The Wadhams: A Christmas Surprise
We’re delighted to bring you the continuing adventures of Life & The Wadhams, featuring the younger members of the family. Not yet met the Wadhams? Read the background on My Weekly’s best-loved family, then come back and enjoy the next generation’s adventures as Mike and Polly Wadham’s elder grandson, Alex Clark settles into family life with wife Natalie and toddler son William in their flat above Pretty Polly’s, the hairdressing and beauty salon which Natalie runs.
Natalie held one end of the steel tape measure, while Alex pulled it along the floor of the tiny second bedroom in their small flat, where two-year-old William’s cot-bed took up over half the space.
He released it back, and did some calculations on a pad of paper, then shook his head.
“It will have to be bunk beds,” he said. “It’s the only way we’re going to fit two kids in here to sleep. Unless we string a hammock from the roof.”
Natalie sighed. She’d set her heart on transferring William to the cutest cabin bed she’d seen at the local furniture store – her mum Carol had said she’d buy it, and the shop had promised they could have it by Christmas. But with a new baby due in June, she knew it didn’t make sense.
The baby would sleep alongside them for a few months, but before they knew it, he or she would need more space – and this room definitely wouldn’t accommodate two single beds.
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could just move house?” Natalie regretted the words as soon as they came out of her mouth. Alex could be sensitive – they might be a partnership, but he had old-fashioned ideas about being the main provider.
“Well, unless the mortgage rate comes down or you have a rich old aunt we don’t know about waiting to pop her clogs, we’re stuck here for now.” Alex frowned. “Grandma Polly has already helped us so much – we can’t ask the family for anything more.”
Natalie stretched up to kiss him. “I wouldn’t dream of it. And I’d rather be here with you and William and the bump than in the biggest mansion in town. We’ll manage fine. And William is going to love bunk beds, won’t you, Billy-o?”
Engrossed with making his toy cars crash into each other, William didn’t answer.
Natalie smoothed her hand over her bump. A sweet, quiet little girl would be so nice ….
Her sister-in-law Jennifer snorted into her coffee when Natalie met her at her mother-in-law’s later that day and confided her hopes for this baby.
“Have you met Ruby?” she exclaimed.
Alex and Jennifer, along with their younger brother Matty, adored their much younger sister Ruby, a surprise addition to the Clark family just over four years ago. However no one in their right mind would call her sweet or quiet! Wherever she was and whatever she was doing, she left a trail of destruction in her wake.
Once she’d stopped laughing, Jennifer enquired, “Will you find out the baby’s sex at the scan tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so.” Natalie shook her head. “We’ll have to wait till the second one – if we decide we want to know.”
She sounded dubious – she and Alex had been happy to be surprised with William, but it might be more practical to know in advance this time.
“Oh, do find out!” Jennifer pleaded. “Actually, I’ve got an even better idea. Have one of those private scans, where they know the results but you don’t, and then you can have a gender reveal party. I could organise it for you in Mum and Dad’s garden. It would be great fun. Imagine all the blue or pink balloons floating up to the sky.”
Despite her busy life as a student nurse, Jennifer was the party organiser for the Wadham and Clark clans. She’d been bitterly disappointed that her grandma had vetoed an 85th birthday party for her grandpa Mike last month, even though she knew the gentle, befuddled old man wouldn’t have fully grasped it.
“You can’t do that!” a scandalised voice said behind them. Amanda, daughter of the Clarks’ next-door-neighbours, had come looking for Matty, and had let herself in as usual. She was as much of the family as any of them.
“Why not?” Jennifer asked.
Amanda looked incredulous. At 13 years old, she had very decided views!
“You can’t label a person with gender pronouns before they are even born!” she declared. “They might be transgender or gender fluid, or bi-gender or non-binary – ” She’d run out of options, but carried on the attack regardless.
“Besides,” she added self-righteously. “Balloons are very bad for the environment. Imagine if one burst and landed in a field and was eaten by a cow and it swelled up in its stomach – ”
“OK!” Jennifer held up her hands in defeat, laughing. “We won’t use balloons. I’ll hire a cannon that fires out coloured smoke – and we’ll mix up the colours – that will be pretty.”
“But kind of defeats the point of a gender-reveal party.” Natalie laughed.
Amanda tossed her head and marched from the room. She knew when people were taking the mickey out of her.
“Well, I’m off.” Jennifer finished her coffee and stood up. “I’m on night shift tonight, so I’d better get back to the hospital. Good luck tomorrow, Natalie.” She bestowed a light kiss on her sister-in-law’s cheek and headed out into the dusk.
Alex grasped Natalie’s hand tightly as the sonographer guided the transducer over his young wife’s abdomen and a black and white image appeared on the screen beside her.
He couldn’t make head nor tail of it, but it was obviously making sense to the sonographer, who was studying it intently.
A slight frown appeared between her eyes, and Alex felt a moment of panic. Yes, this baby was unplanned, and their flat was going to feel smaller than ever when it arrived, but there couldn’t be anything wrong, there just couldn’t …
“I’ll just get a colleague to take a look at this.” The sonographer looked up. “Back in a minute.”
Alex and Natalie gripped hands tightly, unable to speak, their eyes mirroring each other’s dread. The minute they were alone felt like an hour before the sonographer and her colleague reappeared.
A few moments later they were reassured that all was well, and left, clutching a black and white photograph of their precious new offspring, still reeling from the experience they’d just been through.
They’d planned to pop in to Natalie’s mum and show her the scan, but once in the car, Natalie closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.
“Let’s get home,” she said. “I need a lie-down after all that.”
Home, tiny as it was, had never seemed so welcoming to the young couple. Alex tucked a blanket around Natalie as she lay on the sofa, and went off to pick up William from his mum’s.
There was the usual pandemonium at No. 23 Elderslie Terrace on Christmas Day, but Natalie wouldn’t have chosen to be anywhere else. Her mum Carol and partner Harry had decamped to Portugal for the holiday season, to spend time with Natalie’s grandparents, who were not getting any younger.
Carol had video called that morning to ask how William had liked all his presents, and been assured that he loved his new bunk bed and had already organised the bottom half into a garage “just like Daddy’s”.
Now, though, he was happily playing with Ruby while the grown-ups lounged around them on the sofas, replete from Christmas dinner.
“Right, tree presents now!” declared Jennifer, who could never sit still for long.
“Me! Me! I’ll give them out!” Ruby screeched, making a dive under the tree for the Santa hat her mum had promised she could wear. William ran after her, and the tree wobbled perilously under the combined assault.
Jim reached out a hand to steady it, while Pinky laughed.
I thought the tree might be safer this year,” she said. “now that William’s a bit older and the cats have settled down. Oh well, maybe next year.”
Ah, but there will be a new baby next year.” Grandma Polly beamed. “Though it will probably be too young to cause the kind of havoc these two do.” She gave Ruby and William a mock stern stare and they giggled in delight.
Alex glanced at Natalie. “Shall we tell them now?”
She nodded.
“Mum, Dad, we’ve one more Christmas surprise for you.” He took the sheaf of envelopes Natalie produced from her bag and handed one each to Pinky, Jim, Polly, Mike, Jennifer and Matty.
“Our new grandchild!” Pinky smiled fondly at Jim, as Mike looked bemused and Matty tried to hide his total lack of interest at the identical photographs they’d pulled from the envelopes.
Polly clutched her copy to her heart, too overwhelmed with emotion to speak.
It was Jennifer that got there first.
“But … there are two babies on there! You’re having twins!” she screeched.
The grown-ups all looked at the scans more closely.
“Oh my goodness!” Polly breathed. “A double delight.”
“More like double trouble.” Alex grinned broadly as Natalie received their family’s hugs and congratulations. They’d had time to get used to the idea and were definitely delighted.
They’d need a bigger home, that was for sure. But they’d worry about that next year.
