The Dove And The Grenade.

Chapter 34: Mother Matty. Part II.

Four months have gone by since Matt and Eliese brought Genevieve home. She's thrived from tiny infant to a regular baby; of course she's still teeny tiny but she's grown a lot in the time she's been home. Genevieve looks more like Matt every day; her hair has grown in, in thick dark swirls that read nothing but innocent adorability. Her eyes are bright but they have that Native shape that only make them more beautiful. She has his face, and facial expressions. She was perfecting expressions a month after she was brought home, and Eliese has a picture of every single one of them. Whenever Matt feels down he looks at those pictures and immediately feels better.

Eliese allowed her dad to come over that day to see his Granddaughter. It was a scary moment for Eliese. She was afraid he'd hurt her and her family, but he didn't. After that day he'd come by once or twice every few weeks to see the girls and to play with them. He and Matt get along as well, and his relationship with Eliese has thrived. Eliese has never had a father figure in her life before, so she had a lot of adjusting to do. She also had to adjust to the thought of having a sister and a step-mom. A lot has changed for her.

Genevieve just celebrated her six month birthday by getting her pictures done. Eliese wanted some nice pictures of the girls so she had a friend do them for her. It was also a surprise for Matt, he was away doing a few festivals and Eliese wanted to surprise him with these pictures. She knows how hard it was for him to leave them. He didn't want to leave Genevieve's side. He's been a good dad. At times he's been clueless but he's done the best he could do. He still reads and sings to Genevieve, he still sits with her and talks about random things. Only now she recognizes his voice and responds to it. So you can imagine he was very happy to get those pictures of his family; he immediately hung them up in the living room for everyone to see.

Matt loves to parade his daughter and step-daughter around like he's the bee's knees. He is so happy to have both girls a part of his life. He has Genevieve as his background on his phone; it's of her in her Halloween costume. She went to her first Halloween party as a black cat. She had on the fluffy black suit with a tail and Eliese even put a little bit of face paint for the nose and whiskers. Emily went as Little Red Riding Hood. She didn't go to the same Halloween party as the rest of her family; she went to a friend's house for a boy-girl party. She played spin the bottle and seven minutes in heaven. She didn't tell her mom or Matt about that because she was worried about their reactions. Her mom would probably give her the sex talk while Matt would lock her up in her bedroom for the rest of her life. Emily swears Matt would have a heart attack if he ever found out she was learning about sex and puberty in School. He still sees her as a little girl with cute pigtails wearing overalls when in reality she's about to go into Junior High School and begin a slippery slope into womanhood any day now. She wasn't a little girl anymore, she was but she wasn't. Things for Emily are at an awkward stage.

Emily has adjusted to having a baby sister, she still has bouts of jealousy now and then but nothing a little time with either Matt or her mom couldn't fix. Emily celebrated her eleventh birthday by having a party; she had it at the local roller rink with a few of her friends. Eliese was pleased to see Emily was becoming a social butterfly but she was also sad, Emily was eleven now. She has one more birthday before she turns into a teenager. Eliese is dreading the teenage years. She fears them more than anything though. Each day Emily is gaining more and more independence and demands more and more privacy. Eliese knows what privacy leads to, so does Matt. They're both very ambivalent about giving Emily more freedom and less supervision. But they also know that coddling her isn't healthy either.

Thanksgiving was odd for Matt and Eliese; this was the first proper holiday they were spending as a family. It also marked one year since Eliese and Emily moved in with Matt. A lot has happened in one year. A lot of good things and a lot of bad things happened in one whole year. But Eliese and Matt sat at the table and realized how lucky they were, Emily was thriving into a wonderful young woman and Genevieve was there, happy and healthy, and safe.