So easy

Round 35: May 2042 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Benton 1 household profile

Tate Benton is 72 and Zelda is 67.

(Josie is 40, Troy is 39, Charlie, Jack and Audrey are 30, Camilla is 29, Grace and Everett are 12, Jude is 10, Andrew is 6 and Zoe is 6 weeks old)

Narrated by Zelda Benton

I've been on a roll with my writing lately, so I’ve spent even more time than usual holed up in the study.

Some days, I get so carried away that I forget to eat lunch and just keep writing all through the afternoon.

I don’t even realise I’m hungry until Tate comes to get me for dinner.

Tate doesn’t really get it. He could never forget to eat because he’s absorbed in writing or reading but I do it all the time.

But then, food is Tate’s passion and I don’t think he thinks about much else a lot of the time.

He keeps saying he’ll eventually hand the restaurant down to Jack but I don’t know when that will be.

He still loves working there himself so much that I can’t see it happening any time soon.

He was having problems with his waitress, Celeste, but she seems to have adapted well to work now.

Her attitude towards the customers is much more pleasant and he hasn’t had any more comments about her.

Still, I think Tate might reach a point where he just wants to spend more time with his grandchildren.
We have a new granddaughter, Zoe, and right after she was born, Tate rushed out to buy all these parenting books. He said he wanted to be able to advise Jack and Audrey with up-to-date information.

I’m pretty sure they’ve done their own reading but Tate loves giving them his perspective anyway.

Jack just nods and smiles. He knows Tate’s just excited.

We’re all excited, really! Up until now, we’ve only had one granddaughter, so it’s nice to start evening things out a little with Zoe.

She’s such a quiet, calm little girl, though Audrey says that’s not even close to the case at home.

She must get it all out of her system at home. Zoe has given them both plenty of sleep-deprived nights so far.

Jack has been so wrapped up in Zoe and everything that goes along with being a new parent, he almost forgot that he turns 30 this month.

Josie turns 40 this month too, so I suggested we have a joint party here for them. Audrey loved the idea but Jack took a bit of convincing.

He’s not huge on big parties but I promised it would be just family and very low-key. He agreed to that.

Unsurprisingly, even though Jack and Josie were the guests of honour, Zoe was the centre of attention.

We were glad we’d converted the spare room into a play room for our grandkids. Grace and Everett are a little old for it now but it kept Andrew busy.

Even being a bit past playing cars, Everett was happy to keep Andrew occupied with it for a while.

We love all the grandkids equally but of Josie’s two children, Jude is definitely the easier one to deal with.

Andrew is much more like Josie as a kid, probably more than she cares to admit!

He can be good when he wants to. He just has too much energy and loses his temper quickly.

He needs tons of attention and opportunity to burn off all that energy. The noisemakers we provided at cake time seemed to help!

We had two birthday people, so of course, we had to have two cakes.

Tate made them both. He wouldn't hear of me ordering them!

It was so nice to catch up with all of our kids and grandkids at our little party. Everett spent most of our conversation talking about whales.

Charlie had told us marine life was his favourite topic at the moment but I was still surprised by how much he had to say about it.

Seeing they didn’t have any small children to put to bed, Charlie and Camilla stayed a bit later than everyone else. They had some good news for us - Camilla is pregnant!

The only ones who know so far are the twins, Camilla’s parents and now us. The baby is due in November, which really doesn’t feel like that long away.

Camilla is feeling pretty good so far. A little stressed about everything she wants to get done before the baby gets here but she’s very happy at the same time.

Grace already can’t wait to meet the new baby. I was worried she was going to explode!

Everett is fine with getting a brother or sister but he’s not beside himself like Grace is.

I don’t think anyone is as thrilled as Charlie though. This is a stage that he missed so much of with Grace and Everett and now he’ll finally have a chance to experience it.

And of course, we’re very pleased with the news! We didn’t think we’d get any more grandchildren from Charlie and Camilla, so it was quite a surprise.

A lovely surprise, of course. Tate and I are already eagerly anticipating meeting this new baby!

Notes:

• Title is from So Easy by Eagles of Death Metal.
• First update of the new year - hope 2015 is treating you all well!
• Camilla's pregnancy is going by really quickly! I actually just bumped her up to the second trimester. Technically, I probably shouldn't have until July but I have no July birthdays this year. So I figured I'd just get it over with in June. :)
• Andrew was quite well-behaved in this session! I still haven't seen anything like when he was so mean to Calvin and Aaron's kids Natalie and Curtis last sim year but I suspect we'll see it again some day.
• This is probably the last you'll see of Zoe for a while. I hadn't realised I'd put so many Zoe-related updates so close together until I started writing. Sorry if it's been a bit much for you guys!