In this world

Round 34: November 2040 (Spring)

last update/next update

Steve Nihill is 45, Olivia is 43, Ramona is 13, Jacinta is 10 and Theo is 5. 

(Bianca is 14, Ruby and Gabriel are 13, Charlotte is 11 and Grace is 10)

Narrated by Olivia Nihill

Steve and I finally admitted to ourselves that we’d outgrown our old house and moved to this new place, not very far from where we used to live.

Ramona and Jacinta were sharing a room and now they each have their own, which we let them decorate as they liked.

I’m happy Ramona has her own space, now that she’s a teenager. 

Jacinta isn’t too far behind her and I know she’ll be thankful for the extra privacy soon as well.

Theo has always had his own room but his new room is much bigger. 

We bought all new things for him in this house but his very favourite is his violin. 

As soon as he was old enough, he’s been saying he wanted to learn to play. Steve plays, so I guess he wanted to be like his daddy.

He’s a little screechy sounding right now but he’s picking it up very quickly. He really is just like his dad. 

Steve picked up piano again once we moved here (seeing we now have room for one!) and I’m expecting Theo to want to learn that too eventually. 

My favourite thing about our new place is my sewing room. I have never had an entire room reserved for all my design stuff before.

It definitely beats doing all my sewing in a corner of my bedroom. I love having my own space. 

Steve and the kids have always been pretty respectful of me when I’m working but it’s still nice to be able to shut them all out when I need to.

Now that Ramona is old enough to cook, I often don’t even need to come out to prepare dinner. 

She loves it when I ask her to make dinner, though her repertoire is still limited. She makes very simple things at the moment, like macaroni and cheese. 

No one complains though. None of us are particularly fussy about what we eat for dinner. 

I’m so proud of the way Ramona is turning out. She’s very responsible and I’m happy we can trust her.

Steve and I don’t get home from work until about 6 and Ramona is in charge of Jacinta and Theo until then. She gets her own homework done, as well as making sure the other two do theirs. 

School is still a novelty for Theo, so he doesn’t mind much and gets it done with little complaint.

Jacinta is going through a bit of a stage where she gets very easily distracted, so Ramona often has a fight on her hands with her sister.

But it gets done eventually and all three kids are usually peaceful and content when we get home from work.

Steve and I were hoping it would be another year or two before we had to address dating with Ramona but things seem to have changed rather suddenly this month.

Her best friend Ruby has been boy-crazy for the last two years and Ruby has never shown any interest at all. 

But that all changed when Ramona told me that she’d met a boy she liked and wanted to go out with him. 

I was glad she came to me but still very surprised. I told her I’d talk it over with her dad and we’d get back to her. 

Steve wasn’t thrilled with the idea. He wasn’t expecting this any more than I was.

He came around though and we decided we were okay with it. Ramona is sensible and we trust her. We’ll watch it and see how it goes.

I felt a lot better about it when I was actually able to meet Jonathan. He came home from school with Ramona on one of my days off.

He’s the same age as Ramona, he’s extremely shy and I can tell he really likes Ramona. 

Ramona is not allowed to have boys in her room, so they hung out mostly out in the backyard.

I didn’t think they’d really get up to too much but I kept an eye on them from my sewing room anyway.

Ramona and Jonathan haven’t actually been on anything I’d consider a date yet. So far, it’s just been group trips to the local shopping centre with some of Ramona’s friends.

They bring Gabriel along sometimes, just so Jonathan isn’t always the only guy. 

Steve and I feel much more comfortable with Jonathan and Ramona in a group setting, at least for now.

I’m sure they still sneak off from the group and kiss and flirt but at this age, I don’t think it’s likely to go much further than that.

All through school, Jacinta has mostly had the one close friend, Grace Benton. 

She’s the kind of kid who is friendly with everybody but she was content to just play with Grace most of the time. 

They’ve made a new friend in the last few months though, Charlotte. I’m not quite sure how to feel about Charlotte!

Most of the time, Charlotte seems to get along pretty well with Jacinta and Grace.

But too often, Charlotte can get really, really bossy and rude with them. 

She’s older than the other girls by a year and thinks that means she’s in charge all the time. It’s definitely not something I like to see.

Poor Jacinta and Grace aren’t used to such obstinance and are never sure how to handle her. 

I’m 43 and I’m not even sure how to handle her! I can’t believe the attitude that comes out of this child sometimes!

Steve works weekends until 6, which is normally prime Charlotte time, so he’s never had the pleasure of her company.

He’s certainly not complaining about that but working weekends means that we pretty much never see each other during the day. 

I keep telling Steve he’s going to have to call in sick one of these days, just so we can maybe spend a weekend together as a family!

Notes:

• Title is from In This World by Moby.
• Steve and Olivia's schedules do not align at all. She has three days off per week and none of them match up with Steve's two days off. She even got a promotion at the very end of this session and is still working the same days. I'm going to have to wait for Steve to get one, I think but he has a way to go.
• I was not planning on Jonathan and Ramona! He is literally the only teen townie in the entire hood (not including my NPC cashiers and the paperboy), she brings him home after school and they just happen to have two bolts. It would probably be three if their turn-ons matched. I was watching them and before I knew it, he'd given her her first kiss. I imagine Ruby is very jealous!
• So I did promise I would have Charlotte make a cameo in this (seeing she didn't appear much at all in the Lane update) and here she was, being her usual charming self. ;)
• Theo shares his dad's Music & Dance OTH and I was pretty happy that he gravitated towards the instruments in the house right away. I think he'll stick to the more classical instruments, rather than moving on guitar when he gets older, like Simon did.