Victoria Cadwallader (beavertails) wrote in valesco,
@ 2011-05-30 18:08:00

Entry tags:

Who: Victoria, Ava, Katie and Ian
What: Both of them are having problems with this 'parenting' thing. It's like a pow-wow parents' meeting.
Where: Jubilee Gardens, London
When: Noon-ish of the 30th.

It had become painfully obvious in the past few days that while she had been excited for trying the whole 'parenting' thing on for size, she was not very good at it. Ava had in the last 72 hours: peed on her shoes, punched her in the eye, and thrown her dinner plate out the window (and onto some very disgruntled people walking past, from the sounds of things immediately afterward). How had she been expected to know that Ava liked her apple slices cut in half? It had been a very frustrating meal -- she wasn't sure what she might've done if her brother hadn't stepped in to give her a break after the meal. Parenting a child that you hadn't had from birth was certainly a two-person job, and even though Scott was an annoying brat most of the time, she supposed that he had his uses. He'd helped her wrangle Ava into her jumper this morning, after all.

Victoria glanced down to the seemingly innocent two-year old holding her hand, managing to force out a smile for the girl. Ava had been better this morning after she'd caught Victoria sniffling over her cereal. She'd hugged onto her leg and told her not to be sad - Victoria doubted the girl fully understood why she'd been upset, but it had been a nice gesture anyway.

"So, I actually brought you here for a special treat today," she said as they rounded the corner toward the park, "we're going to meet another little girl!" And her father, but she figured that Ava probably wouldn't care much about meeting Ian Bell. She'd been born into a Quidditch family, meeting another Quidditch player was just ... boring. It was a shame she wasn't friends with any clowns.

Ava looked warily up to her, and Victoria gave the girl's hand a firmer squeeze. She'd been reading that it would be easier to get Ava to stop being such a brat all the time if she started to give her choices. "Before we meet up with them, you can have a snack - would you like oyster crackers, or apple sauce?" Victoria pulled her bag out to the side, rummaging through the sack while she waited for Ava's answer. Hopefully she'd be visible to Ian a mile away; there weren't many other parents at the park just yet.

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gimmeabell
2011-05-31 01:28 am UTC (link)

A quick laugh came out almost as a snort before Ian could control it. He couldn't really help it--after all, one of those Extremely Strong Personalities he had mention was Seth himself. "Well, I guess be glad that you passed by most of it," he said. "Although usually he's only mean to the new recruits, and usually only when they aren't girls he thinks are cute... Not so bad once he gets used to the team. I have to admit that he helped me pull a few pretty awesome pranks on Finn back when we were both ne---"

"PAPA! LOOK!"

He was interrupted by shrieks of delight coming from the direction of his daughter. Now, somehow during the five seconds when he had looked away and right that moment, Katie had managed to find yet another worm---no, two worms. One was extended towards him proudly, the other she had handed off to the other child.

"Katie, seriously!" Ian looked caught between exasperated and amused as he jumped up to grab his daughter. Throwing his arm around her waist, he lifted her up and grabbed the new worm out of her hand, then leaned down and picked up the one she had given Ava. Groaning and ignoring Katie's frustrated kicking, he looked apologetically at Victoria. "I'm sorry. She's a handful sometimes. I don't always remember to keep my eyes solidly focused on her."

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beavertails
2011-05-31 01:41 am UTC (link)

Victoria smirked at Ian's words. "I'm sure that he's much less fun now, but he seems to be a better player -- and that's what matters in the long run, I'm told." She was about to continue talking shop, as it were, when the two girls sauntered up properly muddy and looking terribly pleased with themselves. She blinked, not seeing the big deal with the worm other than the fact that if the girl ate it, she was probably going to get pretty sick.

Ava whined just as hard as when Ian took away her own worm, but she ended up going to Victoria's side. That had to be a good thing, right? She half-laughed.

"Oh, don't worry about it. No harm in a little dirt other than to my time scrubbing out the stains." Or, more realistically, her brother scrubbing out the stains while she tried to get Ava into the tub again. She picked up Ava to give her nose a beep, ignoring the sand down the front of her shirt. "You shouldn't play with worms, button. They could squirm up your sleeve and then up your neck, and then into your nose!!"

...Ava looks properly horrified at this idea.

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gimmeabell
2011-05-31 02:08 am UTC (link)

...the problem was, knowing Katie, she would try to eat the worms.

Ian had had more than one experience lately with his perfect little girl putting many not-so-perfect little things in her mouth. Merlin, 27/4 fatherhood was literally the most tiring thing he had experienced in his life, and that included Finn's torturous practice sessions.

He let out a laugh at the look on Ava's--and Katie's--faces at Victoria's tale... and at the way Katie immediately calmed down in her horrific realization. Finally feeling like she was safe for the time being, he set the little girl back on her feet, only to have her suddenly sticking very close to his leg. Nervously, she looked at the ground, searching out where the earthworms had gone off to but suddenly lot quite looking as if she wanted to discover them again.

"That was brilliant," he said, impressed. "For having just being made a parent, you're doing pretty well. A fair share better than I've been doing."

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beavertails
2011-05-31 02:15 am UTC (link)

She couldn't help but laugh.

"Oh, that's just what my brothers and sisters used to tell me when I was young. A little bit older than these two, maybe, but still wanting to put every little thing in my mouth." If she realized how that sounded, she wasn't going to admit to it. Victoria set Ava back down on the ground and shooed her off toward Katie, hoping that they would go back to playing. It wasn't that she wanted to be rid of the girl so well, it was just that -- well, she wanted them to keep paying.

The more she played with other people now, the less energy she'd have later on. That was a good thing not only for herself but for her brother.

"I'm sure you're doing well. I mean, at least you're sure that you -want- to be a father. I -- well, you know Vinny, right? I think he's mentioned you before. He doesn't think he's so sure." Surely Ian knew how hard it was when the other person who was supposed to be responsible for your child wanted to try, but didn't seem to be succeeding.

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gimmeabell
2011-05-31 05:20 pm UTC (link)

Ian frowned at Victoria's words and sat back down, leaving Katie to employ her new mate in her search of the rogue worms.

"I guess I know now I want to be a father," he said with a shrug. "I didn't back then. Katie was definitely..." what was another word for 'sudden accident'? "...not something we expected to have in our lives." He stared out at the blonde toddler, and suddenly felt overwhelmed by a smile again. "But you know, it gets easier. Even if you're terrified and deny it in the beginning. It's just, it's a huge change and it's a steep learning curve and that's pretty scary, but..."

He shot her a reassuring smile. "Vinny's a good guy from what I know of him, right? He'll come around. He probably just needs time to let it all sink in." After all, he spoke from experience in the matter. Men didn't have that maternal instinct women did, they didn't grasp on to all of that stuff so quickly and naturally. That was exactly what he was struggling with right at the moment.

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beavertails
2011-06-02 02:17 am UTC (link)

"So Katie was a 'happy' surprise, huh?" She laughed again, glad to feel at ease enough to do so. It had been at least a few days since she'd felt like she really had a grasp on ... anything at all.

Ava seemed happy enough to join Katie on her worm-avoidance. Victoria sat herself back down opposite Ian and shrugged her shoulders, frowning only slightly. "I'm sure that Vinny will come around; he can be kind of a stupid ass sometimes, but I know he always ends up feeling bad about it ... I'm just hoping that it's sooner rather than later." Because if this went on for much longer, she was fairly sure that Scott was going to punch Vinny in the face. Her brother packed a mean right hook, and it would definitely not be good publicity for her.

"Thanks, though. So far I haven't really done anything that I think merits the 'worst parent ever' label, but that could definitely change quickly." She was extremely paranoid she was going to look away for a second or have to go to the bathroom and come back to Ava either doing something very naughty or have her be seriously hurt.

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gimmeabell
2011-06-02 10:46 pm UTC (link)

Ian laughed. "I'm sure you'll be fine," he reassured her. Although he wasn't entirely sure why it was so easy to reassure someone else when he himself was paranoid about the same thing. When was the moment going to come when he royally screwed something up? He felt like it had to be close. "If I haven't managed to drop Katie off a balcony, I'm sure you're not going to do anything terribly wrong with Ava."

Truthfully, he wasn't sure why he felt so eased with Victoria. It was the first reprieve he felt like he'd had in months from how much life sucked and how scared he was to be on his own with his daughter--well, except for when he was up in the air playing Quidditch, but even then he was still in the back of his mind worried about how Katie was doing back on the ground. It was nice to have someone to talk to who really understood exactly what he was going through and could share reassurances that neither of them were going to do anything terrible, and they'd both get through it.

"I think we should hang out more often," he said, finally. "I don't think the girls would protest."

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