The Royal Hearts

Chapter 26

Mal

6 months later – Beatrice's first birthday

How can a year go by so fast, it felt like just yesterday I was complaining about having the huge belly and the back pain and the swollen feet, and now she was one, I mean how crazy is that? Ben and I wanted a small private party for Beatrice, unlike Belle she wanted basically a ball, but we didn't want our daughter's first birthday to be "political".

As first parents, and as King and Queen, sometimes duty comes over family, Ben, unfortunately, felt that when he was growing up and that was something we were both trying not to do with Beatrice, we wanted to be present parents, so we planned this party ourselves, of course with a bit help from our friends and family.

We had decided to throw like a garden tea party for her, with miniature sandwiches and cupcakes, of course, a lot of strawberries, apparently Beatrice was a major fan of the fruit as well.

"Good morning mommy." I heard Ben by my side.

"Good morning daddy." I said turning to him pecking his lips, he extended the kiss into a lingering sweet one.

"Can you believe it has been a whole year?"

"Our first year as parents, it was a crazy year, but I wouldn't change it one bit." I said.

"I couldn't agree more. And speaking of our little bundle of joy, how about we go see if she is awake?"

"Let's go celebrate our big girl."

When Beatrice got bigger and couldn't fit into her bassinet anymore, we tried to make her transition to sleep in her own room, but without any success, we ended up having to put her crib in our room and then gradually adjusting, she has been sleeping in her nursery for the last 6 months now which was great.

Her nursery was right next to our room, Ben opened the door carefully, in case she was still asleep, and we got inside. Both of us headed straight to the crib, only to see our perfect little angel still asleep, Ben put his arm around me, and I rested my head on him.

"Look at her." I said.

"So peacefully asleep, she literally is an angel." Ben said.

"Our perfect little girl, I could spend hours watching her sleep."

"Me too, but it's time to wake up, we need to go to breakfast." He said as he went to slowly open the draped from her windows letting the sunshine come through. I started to rub Beatrice's belly and caress her cheek to wake her up.

"Good morning my love."

She rubbed her eyes and grabbed my finger.

"Time to wake up birthday girl." Ben said coming back to my side.

I took Beatrice out of her crib, but cuddled her in my chest, I sat down on the rocking armchair with her, and she nested in my chest, Ben took her favorite blanket and put it on top of her. While she had her 5 more minutes of sleep, I asked Ben to go and grab her clothes

Since today was hot outside, Beatrice's first outfit would be a cute lilac swimsuit and a white ruffled skirt, then for the tea party she will be wearing a dress Evie had made for her, it was a light pink and white dress with roses drawn on it.

"Do we need to take the dress?"

"No, we'll dress her here. For now, I just need you to pack her towel, the waterproof diapers, and also regular diapers." I said.

"Okay, all done. She's still asleep?"

I looked down at Beatrice, she still had her eyes closed but wasn't as sound asleep as before, so I uncovered her and gently caressed her cheek.