Stone on the water

Round 30: April 2032 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Finn and Victoria Romilly are both 31, Declan is 11, Caitlin is 9 and Keira is 1.
(Araminta is 69, Megan is 60, Claudia and Jacob are both 31, Rebecca is 23, Daphne is 1)

Narrated by Victoria Romilly

After Caitlin was born, I put on a little weight and once she started school, I put on a lot more. It finally got to the point where it was bothering me, so I decided to do something about it.

I've been using the exercise bike whenever I can and I'm definitely seeing results now, which is very satisfying.

Finn never minded that I put on weight but I feel better about myself now that I'm fit. The hard part now will be keeping it off. The only time I can exercise is when Finn is home, which makes it hard to find the time.

The main reason for that is that last April, our family went from just the four of us...

...to the five of us, when we had Keira, who just turned 1. It's been an adjustment having a toddler around again but we've enjoyed it too.

I have to say though, if she was our first child, I think we would have been much more nervous about having another, so I'm glad she came last! Keira won't let us leave her alone for a second.

Keira just can't wait for anything. It always needs to happen now!

At the same time, we can already tell Keira has an incredibly sweet nature. She's always wanting cuddles and kisses from Declan and Caitlin.

As soon as they get home from school, she's all over them. Thankfully, Declan and Caitlin love Keira too. They were both desperate for a little brother or sister but I wasn't sure if the reality of it would seem as fun. So far, so good.

Keira's good qualities are definitely outweighing her not-so-good ones.

We were so glad we were finally able to have another one.

We've discussed it though and Keira will definitely be our last baby. Finn and I have both always thought that three kids would be our limit.

Now that we've reached that point, it still seems right for us. Our family feels complete. Once we pay off the mortgage, we might even be able to go on vacation. We wouldn't be able to do that with another baby.

And besides, we got started young and we're vaguely looking forward to the future when we might have some time to ourselves again.

I feel like that time might creep up on us before we realise it. Declan is 11 now!

He's definitely still very much a kid at the moment. He's much more interested in his ant farm and his telescope than he is interested in girls or anything like that.

But I have to face facts; I'm going to have a teenager in a couple of years. That's a little frightening!

Caitlin is in Finn's class as well now and she's really stepped up her game with school. She's getting straight As now.

I guess it helps knowing that your dad knows exactly how much homework you have and how long it should take you to do it.

I'm back at work now and really happy to be there. Seeing I'm done having kids now and won't have to take any more lengthy breaks, I'm hoping I can advance in my career a little faster.

I love being at home with the kids and my break during maternity leave was nice but I love my job too. Even if we didn't need the money, which we definitely do, I'd still keep working.

The worst thing about going back is not getting to see Claudia nearly as often. Her maternity leave finished two months ago and she decided to resign from her job, rather than go back.

When she can, she brings Daphne to the aquarium and we have lunch together, which is nice. I just wish it could happen more often.

If we don't see each other during the week, we catch up on weekends when we have everybody over.

It's just hard to vent about Mum when she's right there though. Not that Mum is all we talk about when we get together but she definitely comes up, if she's had one of her moments recently!
Now that Claudia and I are both married with children, which is The Way It Should Be (according to Mum), she's switched most of her focus to Rebecca.

Rebecca's finishing up her Master's in psychology but Mum just wants to know when she's going to get a boyfriend. She's waiting for another wedding and for more grandbabies.

I think she'll get another grandkid out of Claudia before she gets one from Rebecca. She and Jacob aren't trying again yet but Claudia is saying they definitely will in the next year or so.

I'm a bit jealous of Claudia, actually, being able to plan her kids so close together. Declan and Caitlin are so tight and it would be nice if Keira was a little bit closer to them in age. They both adore her but by the time she starts school, they'll both be off at high school, so they're always going to be at very different stages in life.

I hope Daphne being only two months older than Keira will make up for that in some way.

They're too young to really be "friends" yet but it's very cute to watch them play together and babble at each other.

Finn and Jacob are getting closer again, now that they're both dads and have that in common.

We've always felt a bit out of step with our friends since we had Declan but now that everyone's married and starting families, the gap feels much smaller.

Before she went to college, Finn promised Elspeth that he'd watch out for their mother and he's been doing just that.

Araminta seems like she's doing pretty well, honestly. She's over our place a lot and she visits Ione and her family as well and Elspeth has come down to see her every other weekend. She's also close friends with Magdalena Novak and they see each other a lot too.

She's still lonely without Henry but she's not alone, which is probably as much as we can ask for at this point. It hasn't even been a year since he died.

Even so, Finn would eventually like to ask her to move in with us. He's wary of asking too soon because he doesn't want it to seem as if he thinks she can't cope without Henry.

Finn just wants to make her retirement years comfortable, so that she can just relax and let us take care of all the household management stuff. Finn's parents really struggled to raise him and Ione. He's always been hyper-aware of that and wants to repay them somehow.

I'm fine with it, if it's something Finn and Araminta are both okay with. I guess things could change living under the same roof but I've always really liked her. I think I got off lightly in the in-laws department, considering what Finn has gone through with my mother!

Spam:

I took sooo many pictures of this family! They're definitely favourites of mine but every time I play them, I forget just how much fun they are. I just adore them.

Finn's such a good daddy. Victoria was lucky it was him that knocked her up all those years ago and not some other boy.


There was some discussion about Keira's eyes in her birthday post. I think you can probably see here that she has Victoria's narrow eyes.

This was Caitlin's second-last family update as a child. Which is crazy to me.

And this was Declan's very last family update as a child! How can that possibly be?
Declan had to ask his parents something important, so he thought he'd just wait until they were done under the covers and ask them then.

He was suitably horrified once he figured out what they were doing.

Finn is like, "you're 11 and you haven't learnt to knock yet?" Still smiling though, because he's Finn and the guy rarely stops smiling.
But it was super-important, you see. Declan had to ask Victoria if she'd like to go and play a game of catch, at 10PM. The whole little exchange cracked me up, so I thought I'd share.

Notes:

• Title is from Stone on the Water by Badly Drawn Boy.
• When I loaded this lot, Victoria had the want to hire a nanny! I've never seen that want before but if that's not a sign of someone who wants to be back at work, I don't know what is!
• Victoria also had the want to earn a body skill point, so I figured she wanted to lose that extra weight.
• Finn and Victoria may be the only couple in my hood who are completely in sync with how many babies they want. They both want 3, they have 3, so that's the end of that!
• You know what I would really love? An ID card on a lanyard as an accessory! I think of Victoria as wearing her plain clothes at work, rather than a uniform but I figure she'd have some kind of ID to show that she's an employee as well. I wonder if anyone's made one. Please share a link, if you know of one out there!
• When she aged to elder, Megan rolled the want for a grandchild and for a relative to get engaged and married. Apart from Rebecca, all her relatives are either already married or too young. So yeah...no prizes for guessing who she's hinting at there! I didn't get those "Relative Gets Married/Engaged" wants for the longest time and now Tate has them, as does Magdalena (and I think maybe Jace as well).
• Claudia and Jacob both have the want for another baby now, so I'll let them try when I play them next. So Megan might get her grandchild want fulfilled someday soon.
• As for Araminta, I think she'll move in with Finn and Victoria. I have so many households already and single elders are fairly boring. Araminta is a family Sim too, so I think she'd enjoy more time with her grandkids.