This day

Round 33: September 2037 (Spring)

last update/next update

Josie Clarke is 35, Troy is 34, Jude is 5 and Andrew is 1.
(Lake is 80, Kendal is 61, Aaron, Calvin and Nick are 34, Ryan is 5 and Amy is 2)

Narrated by Troy Clarke

At the beginning of the month, I managed to score myself a promotion. I used to do beta testing and now I’m doing online tech support.

It’s not a fantastic pay increase but I’m not going to turn down more money. I basically moderate a support forum and respond to individual e-mails, so the pay isn’t bad at all for what the job entails.

There are perks involved besides money anyway, like free games from the software company I work for. Some are better than others but they’re free, so who cares?

Josie and I still like to give them a good test run after we get the kids in bed.

The best perk is being able to work from home some of the time. When I’m home, I set up in the comfort of the bedroom. There are less distractions in there than in the living room.

Though, of course, I have the keep the biggest possible distraction in the bedroom with me. His name is Andrew and he’s 19 months old. Already, he's so different from his brother!

He’s got a few toys in the bedroom and but sometimes he’ll get bored with those and decide the toilet is a better toy.

Worse still are his famous screaming fits. Once he starts that, he just screams louder and louder until he's attended to.

Sometimes I don't know what he wants and sometimes he needs to be changed. He fights nappy changes with all the strength he has.

Thank God he still takes naps! That's a great opportunity for me to have a break.

Hard as it is for me to look after Andrew and work, it’s worth it. Josie’s much happier working than staying at home and if Josie’s happy, we’re all happy.

She goes stir crazy staying at home but she’s noticeably more relaxed once she goes back to work. This really is a better arrangement for all of us.

Josie only took six weeks’ maternity leave this time but Jude still managed to get used to the idea of her being around at home.

He wasn’t too thrilled about the idea of her going back either.

It really didn’t turn out to be such a big deal though. Jude is in kindergarten all day now, so Josie gets home just a few hours after he does. He’s adapted really well.

I’m hoping Jude’s very easygoing nature might rub off on his little brother a little bit.

They hang out constantly and play really well together but so far, neither one seems to be influencing the other.

Now that Jude is at school, he’s also bringing a lot of friends home too. He’s good buddies with Ryan and on the weekend, it’s like he lives here.

But Nick is usually the one who brings him over, so I don’t mind too much. We can catch up while they play.

Except when the boys want us playing with them. They like to get synchronised on the swing set and it’s easier to do with us pushing them.

Jude seems so grown up these days. It blows me away!

When Mum and Lake gave Paisley to Jude as a Christmas present, Josie was sure we’d end up doing the majority of the work but it hasn’t turned out that way at all. Jude feeds her, plays with her and mopped up her pee puddles when she was still being housebroken.

Paisley is a huge dog though, so there are still some tasks that fall to Josie and me.

On the whole, she’s very much Jude’s dog and he’s really responsible about it.

I think Josie would still love to have something to complain about with Mum but Paisley’s not going to be it. She’s a pretty good dog.

And now that Mum always calls before she drops over, there’s not much left for Josie to complain about anyway.

I wouldn’t call them friends but they’re doing okay.

Now that Calvin is a dad too, Mum makes a lot more visits to his place. She doesn’t have as much time to bug us now that she’s bugging Calvin to go see Amy.

Aaron and Calvin recently adopted their second child, so there’s even more reasons to visit.

Josie and I went over to meet little Natalie a few days ago. She’s only 5 weeks old, so she’s still so tiny.

It sounds like she’s a much easier baby than Andrew was too. They’ve been getting up in the middle of the night, just to check she’s okay, because she’s not crying nearly as much as they were expecting.

I’m glad it’s gone well for them. They had a setback just a few months ago, so they were lucky it happened so quickly for them after that.

Amy was more interested in playing with Andrew than in the new baby. Maybe she’ll appreciate her sister more once Natalie can do something other than eat and drool.

After we visited Natalie, I started wondering about Josie and I having a third, so I thought I’d float the idea with her, to see what she thought.

About a year ago, Josie said she'd decided she wanted to stop at two but I thought maybe she’d be a little more open to it now, even after our tough experience with Andrew. I mean, we’ve survived, right?

Not quite. Josie actually thought I was nuts. She said she is definitely, definitely done with babies.

I asked her if she’d reconsider once Andrew started school. She just looked at me, which I’m fairly certain means no.

So I think I might just have to accept that the two kids we have now will be all we’ll ever have.

Josie is really against the idea of a third and doesn’t think she’d be happy with another.

I’m trying to see the positive side of it. Jude and Andrew are both really great kids, in very different ways, and with only two, we’ll be able to focus all of our attention on them.

Notes:

• Title is from This Day by the Sleepy Jackson.
• Yes, Josie has put on weight! It happened when I did Christmas at her parents' place but I like to think of it as baby weight from Andrew. ;) She'll keep it until she wants to work out or loses it autonomously.
• I did random rolls again for Calvin and Aaron's adoption and September 2037 ended up being their lucky month. I was expecting them to get a boy this time but Natalie arrived. You probably can't see it in any of the pictures but she has blonde hair and dark blue eyes.
• Troy rolled the want for another child sometime after I aged Andrew up to toddler. I feel like Josie is definitely done though and I don't think she's the sort to have another just for the sake of her husband. I think she wears the pants in the family and Troy will probably just have to deal. I say "probably", for the same reason I won't rule out a third for Claudia and Jacob. There's always birth control failures, not to mention a possible change of heart on my part (or Josie's!) But I think two might be it and it does feel somewhat right for this family.