Napoleon says

Round 21: Spring 2014

Last update/next update

Augustin and Hanna Novak are both 59, Naomi is 39, Owen is 37, Adrienne is 7 and Malcolm is 4.
(Georgette is 74, Kirstin is 31 and Camilla and Lila are both 1)

Narrated by Owen Novak

I didn't get a promotion. Again. I work my ass off at that firm and I'm still only a paralegal. Naomi says she doesn't care but I feel like I should be able to contribute to our family a lot more than I do.


Sucking up to Georgette has been all for nought. I don't know what she wants from me.

I even tried asking Kirstin for advice. She's 6 years younger than me and is already my superior at work. She said she'd try to put in a good word for me.

Kirstin brought her daughters Camilla and Lila with her. I still can't believe my baby sister has babies of her own!

From watching her, it doesn't look like she's doing too badly at motherhood either. Kirstin was so nervous about it but now she's saying she can't wait to teach them things and watch them learn.

Playing with my nieces almost makes me want another one.

We've got our hands plenty full with just Adrienne and Malcolm.

And potty training isn't something we want to do for a third time.

To take my mind off my job, Naomi surprised me with a trip to our holiday house. I was actually at work when the shuttle arrived at the house and they swung by the office to pick me up. Naomi had cleared it all with Georgette and yeah, you could definitely say I was surprised!

I think I would have been satisfied just staying at the house for the whole trip and for the first day, that's all we did.

Naomi spent the whole day painting.

I spent the day with the kids - I don't get to see them nearly as often as Naomi does. And yes, we brought Malcolm on vacation with us. He's not old enough to care where he is but we wanted him with us.

We didn't want to be those parents, with the children completely unaware of cultural traditions so I taught Adrienne to bow before we went out on the town.

We also made arrangements for a nanny to come and look after Malcolm the next day, so we could go sightseeing.

So she arrived bright and early the next morning and we were off.

We spent most of our time doing all the different tours on offer but we stopped once we all came down with a bad case of poison ivy! That was the most uncomfortable I've ever been in my life.

We made sure to stop somewhere for dinner before we headed off home, so Adrienne could sample some traditional cuisine. She was a pro with the chopsticks!

All in all, it was a great break and just what I needed. Not the most romantic trip on Earth, with Adrienne watching us the whole time but nice nonetheless.

Adrienne enjoyed herself too - she couldn't wait to tell Augustin all about the trip when we got back!

Notes:

• Kirstin has the want to teach both her daughters to walk. Bless! It makes me happy that she's such an involved mother.
• Malcolm came on vacation with the Novaks basically just to see if I could do it. And I can, so mission accomplished. I used the Restore Family option on InSim and then deleted the dogs and Augustin and Hanna. I didn't take Malcolm to any community lots with them but you could do it the same way, with Restore Family once you get to the community lot. Had I taken them to the beach, I probably would have taken Malcolm and let him eat sand. Or whatever else it is that toddlers do at the beach!