A year of reflection “No no, that’s your lunch, you eat it.” Fae said with a soft laugh as Penelope tried to give her a blue berry. It was hard to believe that her little baby was going to be a year old next month. It had been a year of ups and downs for Fae. Being a new mother had been challenging and Fae had done the best that she could. Looking at her daughter, who was healthy, happy, and developing perfectly according to her Healer, Fae thought they had done a pretty fantastic job so far. But she might be a little bias.
Penelope screeched merrily as she stuffed more berries into her mouth. She was always a good eater. Much better than Fae way even at her age. The salad in front of her was barely even touched as most of her attention was on that of her daughter while she ate. In the beginning months of Penelope’s life, Fae had let a long of the left over pregnancy hormones control her. She had cried a lot and hated how she had looked. She loved her baby that was never an issue. She just had a hard time being an adult. She had thought that Arnold would leave her because she couldn’t lose the baby weight fast enough, which was ridiculous because their intimacy had never changed. Then she was worried that he’d be upset with her because she couldn’t go to as many games as she used to because of the baby. She had been terrified of doing something that would harm Penelope even though she had plenty of help whenever she needed it. She was always just scared of living and life and doing anything for fear of consequence.
Eventually though, she got over it. She still had those moments, but she still had Arnold, her in-laws were wonderful, and her family was just a floo call away. “Okay, okay, I’ll eat it.” Fae said, taking her daughter’s chubby hand that was held out to her and pretended to munch on it, making sounds as she did. Penelope always found this game to be hilarious and erupted with a fit of laughter as her mother ‘ate’ the berry. Fae laughed too and gently rubbed the blonde curls on top of Penelope’s head. “You’re as silly as your daddy.” She stated, still smiling. Despite Penelope looking like Fae now, she sometimes wondered how much of Arnold's personality Penelope would have. Would she want to play Quidditch like him? Would the Careys' even allow that? Would she be sweet and kind the way Arnold was with everyone? Would she just go with the flow of life and adapt the way Arnold seemed to be able to do? Fae hoped so. Fae didn't want Penelope to have the same anxieties as she did.
“Are you all done?” She asked, knowing that she would not get a true answer. Penelope excitedly wiggled in her seat and held out her arms. “Okay, let me wash you up first.” Fae replied, standing up and quickly grabbing a washcloth to wet. Penelope gave an angry grunt behind her as she was growing fussy with being trapped in her seat. Fae returned and quickly cleaned her hands and face, watching as Penelope’s little tongue stuck out to try to catch the cloth as it went by. “Okay, all done.” Fae announced, dropping the cloth on the tray and detaching the tray from the seat so that she could unbuckle the baby. She’d clean up later when Penelope was napping.
“Guess what, Penny?” Fae said as she pulled Penelope into her arms, “Daddy’s coming home today and I hear that they won their game so we’ll have to celebrate with him. Yay!” Penelope responded by flailing around and screeching excitedly. She was definitely Daddy’s Little Girl.