2.5: Picking Up The Pieces

Chapter 3: First steps into a different life.

About a month later and Alexander is back working at the smithy every second day, he and Seb take it in turns to run the business day to day. It is keeping his mind off of things, Sera is with Hadriana and Luis whenever Alexander is working. Now that Sera is talking, she rarely shuts up. At the moment, she is sitting on Seb's lap and is babbling away to him, telling him stories.
"Wow... That's amazing Sera!"

She squeals excitedly, giggles then claps her hands, seemingly very proud of herself. He's holding up picture cards so that she can try to name them, she's exceptionally smart already and is learning ridiculously fast, almost unnaturally fast. He holds up a picture of a dog.
"Alright Sera... This is a dog. D-o-g... Dog."
She looks at the picture intently, her huge eyes focusing on it, seemingly analysing it.
"D... D... do... dog! Dog! Dog dog dog..."
She then looks about the room for a moment. She spots Rusty, Seb's old Springer spaniel sleeping in his basket, points at him and says.
"Dog! Dog!"
Seb can't quite believe it and says to Hadriana.
"This girl is a genius... I swear it..."
Hadriana looks up from her book.
"Sorry what?"
Seb repeats himself.
"Sera, she's a little genius... I showed her the picture of a dog, she learned to say it with just three tries, then she looked around the room found Rusty, pointed at him and shouted Dog. How many other eleven month old children could do that? Let alone talk... And she's not even quite eleven months yet!"
Hadriana smiles brightly at Sera.
"Well, I think we may need to speak to your Pa, I wonder if Eleanora was like this too... Or even Alex?"
Seb picks up the picture of a cat and shows Sera.
"Oh she probably was, I mean, he probably was too to be fair... Ellie is a genius in herself and Alex is much smarter than me... Right Sera... Can you say Cat? C-a-t? Cat."

Again, she looks at it with a look of pure concentration and determination on her little face.
"Ca... C... Ca... Cat! Cat cat!"
Seb shows her the card again. "She just said cat too... Sera... what is this?"
He points at the picture of the cat on the card. Sera claps her hands, points at the card and shouts.
"Cat! Cat!"
He sits back, slightly astonished "See? Genius..."
Just as he says that, Alexander walks in the door.
"Who or what is is a genius?"
Seb looks at Alexander and points to Sera.
"Sera... She's such a fast learner Alex... She knows that Rusty is a dog, she literally just learned the word and then pointed at him to say dog... She now knows what a cat is too... I think you have to get her to preschool nursery at eighteen months or two at the latest... And not three... She's already about six months ahead of Luis... And about the same stage as Cora and Alfie... And they are eighteen months old and haven't quite learned to either walk or talk yet..."

He tilts his head to the side once with consideration.
"Oh, well... I will think about it, she is my clever little girl!"
He picks her up from Seb's lap and she giggles sweetly before shouting excitedly.
"Daddy!"
He holds her in his arms, her little face at the same level as his and he smiles proudly. She then lunges forward and wraps her little arms around his neck, then attempts to kiss his cheek. It ends up just being her lips touching his cheek but it's adorable nonetheless. Hadriana looks on and smiles.
"Aw, she is a little charmer already, just like you Alex..."
Alexander hugs her tightly.
"Hah, looks like it... Aw, did Sera give daddy a kiss?"

She smiles sweetly and nods while playing with his hair. She has most of her baby teeth now.
"You know, she is finding her feet too Alex... We should encourage her to try taking her first steps..."
He sighs.
"Oh my, I know... I cannot keep her away from anything now..."
Hadriana gets up.
"I can take her hands and walk behind her if you stand over there Alex? Try to get her to walk to you..."
Hadriana points to the corner of the room. Alexander gives Sera to Hadriana, puts his bag down and then walks over to the opposite corner of the room and crouches down. Hadriana puts Sera down onto her feet, stands behind her on the floor and then holds her hands. She starts toddling, occasionally losing her balance but doing considerably well. Hadriana walks around the room with her like that for a couple of minutes, then into the center of the room where she lets go of her hands. Alexander calls to her.
"Alright Sera... Can you walk to Daddy?"