Chapter Seventy Seven

Pete loved to spend as much time with his baby daughter as his work would allow.  When he came home from work the first thing he would do was go up to Elenie's nursery, pick her up and give her a kiss.

He would then snuggle her close and play with her, all the time checking her over to be sure there was nothing wrong with her and she wasn't coming down with any nasty baby bugs.

If Dory was out, he'd happily spend hours rocking Elenie in the rocking chair downstairs while he watched TV or listened to tabcasts of the latest medical research.

Dory would usually wait until Pete was home to look after Elenie before heading out into town to check on the local wildlife and make notes on how the various species of birds and animals were doing.

They had developed a routine of parenting and, while Dory was out in the evenings, Pete would take care of Elenie.

He happily changed her nappy and fed her from a bottle, keeping a close eye on her health as he did so.

Before putting her to bed in the evenings, he would snuggle and kiss her, making sure that even at such a young age she knew how much she was loved.

In fact, it was often a wrench for him to have to put her down to sleep in her cot, even though he knew how important it was for her to get plenty of sleep.

Mira helped out with Elenie whenever needed, but Pete and Dory were so much in love with their baby girl that she rarely got the chance and so contented herself with painting lots of pictures to decorate the nursery.

In the mornings Dory would get up as soon as she heard stirring from the nursery leaving Pete to sleep in until it was time to get up for work.

The first thing she would do when she picked Elenie up out of the crib was snuggle her close, never losing a sense of wonder that this little tiny baby was hers.

She then fed Elenie who was usually on the verge of  screaming for her bottle at this point.

And when she was full and satisfied, Dory would play with her, remembering to burp her as well.

Elenie especially seemed to love playing aeroplanes and being swung around as if she was flying.

Unfortunately, Dory couldn't spend all day playing with Elenie, and after a while she would put Elenie in her swing with a baby monitor set up nearby so that she could go and get dressed herself.

Pete was still very concious of the family's health and wellbeing, and would regularly top up their immunizations before going to work.

Once he had gone, Dory and Mira would look after the garden and the bees, while keeping a careful watch on the baby monitor which Dory always kept with her.

Merlin wasn't always impressed by Mira tending the bees, especially when he wanted some attention for himself!  

After batting at the bees for some time, he would pretend to pounce on Mira as a way of distracting her from them and getting her to pay more attention to him.

"What's the matter little one?  Are we not paying you enough attention?"  Mira would always respond to his pleas in the same way.  Offering him her hand to sniff and then playing games with him until he was satisfied.

Once the garden was tended, and while Mira was playing with the cats, Dory would run upstairs to fetch her daughter and would cuddle and play with her outside.  Elenie seemed to thrive on the attention and adored it when she was taken outdoors.

She loved it even more when Dory would put her in the stroller and take her out for walks in the neighbourhood.

All too soon though, it was Elenie's birthday.  Pete and Dory had bought a special cake for her birthday but when Dory brought her to the cake she wriggled and wriggled until Dory put her down on the floor.

It appeared that she was a bit impatient and as Dory put her on the floor, the birthday sparkles enveloped her.

Once they had cleared, Pete and Dory could see that their baby girl had grown up into an adorable toddler, with her mother's black hair.  But as they cheered her birthday, they noticed something a little odd about her...

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Pet Spam

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Town News

• Ieaun Glyndwr aged to a toddler
• Marianne Sperie-Sabo & Thomas McKinnley-Crist aged to children
• Shadow Sperie-Fields aged to a young adult and got a job in the police
• Sterling Harris-McKinley aged to young adult & got a job in the music industry
• Sebastian McKinley (formerly Roman) died of old age
• Bobbie Clemetis & Salvador Harris got engaged
• Irish Marlin & Elijah McKinley got married and took the name Marlin-McKinley
• Kaitlyn Sperie & Andreas Harris-Crist are expecting a baby
• Bernard McKinley & Christy Sabo had a baby girl called Carita