Nighttime

Round 31: June 2034 (Winter)

last update/next update

Rose and Joanna Draper are both 39, Sylvia is 8 and Will and Levi are both 2.
(Wade is 44, Emma is 14, Michael is 3 and Felicity is 11 months old)

Narrated by Joanna Draper

We moved into this house a few months before Will and Levi were born and it was just in time. We could have made it work in our old place, seeing the spare bedroom was definitely big enough for two cribs but it's better here.

Especially seeing Levi has recently decided that he doesn't feel like sleeping through the night any more, separate rooms have been a lifesaver.

Levi can scream his little heart out but at least Will keeps sleeping peacefully.

The poor little guy would never get any sleep if the boys were sharing a room.

Sylvia was a bit sad about leaving our old house at first but she adores her new room, so she's settling in now.

Thank goodness for that, because we were having trouble selling it on her. She didn't care that we'd have a pool or that there was a park across the road. The kid has to be dragged outside.

It's a good thing she's buddied up with Alice. Alice isn't much of an outdoorsy kid either - her favourite thing to do at home is study her ant farm.

Alice doesn't have any siblings her age, so she's a frequent visitor. When she's over, all the girls do pore over all of Sylvia's books.

I think Rose and I might be raising a complete nerd but I'm kind of tickled by that, I have to admit. Sylvia often reminds me of myself at that age!

It's too early to tell whether Will and Levi will join their sister in the ranks of nerdiness but Rose and I are having a lot of fun with them.

Twins are definitely a lot harder than what we experienced with Sylvia but we're coping. I never wanted more than two kids but three seems really right for us now.

Rose would have one more, if I agreed but I'm definitely done with children.

Sylvia, generally, likes being a big sister. She loves her brothers but she's not always on her best behaviour with them.

We've caught her trying to lord it over her brothers a couple of times though, so we really need to keep her in check.

She's very used to having 100% of our attention and the fact that's no longer the case is still a little difficult for her.

Hopefully, seeing the boys won't know life without siblings, that will be less of an issue for them.

They also have two cousins close to their age, so that will help too. They like playing with my nephew, Michael - he's about a year older.

Rose's niece Felicity is 11 months and the boys are getting to know her as well.

Felicity often won't play with the boys for too long though. She'll lose interest after a little while and crawl off and do her own thing.


Wade never saw himself having four kids but he's ended up with four anyway. I think I'd go nuts.

He says it's really not as crazy as you might think. Sophie's out on her own and Noah and Emma are obviously much more independent than Sylvia is.

But Wade's just like that. He's very laid back and it's hard to faze him.

If anyone could handle a late-in-life baby, it'd be Wade.

I thought Michael might be the reason Emma was hanging around here so much. She's been dropping by a lot lately. I wondered if her parents were asking her to help out with him more than she liked, so she starting coming over here as an escape.

But you know, it's not like we're short on toddlers in this house and the boys are a lot more demanding than Michael. They're younger, so they need us to do more for them.

Rose and I are also just as likely to ask her to lend a hand as her parents are, if she happens to be around.

Which she actually doesn't mind too much. But Emma hasn't ever made a habit of coming around here without her parents before, so I knew something must be up.

I tried to get her to open up without getting too pushy but she insisted there was nothing wrong.

But I kept at her and she finally told me there was something she wanted to talk with me about.

Emma thinks she's a lesbian. Or rather, she's pretty certain she is. She's known for a while and has been trying to figure out a way to broach the topic with me.

She's a little freaked out about it, so I told her I hoped she wasn't worried about the family's reaction. Rose and I have been together for so long now that I don't think anyone would even raise an eyebrow if Emma came out.

She actually agreed with me about that but she's freaking out a little bit more about her friends finding out. Especially her friend Lauren. Emma has a pretty big crush on Lauren and she doesn't want things to get weird between them.

I really wish I could have given her some concrete advice about that kind of situation. The first (and only) girl I ever liked was Rose and when we got together, she took the lead and made it pretty clear how she felt.

I think Emma mostly just wanted to talk and get everything off her chest though. She's been wanting to tell someone for a long time.

We had a good talk, I think. Emma was definitely looking happier near the end of our chat.

I'm glad she felt like she could come to me about this. I can only hope talking about it made it seem a little less scary.

Emma was very grateful for our chat.

Emma's not ready to tell anybody else yet but before she left, I made sure she knew that she can come to me if she ever wants to talk again.

Extras:Joanna was seriously rage-filled about Levi's new habit!

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it wasn't the dog who ate all the food. I'm apparently still awful at playing this game, 7 years on!


Notes:

• Title is from Nighttime by Ben Lee.
• I'm saving close-ups of Felicity for tomorrow's birthday post but I thought I'd throw a little cameo in here. But I can tell you that she's very, very pretty!
• Levi is an awful toddler, I have to say. He must take after Rose, because she was pretty terrible too. I have a picture of her somewhere screaming her head off, just like Levi! Both boys look more like Joanna than like Rose but Levi is Rose's spitting image when he screams like that. ;)
• Sylvia is definitely going to be a Knowledge Sim. I had her pegged for Popularity but I'll make that her secondary, I think. She just wants to skill all day long. She and Alice are both quite serious and I have quite the soft spot for serious Sims!
• So Emma has come out, at least to Joanna. I'm hoping she finds some other girl so she can get over Lauren but this is a rather inconvenient time for Emma to be gay, lol! She hates the one townie teen who is also gay and I haven't got any other lesbian girls right now. So she might be single for quite a while yet. Things were much easier for Joanna!