Flushed Away: "Oh, Baby!"

Chapter 12: Expecting another miracle

Month after month, Rachel was growing up so fast. At five months old, she started crawling. On Rita's birthday, she started walking for the first time and it was Rita's best birthday gift to see it. She and Roddy even celebrated her first birthday on February 12 and she had fun, even throwing her chocolate cake, Lillie helped baked, in her parents' faces after sharing it with them. Mostly in Roddy's face than in Rita's. Roddy got her a Princess Tiana doll to go with her other eight princess dolls. Even finally watching Rachel's birth video Celeste have been working throughout the year. Rita and her whole family got emotional over it, but Roddy cried a river over it.

Around the summer, she started speaking a lot, becoming more attached to her mother, especially when she came over to visit her folks' house to pick her up from there, running up to her with her lovey blanket, calling out, "Mama! Mama!" before hugging her leg, catching Rita's attention.

"Hi, baby. Did you miss your mama?" She said, kneeling down to pick her daughter up.

"A lot." Mrs. Malone chuckled.

"We would ask her who she'd want to hang out with and she would answer 'Mama' all day." Mr. Malone said.

"And we would tell her that Mama's not here right now and that maybe she can hang out with Grandma, Grandpa, or any of her aunties and uncles."

"But her answer would be, 'No! Mama!'"

Rita chuckled, hugging Rachel in her arms while she hung onto her neck. "Sometimes, she'd go for Daddy, too." She said, catching her daughter's attention.

"Daddy?" She went.

"No, Daddy's not here right now. Daddy's at work."

"Aww!" Rachel went, pouting.

"I know. He'll be back later. Right now, you got Mama to hang out with you, finally. You like that, don't you?" Rita said.

"Yeah!" Rachel cried, now all excited.

"Yeah! What do you wanna do with Mummy right now?" Rita asked before Rachel flung herself around her mother's neck for another hug, making Rita chuckled, holding her close. "You just want snuggles? I love snuggles, too."

Later on while hanging out at her parents' place, Rachel decided to play peek-a-boo with her mother, sitting in her lap while on the couch, hiding herself underneath her blanket. Rita decided to play along. "Oh, my goodness, where's Rachel? I lost her."

Rachel uncovered herself, smiling widely. "Peek!" She went.

"Oh! There she is. Thank goodness." Rita went, sighing of relief, poking her daughter playfully. "I didn't know where you were. All I saw was this little pink ghost with red hearts all over it." Rachel giggled before covering herself with her blanket, again, as Rita went along with her, being gone. "Oh, no, she's gone, again! Where'd she go? I think Daddy's getting off work anytime soon. I better call him and ask for his help to find Rachel."

Rachel uncovered herself, now looking surprised and excited. "Daddy?"

"Oh, there she is, again! I found her." Rita went after turning on her phone where Rachel pointed a circled picture of Roddy on the screen.

"Daddy!" She went.

"You see Daddy's picture? You wanna call him and say hi?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright, let's call Daddy." Rita said, calling her husband in video chat mode where her phone starts ringing. "Now we're gonna wait until he picks up."

Not too long ago, Roddy's face was on the screen. "Hello?" He went.

Rita turned to Rachel. "Say hi to Daddy."