Another pearl

Round 25: Winter 2021

last update + wedding mini-update/next update

Evan Moretti is 32, Ione is 25 and Justin and Xavier are 3 months old.
(Filippo is 66, Emil is 49, Lia is 24, Araminta is 58, Henry is 56, and Elspeth is 7).

Narrated by Evan Moretti

It's unbelievable how much things have changed for us in less than a year. This time last year, Ione and I were in the middle of wedding preparations and now, we're married with twin sons.


We spent our wedding night in a hotel room, which was really nice but one day, we'd love a real honeymoon, sans kids.

Right now, every time we get some alone time, one of the boys starts crying and we have to attend to them. And once Xavier starts crying, Justin starts crying, it takes forever to settle them down and by the time we do, we're both too exhausted to do anything.

I'm not too confident yet as a dad, so Ione is having me read all of her parenting books. She finds them reassuring but I think they actually make me more nervous! All the things that can go wrong and all the many ways there are to completely screw up your kids.

The twins were unexpected but welcome. I was so freaked out when Ione came out of the bathroom after doing the pregnancy test and told me we got a positive. We'd only been married a few weeks at that point. Then when they were born, they were so tiny that I just worried I'd break them, or drop them.

My brother Emil is a total sucker for babies but Anna never agreed to having a third, so he has to be content with playing uncle instead.

It was Emil who was partially responsible for getting me used to the twins. I was the youngest in the family and despite my multitude of nieces and nephews (7 nieces and 4 nephews!), I never really got much experience with babies before Justin and Xavier.

I still wonder if I quite know what I'm doing some days but it's getting a little bit easier.

Of the two of us, Ione has the tougher job anyway. She's currently on maternity leave, so she's often alone with the boys during the day.

Ione was really excited when we found out she was pregnant but she has admitted she finds being at home with the twins a little lonely sometimes. When she's got the time away from work, Ione's friend Lia comes to visit. She likes getting a chance for some adult conversation during the day.

From what Ione tells me, Lia is desperate for a baby of her own but her boyfriend's not making any moves to propose so far. She's always telling Ione how jealous she is!

When I get home, I try to take over and let Ione get some R&R but it doesn't make up for the fact that she's doing this by herself most days.

It's hard to feel like cooking dinner after working all day and Ione's the better cook but I figure she's probably more tired than me, so I normally do it. I just sit behind a desk all day.

Besides, if I do something easy, it doesn't take so long and then we can both sit down and relax for a bit while we eat.

Until one of the boys starts crying for something, that is.

It's very rare that it's just us at home nowadays. We seem to always have company.

Our families are all pretty excited about the twins, so we've had visitors streaming in and out the front door almost constantly since they were born. Most of our relatives are more than willing to lend a hand with the boys, so it's actually a nice break for us.

Ione's parents have both been a really great help to us, so I guess the least we could do is feed them!

My Dad usually stops by to see the boys while Nathan and Hope are in school. If Mum was still alive, we probably wouldn't have been able to keep her out of here! I think Dad might be becoming even worse than Mum was with the grandbaby lust - he says he wants 20!

Dad adores Ione so it's a good opportunity for him to catch up with her too.

Usually though, Ione takes advantage of Dad's willingness to help and takes a nap while he's over. It just means she's a tiny bit less tired later on.

Since we became parents, neither of us have had much time to work on our hobbies, so I came home with a gift for Ione.

Ione became quite skilled at toy making while she was at college so I thought she might appreciate a new workbench. Even though she was exhausted, she was so keen to get started again that she got to work on a water wiggler right away.

I decided I wanted to learn too, so Ione agreed to show me what she knew.

So far, I've made...a painted brick. Not too impressive but it's a start.

Notes:

• Title is from Another Pearl by Badly Drawn Boy.
• Phew, so this was all about the babies but babies are about all Ione and Evan have time for. It's really exhausting. Especially for me.
• Emil and Lia visited autonomously and a couple of days after the family dinner, Araminta visited the house of her own accord. I love when Sims do that.
• Filippo has the 20 grandchildren want, as well as the want to have a baby. Um...yeah, that's not happening. Filippo already has 11 grandchildren but he needs another 9, apparently. All of his kids, except for Evan, are most definitely done as far as I'm concerned so...pressure's on, Ione and Evan? LOL. Henry and Araminta also have the 20 grandchildren want but those two are completely nuts.
• Evan was promoted to Captain Hero (LTW FTW! I just wish it wasn't such a dumb job title) and got a nice little bonus. Every time he gets a bonus from work, he rolls up the want to give a gift, which is quite sweet. Last time he did it, he bought an arcade machine for Amelia to smooth things over after she attacked him at his party and was furious with him. This time, he rolled the want to buy a gift specifically for Ione (which I hadn't seen before), so he went for the toy making bench. It'll come in handy once the boys are older!