In the morning

Round 35: September 2042 (Spring)

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Collins 1 household profile

Emil Collins is 70 and Anna is 64.
(Rebecca is 33, Nathan and Malcolm are 32, Hope is 31, and Mason is 3 months old)

Narrated by Anna Collins

Thank goodness Emil has his licence back and can drive again. Chauffeuring him around all the time for four years got very old.

I became quite resentful towards him during that time but to his credit, Emil has been trying to make up for it.

We've had a lot of date nights recently, which has been nice. We've been trying out a few restaurants in the area that we haven't been to in ages, if at all. 

Emil and I have never put the effort into our marriage that we should and we’re realising that now.

Emil tried to joke the other day that we wouldn't have realised it without his drink driving conviction. 

I wasn't particularly impressed with that attempt at humour, let me tell you. 

Hopefully, he won’t be stupid enough to try to drive drunk again. If he does, whatever the courts do to him will be nothing compared to what I’ll bring down on his head. 

I hope that is behind us forever. So far, so good. 

We’re talking about taking a trip together, maybe to Cape Elizabeth, but we’re a bit preoccupied here at home at the moment. Perhaps next year.

Emil and I became grandparents a few months ago, when our daughter Hope had her son Mason.

It was a long road for her and Malcolm - they lost their first baby very late in her pregnancy - so they are both utterly relieved that everything went so perfectly this time around. 

Mason has a thick crop of black hair like Malcolm but I'm hoping he’ll start to look more like a Collins as he gets older. He does have big blue eyes like Hope’s.

Hope and Malcolm are adjusting well to being parents, thought it helps that Mason is a pretty easy baby so far. He sleeps a lot. So much that she keeps checking on him to make sure he’s all right. 

I don’t remember Hope or Nathan being like that as babies but then again, I didn't enjoy the baby stage very much at all. 

Emil wouldn't agree. He has a very rosy view of our days as young parents.

That’s probably why he was so keen for #3 when I was more than done after Hope. 

I was a bit apprehensive about becoming a grandmother - I still don’t really feel like I'm old enough, though I obviously am.

I'm slowly getting used to the idea. I definitely like being able to hand him over to Hope or Malcolm when he needs a change, rather than having to deal with it myself!

Emil didn't need any adjustment time to being a grandparent. He’s been desperate for one of the kids to reproduce for years now.

He’s beside himself that it’s finally happened. He’s volunteered us for babysitting duty already.

I think it might be a while before Hope and Malcolm take us up on it. They’re still a little protective of Mason and aren't keen to leave him with anyone, even his very enthusiastic grandfather. 

They’ll need a break eventually and Emil is waiting in the wings when they do.

Nathan and Rebecca don’t have any children yet but I can tell Nathan is keen to start a family soon. He always has been.

He has friends with little kids but he loves having a baby in the family and actually being an uncle now. He is exactly where he wants to be with his career, so it would be a good time for them. He would have to get Rebecca on board first though. 

I'm not sure what Rebecca thinks about having a baby right now. We’re not especially close and she wouldn't open up to me about anything like that.

I like her just fine but even after as many years as she’s been with Nathan, our conversations are barely above the level of small talk.

I don’t mind but she’s the same way with Emil and he does. So he pesters Nathan about it instead. 

Nathan has told him that once they’re expecting, we’ll be the first to know but that he’s not going to share any details at all with him before then. They’re keeping their family planning decisions private.

Emil has promised he’ll stop bugging them about it, though I’m not positive how much his word is worth in this case.

Being retired, he has really immersed himself in this new role of grandfather and he’s already keen for another little baby in the family!

Notes:

• Title is from In The Morning by Ben Lee
• Sorry this took so long! I just couldn't get started with it and then I couldn't figure out how to wrap it up. I try to get these out weekly, so massive fail on that account. The next one will be a bit late too, though hopefully not quite as late as this one!
• Anna was rolling some very family oriented wants this session, starting with the very beginning of the session, when she had the wants to call Hope and Nathan to chat. Becoming a grandmother must have softened her a little. ;)
• Emil and Anna were also being unusually lovey-dovey this session. They usually just roll woohoo wants but there were a lot of flirting and kissing wants this time around. No multiple make out/woohoo wants from either of them, which was interesting.