Baby Steps

8

Grace age update: 1 year

The house was up and early as everyone was put to work on this important day. Calculating the number of months little Grace has been with them, minus the four before they found her, Carlisle managed to predict more or less when her birthday was. And on this day everything had to be perfect.

Grace was still too young to understand the meaning of birthdays, cake, and presents, but Alice insisted that they get her some new toys and clothes and also invited a few guests over. Speaking of guests, the doorbell just rang. The pixie happily skipped over to open it, revealing Jacob, Paul, Seth and Quill.

"Hey, guys, guess who's here!" she announced cheerfully.

Renesmee was the first at the door and nearly attacked him with a hug, "Jake!"

Paul, Seth and Quill could only smirk and wolf whistle behind them.

Nessie didn't wait for them to respond as she nearly drowned him with her questions, "What are you doing here? I thought you were still checking up on Charlie? Did you fly here? Where's Sam and the rest?"

"Okay, okay." Jake smiled, "I missed you too. Charlie's fine, he's on a fishing trip with Sue. Yes, we flew and I hated it. And Sam's back in Forks. He needs to train a few newly shifted rookies and only allowed some of us to come. You should've seen the argument they had on who gets to visit first."

Paul butted in, "Nice reunion and everything, but let's get down to the real business. Where's Grace?"

Renesmee and Alice led them through the house to the family room where the real party was. The Denali's were one of the two covens to show up. The Egyptians didn't like the sound of three Volturi members being present and politely declined.

Everyone greeted everyone. That was what made the other vegetarian vampires great, they were always there no matter what the situation was, a war or a party. Carmen was currently sitting with Grace on her lap with Eleazar next to her, making googly eyes at the tiny person. Kate and Garrett were chatting with Emmett and Rosalie, mostly because Emmett was trying to get him to like The Beatles. Last but not least, Tanya was close to Carmen, still waiting her turn to hold little Grace. The rest of the Cullens were either catching up with Kate and Garret or preparing brunch while expecting the wolf pack to arrive.

Felix was slowly starting to socialize with the Cullens and joined a conversation with Jasper. Marcus sat silently in his armchair, as usual, and Demetri was staring at Grace like a guard dog, in case one of the new guests tried to harm her.

Carlisle got up to greet the boys as they entered the room, "Jacob, boys, pleasure to see you could make it. How was your flight?"

"Yeah, awful." Paul commented, "Wolves aren't meant to fly. I couldn't go through at security because their intelligent technology picked up dirt under my shoes. I was almost arrested because they thought I was smuggling sand!" he rolled his eyes and they landed on Grace for three seconds, "Grace!"

Paul pushed the pack aside and scooped Grace up, beyond caring if Carmen was still holding her.

"And that's how you get Paul to shut up." Seth chuckled.

Esme and Bella came from the kitchen with two trays stacked with cupcakes. The boys dug right in, complimenting Esme on her baking skills and her nice touch of decor to the new house with stuffed mouths. It was earlier decided to let Grace start eating baby food. Renesmee, knowing how well it went the first time Paul fed Grace, handed him a small cup of baby food.

"Yes!" he cheered and made Grace sit in her high chair, "Hmmm, lookie here, Gracie. Yummy food. Paulie loves food. Open up... That's it! Nom nom nom nom." he sniffed the food and discovered it was berry flavoured, "Ooh, you like berries? Another bite? Here comes the train, here comes the train! Choo choo! Yes! Chew that train, Gracie, nom nom nom nom."