Flowers in the window

Round 31: November 2033 (Spring)

last update/next update

Trent Kirby is 63, Megan is 61, Jacob and Claudia are both 32 and Daphne is 2.
(Liam is 70 and Tatiana is 50)

Narrated by Jacob Kirby

As soon as Daphne was born, I was ready to have another kid. Claudia likes to tell people I brought it up on the way home from the hospital but that's not true. She was at least a few weeks old.


That's still insane, I know. It's just that as soon as I saw her, I felt like doing it all over again.

Of course, we didn't start trying for another one until about a year ago and I'm actually glad about that. It's meant that we've been able to give Daphne our undivided attention.

The first thing a lot of people say when they see her is how much she looks like Claudia. Even Dad can't see much resemblance between me and Daphne. She does mostly look like her mother but her temperament all comes from me.

She's only two and a half but already, she's tearing around the house as best she can.

We have to watch her closely or she gets into things she shouldn't.

It's a good thing Sadie is such a gentle dog because at the moment, Daphne isn't very gentle at all.

Tatiana and Jonas bought her this little spinner thing for her birthday in February. Nine months later and it's still Daphne's favourite toy.

And she likes to go fast! She's such a fun little kid.

As much as I miss Daphne and Claudia while I'm at work, I really do love my job.

Lately, it hasn't been incredibly busy around here. There have been plenty of days and nights where I haven't left the fire station at all.

Even then though, there's usually something going on. We have a lot of school groups come in to visit, including my sister's Grade 1 and 2 class.

The kids love it; they get a real kick of seeing the fire trucks.

One of the kids thought it was pretty cool that we get to sleep at the station sometimes and asked if he could too!

I've spent many a night sleeping at the station though and I'd much rather be at home.

Claudia is with Daphne pretty much 24/7, since she decided not to go back to work once her maternity leave is up. I was worried Claudia would get bored at home, without knowing she had a job to go to but she hasn't found that at all.

She loves being at home with Daphne and they go out and do all sorts of things together during the day.

She really feels like this is what she's supposed to be doing at the moment.

Claudia is still planning on taking over the market one day but she just doesn't think she'll ever get another traditional 9-5 job. She says they're not for her.

I love that Claudia is at home now anyway. It's so much easier to find time to ourselves when we don't have to try to work around our schedules. I work night shifts a lot, so they're not always in sync.

We haven't been on a ton of dates since Daphne came along but we really appreciate it when we get a chance.

Claudia is convinced that it was on one of our dates that she got pregnant. In a photo booth, of all places.

I guess it seems like kind of an immature thing to do at 32 but no one was around, so we just went for it.

Anyway, we've been trying for about a year so we're both ecstatic with the news.

We were going to wait until the 12 week mark before we told anyone but Claudia's morning sickness has been so bad that we figured we'd better at least tell Trent and Megan before they guessed.

Megan claimed that she "knew it" and she loves being right, so she was happy. She's also been at us about giving Daphne a brother or sister for a while now, so she's excited it's finally happening.

It was a huge surprise to Trent. Neither of them had any idea we were trying and Trent was actually starting to worry about Claudia's constant nausea. It never occurred to him that she might be pregnant!

Not long after we made our announcement, Megan came down with the flu. It's been going around for a while now. We tried to keep Daphne away from her but that kid loves her grandma.

We just had to try to keep her occupied with other things. We didn't want to deal with a sick toddler as well.

Claudia was extremely worried about her mother and went in to check on her several times during the day. Each time, Megan would insist she was fine.

It turns out, Megan was right. She really wasn't sick for very long at all and was up and about again in no time at all.

It's been really nice for Claudia to have Megan there to take over with Daphne when Trent and I are at work. Megan only works three days a week, so she's usually around.

On top of the morning sickness, she's been sort of run down so any break is welcome.

Megan's near constant presence has been a blessing and a curse. Claudia told me she's already started the unsolicited pregnancy advice. I think she's sharing all of her "surefire" ways to cure morning sickness recently.

Hopefully, Megan won't keep this up for the whole nine months. Claudia can usually handle her mother pretty well but dealing with Megan on top of feeling crappy is really wearing on her.

Claudia is doing her best not to let her mother get to her too much.

We've got Daphne to look after, as well as this baby to look forward to and we're both trying to focus on that.

We've had such a wonderful experience with Daphne and we're looking forward to doing it all over again in nine months time!

Spam:
I took some extras of Daphne but didn't have a place to put them in the update.
Daphne really does adore Megan. She follows her all around the house!

Notes:

• Title is from Flowers in the Window by Travis.
• The fire station Jacob is at is American Avenue 10 by larsson1970. It was decorated pretty well already but I will probably do a more extensive makeover, with less Maxis stuff. I'll probably make some posters too and I'll share them if I'm happy with them. I actually quit out of the Kirby house to place it and redecorate it, when I decided to do some "Jacob at work" shots. I always like doing those.
• Poor Claudia! Of the three Kirby girls, she actually does get along with Megan the best normally but Megan was really getting on her nerves this session!
• Baby Kirby is due in August 2034. :)
• Oh, and I was dumb and forget to mention that Megan's flu was part of this round's flu epidemic ROS. I think that's 3 down, 7 to go?