The Collier Legacy: Generation 2, Chapter 3: Bébé peut-être?

Life with Blanche was more fascinating and wonderful than I ever could have imagined. I knew I always wanted to be a mom, but I could not have prepared myself for how much I was going to enjoy it. Even as a baby, I felt like she had so much life emanating from her tiny little body, and I couldn’t wait to teach her and learn from her as well. Sometimes I found myself rising from bed in the middle of the night and tiptoeing to her nursery, just to snuggle her warm body close to mine. I had wanted to put her crib into the bedroom at first – just until she had gotten a little older and could sleep through the night without needing attending to – but Yves had given me a definite “no” on that, so I got my baby fix whenever I could.

Yves was a fantastic father as well, though there was never any doubt in my mind that he would be. He was always cooing over Blanche whenever he had a spare moment. On more than one occasion I walked into the nursery only to find him sitting with her and singing softly in French. It was endearing and adorable. It made me love them both even more.

However, Kai surprised me the most when it came to Blanche. He stepped right into the “Uncle” shoes to help with Blanche, and we didn’t even have to ask. He stopped spending all of his time brooding in the studio, and because his room was right across from the nursery, he was often the first one there if Blanche cried out in the night. Between his girl problems and Mama’s death, I admit that I fretted over Kai a great deal. But when we brought Blanche home, it was like life had been breathed back into him. It was certainly a sight to behold.

Speaking of Kai, his birthday snuck up on us and I will be the first to (embarrassingly) admit that I had completely forgotten until my cell phone calendar reminded me. I panicked I saw the words on the screen.

“Kai’s 18^th birthday!” How could I have forgotten his birthday? I felt like a terrible sister, and especially after he’d been helping us so much.

I called Yves at work and asked him to bring home a cake. I made a few other phone calls to invite some of Kai’s friends over. He deserved a party, and by God I was going to make it happen.

He arrived home from school that afternoon and was thoroughly surprised and excited to find himself surrounded by family and friends.

As he blew out the candles, I couldn’t help but feel a bit wistful for our youth. Kai and I had been as thick as thieves since he was born, and now he was all grown up. I wouldn’t trade my life for anything in the world – being an adult rocks! But I wished for a brief moment that we could go back to being kids again, even if it was just for a few hours.

He was a handsome young man, just like I knew he would be. I was secretly pleased that he decided to ditch the "surfer dude" haircut he'd sported as a teen. He looked much better with short hair.

Kai slipped off to his room to change his clothes while I doled out cake and ice cream. When he emerged, his eyes fell on someone coming in through the front door – a late arrival to the party.

“I’m sorry I’m late. Work kept me a little longer than I had anticipated.”

Tricia stood in the doorway and gave us a small wave. Kai hadn’t moved from his spot and it seemed like he couldn’t believe she was actually there. She had grown up too, and she was just as lovely to him as she always had been.

I smiled to myself – this had been my final surprise to my baby brother on his birthday. Oh god, I have to stop calling him that. He hasn’t been a baby in a long time and now that he’s an adult, it feels even sillier to say. Yves gave me a look of disapproval.

“Oh Vivi. Why torture the poor boy further?”

But I explained to Yves that even though she had once rejected him, she had grown up now. And he had never stopped pining for her. I just had this feeling, you know? You’re a man, Yves. You wouldn’t understand.

The party went well into the night. We eventually moved things outside to the fire pit underneath the willow tree in the backyard, and spent the evening reminiscing and drinking nectar. It was truly a wonderful birthday and I was very happy for my brother.

As we began cleaning up and saying goodnight to the guests, Kai finally got what he had been longing for all this time.

A goodnight kiss from the girl of his dreams. From that night on, Tricia and Kai were an item.

The next morning, Yves decided to surprise Kai with a true rite of passage – tattoos. I was trying to be supportive of the idea, but deep down I didn’t know how I felt about it. I decided to skip accompanying them to the parlor and focused my time on planning Blanche’s upcoming birthday. Goodness, is it time for that already? I’m not ready for my little girl to be grown up.

Meanwhile, at the tattoo parlor, Yves was being very stoic and calm with his tattoo artist.

Whereas Kai was much less enthusiastic.

We decided to have a quiet family party for Blanche’s birthday. After all, she was so young she wouldn’t remember it anyway. I was ready for Blanche to be a toddler. I couldn’t wait to teach her how to walk and talk, to hear everything she had to say.

Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. Blanche was quite precocious and eager to learn all of these things from the start. Yves and I could barely keep up with her.

Sometimes it felt like she was only being still and quiet when it was time for her to eat.

However, she was also independent when she wanted to be…provided there were blocks to play with, that is. Even though she was just a toddler, I sensed that she had some artistic tendencies. She favored certain colors of blocks depending on her mood, and she painstakingly sorted each block according to color.

I worried about not being able to keep up with just one toddler, because I also found out I was expecting again.

I was thrilled at the prospect of welcoming another baby Collier into our home, but I was also stressing about how we’d be able to handle it all. Thank God for Kai. Seriously. He was relishing being an uncle to a toddler and I was extremely grateful that he offered to step in as much as he did, because it gave Yves and I some much needed downtime to prepare for the new arrival.

It was a sunny, bright morning when I went into labor. I was working on a painting in the studio Yves was still sleeping off the previous night’s work. Kai was at his new job at the Llama Memorial Stadium, so it was just Blanche and myself when I felt the familiar, gripping pains of an impending labor.

I dialed Tricia, who agreed to come watch Blanche. I managed to waddle into the bedroom to rouse Yves, and we rushed away to the hospital.