children?" I said quickly. "Well I uh-" "And for that matter you counted Diana as your best child when she failed her senior year and I was doing highschool work in the fifth grade." I said even more quickly trying to confuse her. I just wanted answers.

 I stood there and danced to myself smiling and waiting for the answer. My mother stuttered a few times, trying to find what she wanted to say but never could. Finally she had stopped dancing and stared at me. "Forfeit?" I asked and stopped dancing. My mothers faced dulled and I felt like I had done something wrong, I mean yeah I was forging much needed answers from my drunken mother but still.

 My mother stared at me more and started to speak, not once did a smile flash on her face. "Caitlin, Cait Cait Caitlin. I never hated you. I was-upset-well," She paused then took a deep breath. "I mustn't lie. Caitlin I didn't like you. Do you know why?" She asked. I shook my head no. "I didn't like you because you were perfect-too perfect. You said everthing right, you were brilliantly smart, and you were my last baby but you never acted like a child. You acted like an adult almost your full life and you know what, I was jealous because people loved you, I was jealous that you showed me love even when I couldn't bring myself to love you, I'm a sick cold hearted-"

 I cut her off thrusting myself into her arms. This was more than enough information. "I'm sorry." My mother whispered in my ear. Although I would probably regret this when she wasn't drunk, although I knew she would eventually find a way to stab me in the back I hugged her tighter and replied with "I forgave you a long long time ago."

 The next day was a blur of my mother moving with us. Being ignore brutely by Bridget, in which I decided to write to when I got to the Plains because she had lost her priviledge of face to face communication. Then of course I had to move a toddler and a kitten, who were in a downhill battle from the start. It began with the inocence of Jon tugging little Jumanjis tail, and Jumangi retaliating. The small kitten knocked Jon onto his back and started to bite at his leg, mere play for Dani but pure torture for Jon.

 Jon had been knocked flat on his back numerous times by Jumanji who got bored easily and cuddled up with Dani on the floor in her sleeping bag. In the morning we all loaded into the van and headed to Appaloosa. The trip was short and sweet, four bathroom breaks, two I'm starving breaks, and one stop asking if we are there because we are apparently not breaks.

 Finally we arrived to my brand new over sized country house. Included with an icecream truck. When I told Dani this she about fainted, until I told her I was bluffing as the truck zoomed away. The house was already set up by a few old friends of my fathers that I got a hold of but just barely. For the next week Dani got used to school but wasn't ready for aging up, we celebrated my birthday with a four hour skype session with Matt who was astounded with the house and couldn't wait to step foot in it, and my mother and I had been bonding more than ever before. I truly believe she was sticking to her word.

 It was now Friday, a mere two days before Dani, Jon and I went trick or treating and my mother handed out candy. Dani was in the office space playing with Nibbles, the family hamster while my mother and I were watching a very dull movie on the Sci Fi channel. I had brought up something about Diana and Sarah which brought up an hour conversation.

 "I'm just saying.We so could've kept that deer we found if only Sarah hadn't moved the trashcan to the left." I finished with my story about us and the doe we had found behind the school when I was five. My mother shook her head. "I would've never let a deer in my house! I always wanted a cat, a big fluffy tabby, but your father and Sarah are allergic, Diana was terrified of cats, and you, well I never got your opinion on anything." My mother laughed.

 "There's an entire story about that too." She added. "Please tell!" I said sitting back and relaxing. "Well when you were but seven and your sisters, oh what ten and twelve, your father had finally given me the tabby I had longed for. I named it Rikki after a story I had read when I was little. Rikki lived outside and I never dared to tell any of you girls I had him because if I did there would've been war on whether or not he could sleep in the house. Anyway in the end Rikki was swept off by animal control one night, he had been bitten by a racoon and gotten rabbies. Ever since Rikki I had never wanted another animal and we never discussed it in the house again. But your little Jumanji is the perfect replacement." She said quietly. I laughed. "You would have to get through Dani to get to Jumanji, but Jon wouldn't mind." We both laughed.

 Jumanji was loving the new house. It was full of new places to explore, things to chance  outside, and he could always find another cat for a playmate. Usually he slept with Dani, but that was only if Dani slept on the bottom bunk, she thinks he may have a fear of heights.

 After two days of living here Dani went exploring and found a little turtle. She had brought it home asking with her great big bambi eyes if we could keep it. I had answered yes once again, because it was a turtle what bad could it do? My answer came the next day. The turtle reaked. However Dani said she'd clean his cage everyday. She had named him Franklin, after a tv show.

Then came Nibbles. I knew walking into a petstore with Dani was bad news, she was an animal lover so EVERY single little animal she looked at she fell in love with. We were only there to get Franklin and Jumanji some food, but the salesmen had hooked Dani into begging for a womrat, so in the end I spent four-hundred-fifty dollars on a terrarium, woodchips, Nibbles, and pet food. Again Dani promised to clean the cage every day, she even said she would keep Nibbles unitl she moved out, but they only live for three months so I didn't know what would happen.

 Bridget called and at first I didn't answer and when I did I got an earfull of screaming and befriendment. "Bridget Nicole Jones! I have had it! Either you grow up or don't bother calling again!" I screamed back into the phone. I got very silent and I was about to hang up when I heard her breathing. Then I heard a distant voice. "Gabriel! Get off the counter! 1-2- don't you dare make me get to three! Gabe! Wait until your-" There was a bang. "Gabe look! What did I tell you?" She yelled. "Time out!"

 I kept the phone by my ear. "Hey, its Bridget. I hope this is voicemail, well actually I don't but either way your getting this and you're in for an earful, oh wait you already got it. Well anyway thanks for leaving me. I have to tend to my little boy who probably just lost a nut for a cookie, if you know what I mean. Miss you already. Kisses. Bye." She said before I heard the click. She was so bad at being angry and loving me at the same time.

 Jon was really starting to push his luck with Jumanji. He knew how to walk and talk now and he would stroll past Jumanji and purposefully step on his tail, or stick his tongue out at him. Jumanji however was not having it. He strolled out of his kitty complex right after Jon.

 Jon fell on the ground as Jumanji approached. "No! Jumanji no!" I kept my eye out just in case Jumanji snapped. The kitty rubbed its head on Jons hand affectionately. Making amends I suppose.

Jon let out a laugh. "Jumanji!!" He squealed with delight. He pet Jumaji several times. Then they walked back to his little cat bed, curled up, and fell asleep together. A site worth one million dollars to see.

 Once Dani was out for school and my mom was quietly playing with Jon the doorbell rang. I answered it to a man yawning. He stared at me dumbstruck then pulled out an index card and started to read. "Hello- insert your name here, or ma'am.- I am Norm. My last name is Al. No I am not very normal. I have come to sir/madam's house because I am with the challenge father incorporation, where all rejected men can become a father and fulfill their dreams. (He added a very dramatic pause.) I have come to your house today because I have heard about you moving in and I wanted to be your very first father in Appaloosa Plains. Now, sir/madam I know that you may say no but I asure you I know the rules and such. So what do you say?" He finished and shoved the index card into his pocket.

 "I'm only female, saying your with the challenge father corp. I mean, why would you say sir or madam?" I asked. Norm shuffled his feet. "Well-uh- sometimes a fellow just wants to run around wearing only cowboy boots, thats for the guys you see, and well, uh.." I stopped him. "That's as far as you need to go." I said putting my hands up for emphasis.

 "So what do you say?" He asked. "Well I guess yes. But how do you know that I'm a challenge mother?" I asked. He laughed then kind of double took when I still didn't understand. "Don't you read gossip magazines?" He asked trying to conceal his laughter. "Uhh, no?" I responded, half the time those were entirely made up.

 "Oh, well it was in there that you had fled Sunset Valley because of publicity." He said, which was somewhat true. "Then you moved here because you wanted a nice open place to raise many more children." He added. Sure I guess I muttered in my head. "So, thats about it. Everybody in the Plains know your here its only a matter of time before the papparozi come to your door." Great... "So, lets get to it?" He asked. "Yeah, follow me."

 I led Norm to my bedroom and we got to work. The jingle rang and Norm bid me farewell and told me to look into the new Challenge Corp. thingy. After I got redressed and composed myself I sat at the computer in the office. I was awaiting this chat with Matt for an entire week. I was deeply saddened because the camera didn't work on their computer anymore, and they don't have a microphone so Skype was out of the question. It was only going to be an actual chat.

 Once I logged on we started chatting away. We talked about the move, my birthday, Halloween, the children, and many other things.

 Dani was finishing raising her grade so she could age up. I could tell she didn't want to, but she also said she wanted to, which was confusing but I just let her do her thing.

 Matthew and I started talking about what was going on with him. A list of beyond bad things were mentioned, and he had said that this time he was training the other army members and those of the country. I was hurt when I heard that a roadside bomb had taken out twenty and that it was secretive so it would never be said on how those twenty really lost their lives.

 When he said it'd be a little more than a year I about lost it. I laid my head on the keyboard then looked back at the screen. 'I have to log off now. Chat the 14th at 3 pm okay? Love you forever and always. Bye. -Love Matt' was his last message. I replied with love you too and okay. When I really wanted to say come back, I miss you, I'm falling apart, etc etc, but he needs to be worrying about himself not me. I got off the computer and went to watch a movie with my mom.

 Dani absolutely loved animals of all types. Franklin the turtle however did not last long and died because she thought it would be a good idea to let him swim in Dr. Pepper, and to feed him nothing but chocolate and peeps. He died shortly after his first swim and meal before I even noticed and Dani was heartbroken but got over it quickly when Jumanji was purring at her ankles.

 My pregnancy was progressing quite fast and by the end of the day my all the time sickness had arrived.

 I decided that I should call Bridget, we needed to talk and soon. When she FINALLY answered I was beyond happy.
Me: Hello?
Bridget: I MISS YOU SO MUCH!
Me: I miss you too!
Bridget: I am so coming to visit you too, and I think you were listening to my last message, I could hear you breathing, and Gabe is alright he got two stitches though, and we've got him new medication so his epilepsy is hardly noticable anymore, Spence has been out a lot with work, do you know how stressful murder is and how many murderers there are out there? My gosh theres tons! And I'm fine. We might get a dog I was hoping I could call you and we could come up with names. Spencer has been thinking about moving, and I told him-

 I rolled my eyes. I needed a way to get her to shut up.
Me: Bridge, Bridget- you're rambling!
Bridget: sorry. I just, kind of fell apart mentally.
Me: Are you okay? Is it because of your pregnancy?
There was a long pause and I could make out sniffling and nose blowing, then Bridget was at the phone once more.
Bridget: About that...

 Me: What?
Bridget: I, had, a miscarriage. She didn't make it...
All of the air got immediately sucked out of the room.
Me: I'm so so sorry.- it came out in barely a whisper.
Bridget: It'sss, f-f-fine... It happened last night and I was going to call you when it happened but then I remembered I was supposed to be mad at you, and then I just, I tried calling you this morning but Gabe needed help with a meeting at school and I just never got around to it.
Me: You need to come and visit me as soon as possible honey.
Bridget: I will, Dammit, I have to go. Call me or chat me sometime tomorrow we can work out details later. Oh, and her name was ------------------------------ , we're burying her sometime soon but I'm not sure when but I do know you need to be right there because I have a feeling Spence will have to work and that is not something I want to go through alone.
Me: Its a date. Bye I love you.
Bridget: I love you too... Bye.

 That made my thoughts go wild, but I kept them to myself. Something tells me Bridgets not telling me the whole story about her and Spencer, things must not be going in the right direction, but I won't be one to judge.

Dani and Jumanji enjoyed chasing each other all around the house. Jumanji would sit and paw at Dani to start running and she would get closer and closer then run away with Jumanji at her heels.

My pregnancy was anxiously waiting to show, but it cursed me with sickness instead.

Dani cleaned out Franklins empty tank, she tried to get me to buy her another turtle but I told her absolutely not, Franklin was cute but he STUNK!

I found a super old movie in one of the many boxes that were in the house. In my childhood it would have been incredibly scary, which it was when Bridget and I found it at her house when we were eight and watched it. Today however it was boring, my mom and Dani were pretty scared though. "Oh my gosh!" My mom yelled as the aliens stepped off the ship and starting zapping buildings with their fingers. I put my hand on my face and rolled my eyes.

"You two are chickens!" I said and I took the video out of the vcr, that's how old fashioned it was, and I went and sat back down. "It's really not that bad. Bridget and I watched it when we were younger." I said. My mother kind of stared at me. "Yeah, we did stuff we weren't supposed to do at Bridgets." I added and she focused her eyes back on the screen that was now playing an animal adventure.

I stood up and rubed my belly as the baby kicked it a few times.

(I wanted to take a shadow picture, here it is, its okay. How people get them perfectly would be amazing to know, but hey you know either way its still cool!)

We got right to the birthdays. Dani was excited about aging up. Grandma stood back and cheered, this made me realize this is the first birthday she's seen for one of my children.

I took Jon to his cake too. He looked at the candles, which were sparking unusually, and he blew as hard as he could. I helped him a little and together we made the flames wither away.

Dani aged up into a beautiful teenager. Her hair had grown out and she was tall and super skinny. Her love for animals had increased ten times over.

Jon aged into a little cutie. He laughed as the sparkles crowded around him and pulled a funny face as the picture was taken.

There was an odd noise outside, and Dani was peering out the window. "Mom! Can I go see what it was!?!" She asked excitedly. "No, it could be dangerous." I replied flipping the page in the newspaper. She smashed her nose against the glass. "Mom! Its a horse! Please! I'll be careful!" She begged. "Take your phone..." I said smiling. Dani was out of the  house in seconds.
(Dani's POV)
It was beautiful. She reared on her hind legs and dashed off in the other direction.

I charged after her. She led me to the water treatment plant, there were three other wild horses there too. I sat down and watched them all night.

I felt the phone vibrate, and the gentle licking on my face. I awoke with a start I flipped the phone open, which sent the horse flying in the other direction, and heard the angered shouts of my mother. "Yeah, mom I'll be home, yeah of course, yeah, sorry, yep goin to school right now, love you too, sorry, bye."

Almost automatically after school I was at the plant. The horses were there, and so was she. I approached her showing her a small carrot in my hand. "It's okay." I said calmy. I approached her, the other horses reared off but she stayed put.

I fed her the carrot and she nuzzled my hands. I pet her in response. "See I'm not so bad." I whispered stroking her mane.

Everyday after school I went to the plant and took care of the horse. I called her 'Buttercup' and 'Juliet' but nothing seemed to stick. So I tried calling her 'Catnip' that didn't work either. 'Hufflepuff' is the only thing she would respnd to. That name made her ears go up, and it would make her neigh and nuzzle me more.

Over nine days after finding her I found a saddle at the thrift store. My mother had no idea what I was up to, so doing so was my only way to ride Hufflepuff without getting in trouble. I came up to her with the usual snack, some celery, peanut butter, percisely two M&M's, and some carrots. Then I put the saddle on her back. "I'm getting on." I whispered, and I threw my leg over the side. I climbed on, and held on for dear life.

Before I knew it Hufflepuff was trotting down the trail. I could see the far away hills, and the small lights of the town. It was amazing.

Hufflepuff reared on her hind legs and neighed happily. I was confident and threw my hand into the open air. It didn't end well, I literally flew off the horse and onto the hard ground. Hufflepuff nuzzled me until I got on my feet. I decided to walk back to the treatment plant with her.

When we got back I pet her head and hugged her. "I'll be back." I whispered. I was sad because I couldn't take her home, mom would never approve. Then I saw her curl up to another horse and soundlessly fall asleep and I knew this was the rightful place for her. I turned on my heels and ran back to the house.

(Cait's POV) The baby was kicking quite harshly. I rubbed my belly where she/he was and silently told the baby to stop. When she/he didn't I was going to resort in finding comfort in the couch, but my water broke quickly and I was in the middle of labor.

With the kids at school and my mother at the store I stood alone in my living room. I refused to drive myself to the hospital, I had a sever spike in my fear of cars. I stood out the pain and tried to give a home birth. Why other challenge mothers chose this option instead dumbfounded me. I would much rather have a doctor do this other than me, but its all the same in the end I guess.

In the end it does seem more magical. You get the first hold of the baby, the sound of the first cry is the only thing in your ears. I gave birth to a little baby girl.

I thought that was it, when I pushed out a second little girl.

Welcome to the world little Gracie, welcome to the world my little Megan.