The Perfect Family

Chapter 11: Jack

It breaks my heart to let Emilie know that we'll be travelling alone. But on the bright side, she is handling it better than I thought she would. Now its just a matter of telling the kids.

"Would you look at the time. Its nearly 2:20pm" I say as Emilie bounces Kyson on her knees while Maddox naps upstairs.

"Should I get them?" Emilie asks.

"Its alright. You can stay here with the boys. Might as well take advantage of a little father time while they can, don't you think?" I respond as I place a kiss on her head.

"Okay, be back soon. And no more ice cream stops on the way" Emilie says as she heads upstairs to check on Maddox and change Kyson as she notices the spit bubble on his outfit.

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Per my wife's request, I won't be stopping for ice cream on the way home. But she didn't say anything about on the way to my daughters' school. Even though the book signing is a couple of months away, I'd rather break the news to them sooner rather than later. So, before picking the twins up, I have one pit stop to make.

"Question is what don't you have?" I sigh as I look around at the toys in Toys R Us.  Julia and Lucy have nearly everything Fox or Disney related. I'm thinking to get them a little something to soften the news.

"Hey, you old coot. Shouldn't you be at school?" Michael says as he approaches with Hunter.

"Hey, Mike. I'm on my way now, just picking a few things up for the kids. Hi Hunter" I respond as I kneel down to my godson's level.

"Hi" Hunter says, revealing grin with 2 missing teeth.

"Did the tooth fairy come visit you?" I ask.

"Yes" Hunter responds as he slurs his S's.

"So, how did  Em take the news?" Michael asks as I stand errect.

"It breaks her hearts to leave the kids, especially the boys. But she's coming around to it" I shrug.

"That's good news. Does she know which book it is?" Michael asks.

"Nope. That's a surprise. I can't wait to see her face when she sees" I answer.

"Are you kidding? I'm sure she'll love it" Michael said.

"I can only hope" I reply with a slight grin.

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Meanwhile, Lucy and Julia continue to wait for me, and they are getting a little worried.

"Where is papa? He has to be here soon" Lucy says as she reaches for her Olaf plush at the back of her cubby.

"I don't know. Do you think he forgot us?" Julia responds.

"I'm sure he didn't forget about the two of you. It's probably just the traffic. This is New York after all, the streets are always crazy" a voice says as a tall man with dark hair approaches.

"Are you sure, Mr. Douglas?" Lucy asks as she looks at her teacher with wide eyes.

"I'm absolutely positive. Now, why don't you finish your art projects while you wait?" Mr. Douglas offered.

"Okay" Julia and Lucy say in unison as they run to their table and grab their favourite crayons.

~X~

In a matter of minutes, I have chosen the presents for the twins, and a little something for Maddox as well and I am off to school to get them.

"Did someone forget about me?" I say as I stand in the door way to find my daughters working hard at their art projects.

"Papa!" they squeal as they jump into my arms.

"What took you so long?" Julia asks.

"I'll tell you later, lets go home" I say I take each of their hands in mine and we walk out the door and into the parking lot.

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"Maddox, please eat. You want to get big and strong like Papa, don't you?" Emilie says as she attempts to get the stubbborn toddler to eat his bananas and grape juice.

Maddox indicated that he was hungry earlier, but appears to have lost interest since a new episode of Curious George has come on. Emilie knows her cue when not to force things with him. So, she decides to wait until I get home to see of things will settle by then.

"We're home!" I shout as I enter the house with the twins.

"There are my girls! How was school?" Emilie asks as she kneels to hug them both.

"Here!" Julia and Lucy say in unison as they each hand their mother the drawings they had been working on.

"Oh wow, I know where this is going" Emilie smiles as she looks at Lucy's drawing of Anna and Elsa from Frozen, and Julia's drawing of Todd and Copper from Fox and the Hound, and heads to the fridge.

"What have you and the boys been up to?" I ask as I grab an apple from the fruit bowl and rinse it.

"Well, Maddox woke up from his nap, and for the first time, he didn't wake up in a desperate scramble to look for you. He now refuses to eat his snack because of a back to back Curious George marathon" Emilie answers.

"What is he having for snack?" I ask.

"Banana slices and grape juice. Why?" Emilie responds.

"Watch. Hey, Maddox, look" I say as I grab his storybook and open it to Curious George at snack time.

"What's that?" Emilie says, playing along.

"Curious George is having a snack too. Oh, and he's eating the same thing. He loves bananas and grape juice" I say, attempting to engage him, while Emilie heads upstairs to retrieve something.

"Hey, Maddox, wanna have snack with me?" Emilie says as she comes down with Kyson and Maddox's Curious George doll.

Maddox nods in response as he reaches for the stuffed animal.

"Here you, go. Before you go to bed tonight, papa has another surprise for you" I say as I hand him the plush and place the bowl of fruit in the table in front of him.

"How did you do that?" Emilie asks with a smile as we sit on the couch and she cuddles in close to me with Kyson in her arms.

"Guess you can call me the toddler whisperer" I wink.

"No, seriously. I want to know just in case I'm home alone again or when I go back to work" Emilie laughs.

"Okay. I read it in a book by Temple Grandin that a child's fixation could be used to motivate them" I revealed.

"Good to know. I'll have to take a look at that book myself one day" Emilie responds as she kisses my cheek and hands Kyson to me.

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"Julia! Lucy! Time for dinner!" Emilie calls as she approaches their door and find them covered in washable marker.

"My gosh, did a rainbow explode in here?" Emilie gasps as she urges them to go to the bathroom and get cleaned up.

"Yup!" Lucy says.

"Rainbow Dash spit up on us at school" Julia laughs, refering to a character from My Little Pony whom she learned about from a friend of hers.

"I can see that, but I think we have to clean it up. Papa has a big surprise for you after we eat" Emilie says.

"Really?" Julia responds.

"Yes! Papa has to tell us something very important and he has some things to give you" Emilie reveals.

"But its not Christmas or our birthday" Lucy responds.

"Even so. Just go, I want to see what he got you" Emilie says.

"Okay!" the twins say as they race to the bathroom.

While Emilie heads across the hall to soothe a hungry and wet Kyson, I am setting the table and fighting a nervous feeling as I think of how to tell the kids about the book signing. Do I sense a case of separation anxiety?? Maybe I'm just being paranoid. They'd probably be really happy for me. Here it goes.