Chapter 22 - The Dispute

Everybody smiled as they didn't want to be scolded by this seven year old grade three pupil, the big sister of that infant sibling whom she had been earnestly & excitedly waiting for.

When the pedtrician, nurse, attendant, & her parents clapped their hands,she's so hastily putting her right point finger over her mouth and... "SSSSSSSHHHHHHH"

telling them to keep quiet.

They chuckled softly for Adrianne May might be reprimanding them again of their noise. She was too inquisitive on the day of when her mother and her kid brother would be discharged.

It's only when the pediatrician's pretence to be getting so mad at her, who'ld also warned her that her baby brother might be left in that hospital, had at last ended her obtrusiveness on their quick release for their home.

At home she would only be persuaded to leave her cute adorable baby brother

when she had to go to her school, eat & be wheedled to go shopping. On the toy store she would usually request her Dad to buy another stuffed toys for Baby Ace Sydney.

Once Sydney and Arm left forher school, she would go out to her garden with her son on her provident arm with warmth & love. She lovingly and cautiously stayed under a fruit tree with the rays of the sun that it'd stretched to pet her son with the vitamin that he needed.

This son that she bore was the opposite of her daughter who seldom cried when she was of his age. It was not a cry but a wail that could be heard even when you were at the ground floor because of the very sensitive intercom Sydney installed in his crib. It's good if Adrianne May was at home for she had all the time to give in to his every fretting moment by lulling him to sleep by singing for him some of the nursery songs that she memorized.

In the evening, a schedule who would be taking care of their most precious crying alarm clock's written at the small board nailed at the side part of his crib. From six until eleven in the evening, Splash's turn to take care, while Sydney's turn is from eleven in the evening till five in the morning.

While he was growing up, Ace's tantrum had decreased to almost fifty percent.

Their son was going to be four months as Splash had to return to be an office worker. Sydney objected knowing that she was breast feeding their son. Not that he couldn't buy a canned milk, not that he was a stingy father but his point of view was he was not trained to suck milk from a bottle because baby Ace had resisted and once they'll force him to be fed through it, he puked.

So, whenever he was scheduled to take care of him every night, all he did was to carry him beside his wife and watched him sucked milk from her breast.

They argued to the point that his wife was not talking to him anymore. While they were in their speechless mode of their relationship as couple, Splash tried hard to squeeze her milk in the feeding bottle, refrigerate it, and soak it in warm water before feeding it to their baby boy.

He did not puke nor fret. He played with his hands and toes while cooing or he'd slept soundly. It, consequently declared for a truce. They decided to buy a breast pump to press her milk & be preserved for six feedings while she was at her job.

She would also bring the breast pump at her work and some feeding bottles, too.

Finally, she was back to her office work after a week when her maternity leave was already ended for a hundred days.

Therefore, at that point, she didn't refuse his life partner's decision to add another household staff. Even though his factory of his VEAS was at their home, still, the need for a nanny, a gardener & a laundry woman had to be filled.During non office days, she engaged her time to her son who was still an infant. Suggestion was given to their gardener what, which, how, when, and where to plant and harvest.

Time flew as speedy as a Peregrine Falcon that seemed to be a bolt of lightning that suddenly come and go.

Ace Sydney Solis Britton was going to be one year old one month away that resulted to another dispute between Sydney and Splash.

"I want to give our son a pompous birthday celebration since it is his first birthday." Sydney told his wife.

"Why should you spend a huge amount of money if we could celebrate his first birthday in a moderate amount?" Splash protested.

"Honey, not that I refuse to appreciate your frugality but because he's precious to me." He insisted his spendthriftiness.

"Sydney, you are irrational again. What you were telling was when we spend for his first birthday with a meager amount then our son is no longer precious?"

She did not give her time to talk back.

"What if we don't have money? What will you do to tell the whole world that he's your most precious son?"

She continued talking very fast with her left arm in akimbo while her right arm's stretched so he could shake him by his shoulder.

"You're going to trade yourself? Or.. hey! You're going to steal?... Mmm.. Probably you're going to be a bank robber just to brag about your son's big day whom you

said to be very precious."

She's really enraged with his irrational sort of thinking. That was why she did not stop ranting.

"If our son is really precious with you, then, think of his future. He needs more and more money for his education."

"Come to think of it. One more thing is that he's still a baby who didn't know yet to appreciate. When he's twenty one years old, or it's his wedding day, that's the time that we have to need that big amount. That's the time to have a very luxurious celebration & banquet."

Knowing that he couldn't win from his point of argument, he had left her alone in their study room and went to the room to cuddle and play with his children.That was his turn not to talk to his wife for a week.

And what was the reaction of Splash?

"Who cares? I can live with him even if we never talk at all. After all, I was just concern with his money that it should be spent wisely." She thought sulkily.

Two days before her son's first birthday celebration she was overwhelmed with joy. Upon her entry by the gate he ran so fast calling the name of his husband.

"Sydney, hon.. where are you. Honey! Can you hear me? I've a good news for you!"

She ran to his shop first. But when she found that he wasn't there, she went to the front door to get inside their home. Sydney who was at that time carrying their son at the porch had watched her and heard her yell. So, he swiftly walked toward the stairs to meet her.

"Yes, sweetheart? What's that big news that you want to share with me?"

She dragged them in the family room upstairs, hugged them, kissed their son, next was a kiss with a sound and saying "mmmuuuuwwwaaa!"

Then she got her son from him and they seated side by side on the coach before breaking the news. "Hon, I am promoted as the assistant of our boss."

Indeed, he became speechless but he stood up, lifted her up with his hands locked at the back of her waist and they turned around while congratulating her.

When he put her down, he kissed her affectionately and said;" It called for a celebration, darling. That means that my proposal for a pompous banquet would be pushed through."

"Honey, no! We have to be thrifty not stingy. I had invited them here at home on our son's first birthday. I had his cake paid, balloons, and give aways. It means that you'll give Mariah an amount to buy all these goods in my list. We're going to help our cook prepare the dishes."

That late afternoon, Mariah bought all the goods in the list. When their dinner was over, their cook had his overtime to cook for them the necessary desserts that would be served with the planned dishes that their cook had to cook the following day like fruit salad, vegetable salad, and others that needed to be in a refrigerator to be frozen.

The night before their son's first big day,

they helped decorate which was peanut to them as the garden was already well designed. All they did was to put some ribbons & numbers for treasure hunting game for the children.

What they had to spend as an additional expenses was the rent for the tables and chairs.But the table cloth and seat cover was paid by Splash as she was planning to let her husband make their own to be used in the future.

The big day had come. As expected all those whom they invited attended their son's first day. To avoid some additional amount for the video coverage byasking the cook to do the videoing as they had taught him how to do it for months was never bad at all.

The party was thoroughly done without any hitch as it was smoothly completed according to how had Splash planned it for that eventful celebration of his son's big day. Her dispute with her husband's worth arguing with as they had only to spend moderately.

As she was the family cashier or their treasurer and their light, therefore, she would act like one. Money, yesteryears, today, and tomorrow is too difficult to be earned. She was so scared that one day when they woke up they would be at the dump site. "Life is like a wheel", a saying that she would never forget.

No matter how lavishly the banquet plus the decorations were, if the hospitality of the hosts were only for show of what they had, then it would be useless.

Whereas, no matter how simple the celebration was done, once the host was so hospitable and warm, it was more than a flashy celebration.

Anyway, their son was the product of their senseless dispute that they could resolve at once.