Tone it down

Round 32: February (Summer)

last update/next update

Rob Ashton is 35, Patience is 34 and Felicity is 3.
(Josie is 34, Troy is 33, Jude is 4 and Andrew is 2 weeks old).

Narrated by Rob Ashton

Felicity will start pre-school this time next year and we've already started preparing her for the idea a little.

It seems insanely early but we found out that due to low enrollment in the pre-school class next year, she'll be in a combined Pre-K class. It'll just be Felicity and four kindergarten boys.

We're a little nervous about that, so I guess we're preparing ourselves as much as we're preparing Felicity. I think Felicity will probably deal better than we will. She's kind of like her mother in that way. She's a very confident kid.

She's used to boys anyway. Her most frequent playmate has been Troy and Josie's son, Jude.

Jude started pre-school this year, so he'll be in Felicity's class next year. Hopefully he can watch out for her a bit.

A couple of weeks ago, Jude became a big brother and he's so excited about the new baby. He was telling me all about Andrew.

Patience and I were the first non-family members to meet Andrew when Troy and Josie brought him over recently.

It feels like so long ago that Felicity was born. I'd almost forgotten how tiny a newborn is.

Andrew is adorable and so alert already. Josie was feeding him on the couch and he was just trying to check out what I was doing the whole time.

Apparently, he's a bit of a troublemaker though! He hasn't been nearly as easy a baby as Jude was. He's waking up every hour at night and he has a real pair of lungs on him!

Even hearing about the not-so-fun parts of having a newborn though, Patience and I are keen to go through it all again.

We've been trying since not long after Josie announced her pregnancy. It's still less than a year but it feels like longer.

The first pregnancy, when we lost the baby, we conceived straight away. Felicity took a little longer but it was still only a few months.

We've been trying to stay positive but we've talked about the possibility of fertility treatments, if we can't conceive naturally.

Then we remembered if we did go that route, we'd have to wait until next year, when Patience turns 35. That's a little discouraging but still an option.

For me, I think two kids would complete our family. I'd love a son but another daughter would be awesome as well.

Before we got married, Patience used to talk about having eight or nine kids. Thankfully, she's just taking it one kid at a time now.

Patience has done what feels like hundreds of pregnancy tests and they've all come back negative.

She wasn't having any symptoms at all, so we had no reason to believe that time would be any different but it was!

Patience went to the doctor to get it confirmed the next day, because we just couldn't believe it. But I came home from work to the best news ever. Patience is pregnant and Baby #2 is due in November.

Now that this is finally happening, the apartment seems so tiny. I can't imagine it housing four people, even if one of them is very small.

If Patience has her way, that won't happen. She wants us to be in a new house by the time the baby arrives.

I think she's being a little ambitious, personally. I'm not really confident about our chances of buying and moving into a house within 9 months.

Patience, on the other hand, thinks we have enough money that we don't need to be too picky with our price range which gives us a leg up over a lot of other people.

Despite my doubts about how long it will all take, I am excited about moving. We both want to stay in the area - just in something bigger and something we actually own.

Felicity has been present for most of our talk about moving, so she knows we'll be in a new house sooner or later. She was fine with that, once I assured her Teddy would be coming with us too.

We haven't told her about the baby yet but we're looking forward to telling her. I'm hoping she'll be as excited as we've been assuming she will be!

Patience and I though, are thrilled to be finally adding to our family!

Spam:

Just some Felicity spam, seeing this is her last update as a toddler!

This last one was what inspired the beginning of the update - they really were talking about school!

Notes:

• Title is from Tone It Down by Preston School of Industry.
• How cute is Felicity?! I'm going to miss her as a toddler but I'm curious to see her as a child too.
• Andrew has the kind of personality you'd probably expect Troy and Josie's spawn to have. ;) He'll definitely be more challenging than Jude.
• Baby Ashton is due in November and unless one of my college girls gets knocked up, this baby will be the last one of the round! I can't imagine Rob and Patience with a boy, but we'll see what happens.
• Patience is having a really easy pregnancy so far. I only saw her throwing up once.
• I have a house in mind for them but I still have to pop in and see if it's appropriate. I might want to rearrange some walls inside. I'm already excited about decorating a place for them though!