Tuesday 8 March 2011

Stone on the water

Round 30: April 2032 (Autumn)
last update/next update

Finn and Victoria Romilly are both 31, Declan is 11, Caitlin is 9 and Keira is 1.
(Araminta is 69, Megan is 60, Claudia and Jacob are both 31, Rebecca is 23, Daphne is 1)

Narrated by Victoria Romilly

After Caitlin was born, I put on a little weight and once she started school, I put on a lot more. It finally got to the point where it was bothering me, so I decided to do something about it.

I've been using the exercise bike whenever I can and I'm definitely seeing results now, which is very satisfying.

Finn never minded that I put on weight but I feel better about myself now that I'm fit. The hard part now will be keeping it off. The only time I can exercise is when Finn is home, which makes it hard to find the time.

The main reason for that is that last April, our family went from just the four of us...

...to the five of us, when we had Keira, who just turned 1. It's been an adjustment having a toddler around again but we've enjoyed it too.

I have to say though, if she was our first child, I think we would have been much more nervous about having another, so I'm glad she came last! Keira won't let us leave her alone for a second.

Keira just can't wait for anything. It always needs to happen now!

At the same time, we can already tell Keira has an incredibly sweet nature. She's always wanting cuddles and kisses from Declan and Caitlin.

As soon as they get home from school, she's all over them. Thankfully, Declan and Caitlin love Keira too. They were both desperate for a little brother or sister but I wasn't sure if the reality of it would seem as fun. So far, so good.

Keira's good qualities are definitely outweighing her not-so-good ones.

We were so glad we were finally able to have another one.

We've discussed it though and Keira will definitely be our last baby. Finn and I have both always thought that three kids would be our limit.

Now that we've reached that point, it still seems right for us. Our family feels complete. Once we pay off the mortgage, we might even be able to go on vacation. We wouldn't be able to do that with another baby.

And besides, we got started young and we're vaguely looking forward to the future when we might have some time to ourselves again.

I feel like that time might creep up on us before we realise it. Declan is 11 now!

He's definitely still very much a kid at the moment. He's much more interested in his ant farm and his telescope than he is interested in girls or anything like that.

But I have to face facts; I'm going to have a teenager in a couple of years. That's a little frightening!

Caitlin is in Finn's class as well now and she's really stepped up her game with school. She's getting straight As now.

I guess it helps knowing that your dad knows exactly how much homework you have and how long it should take you to do it.

I'm back at work now and really happy to be there. Seeing I'm done having kids now and won't have to take any more lengthy breaks, I'm hoping I can advance in my career a little faster.

I love being at home with the kids and my break during maternity leave was nice but I love my job too. Even if we didn't need the money, which we definitely do, I'd still keep working.

The worst thing about going back is not getting to see Claudia nearly as often. Her maternity leave finished two months ago and she decided to resign from her job, rather than go back.

When she can, she brings Daphne to the aquarium and we have lunch together, which is nice. I just wish it could happen more often.

If we don't see each other during the week, we catch up on weekends when we have everybody over.

It's just hard to vent about Mum when she's right there though. Not that Mum is all we talk about when we get together but she definitely comes up, if she's had one of her moments recently!
Now that Claudia and I are both married with children, which is The Way It Should Be (according to Mum), she's switched most of her focus to Rebecca.

Rebecca's finishing up her Master's in psychology but Mum just wants to know when she's going to get a boyfriend. She's waiting for another wedding and for more grandbabies.

I think she'll get another grandkid out of Claudia before she gets one from Rebecca. She and Jacob aren't trying again yet but Claudia is saying they definitely will in the next year or so.

I'm a bit jealous of Claudia, actually, being able to plan her kids so close together. Declan and Caitlin are so tight and it would be nice if Keira was a little bit closer to them in age. They both adore her but by the time she starts school, they'll both be off at high school, so they're always going to be at very different stages in life.

I hope Daphne being only two months older than Keira will make up for that in some way.

They're too young to really be "friends" yet but it's very cute to watch them play together and babble at each other.

Finn and Jacob are getting closer again, now that they're both dads and have that in common.

We've always felt a bit out of step with our friends since we had Declan but now that everyone's married and starting families, the gap feels much smaller.

Before she went to college, Finn promised Elspeth that he'd watch out for their mother and he's been doing just that.

Araminta seems like she's doing pretty well, honestly. She's over our place a lot and she visits Ione and her family as well and Elspeth has come down to see her every other weekend. She's also close friends with Magdalena Novak and they see each other a lot too.

She's still lonely without Henry but she's not alone, which is probably as much as we can ask for at this point. It hasn't even been a year since he died.

Even so, Finn would eventually like to ask her to move in with us. He's wary of asking too soon because he doesn't want it to seem as if he thinks she can't cope without Henry.

Finn just wants to make her retirement years comfortable, so that she can just relax and let us take care of all the household management stuff. Finn's parents really struggled to raise him and Ione. He's always been hyper-aware of that and wants to repay them somehow.

I'm fine with it, if it's something Finn and Araminta are both okay with. I guess things could change living under the same roof but I've always really liked her. I think I got off lightly in the in-laws department, considering what Finn has gone through with my mother!

Spam:

I took sooo many pictures of this family! They're definitely favourites of mine but every time I play them, I forget just how much fun they are. I just adore them.

Finn's such a good daddy. Victoria was lucky it was him that knocked her up all those years ago and not some other boy.


There was some discussion about Keira's eyes in her birthday post. I think you can probably see here that she has Victoria's narrow eyes.

This was Caitlin's second-last family update as a child. Which is crazy to me.

And this was Declan's very last family update as a child! How can that possibly be?
Declan had to ask his parents something important, so he thought he'd just wait until they were done under the covers and ask them then.

He was suitably horrified once he figured out what they were doing.

Finn is like, "you're 11 and you haven't learnt to knock yet?" Still smiling though, because he's Finn and the guy rarely stops smiling.
But it was super-important, you see. Declan had to ask Victoria if she'd like to go and play a game of catch, at 10PM. The whole little exchange cracked me up, so I thought I'd share.

Notes:
  • Title is from Stone on the Water by Badly Drawn Boy.
  • When I loaded this lot, Victoria had the want to hire a nanny! I've never seen that want before but if that's not a sign of someone who wants to be back at work, I don't know what is!
  • Victoria also had the want to earn a body skill point, so I figured she wanted to lose that extra weight.
  • Finn and Victoria may be the only couple in my hood who are completely in sync with how many babies they want. They both want 3, they have 3, so that's the end of that!
  • You know what I would really love? An ID card on a lanyard as an accessory! I think of Victoria as wearing her plain clothes at work, rather than a uniform but I figure she'd have some kind of ID to show that she's an employee as well. I wonder if anyone's made one. Please share a link, if you know of one out there!
  • When she aged to elder, Megan rolled the want for a grandchild and for a relative to get engaged and married. Apart from Rebecca, all her relatives are either already married or too young. So yeah...no prizes for guessing who she's hinting at there! I didn't get those "Relative Gets Married/Engaged" wants for the longest time and now Tate has them, as does Magdalena (and I think maybe Jace as well).
  • Claudia and Jacob both have the want for another baby now, so I'll let them try when I play them next. So Megan might get her grandchild want fulfilled someday soon.
  • As for Araminta, I think she'll move in with Finn and Victoria. I have so many households already and single elders are fairly boring. Araminta is a family Sim too, so I think she'd enjoy more time with her grandkids.

19 comments:

  1. LOL! I loved the little tidbit at the end with Declan's very important question. You should share that story over at N99 as well. Kiera reminds me of Megan for some reason, maybe it's her personality or her appearence. Either way she reminds me of Megan.

    ReplyDelete
  2. There's an ID badge at MTS I'm pretty sure. You could recolor it to get the picture right.

    This family is adorable. I can't believe Declan is growing up. Makes me sad. Keira is so stinking cute and she definitely has her moms eye shape.

    Love the pictures at the end with Declan. His expression is hilarious! That'll be nice to have Araminta in their home. I agree single elders are rather boring. I have one, Myra and she always has company.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Apple Valley, I'm glad you enjoyed it; I certainly did! I'll take your suggestion and post it at N99 later on. :)

    Keira inherited Victoria's mouth, which is a plastic-surgeried version of Megan's (it's larger, basically). So it could be that that you're seeing. Most of the Kirby women are quite headstrong as well and I don't think Keira will be much different there.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Maisie, hmmm, I'll have another look! I was over there before but just ended up downloading a bunch of earrings and necklaces. Oops. LOL.

    I'm sad to see Declan grow up too but I'm very curious about what he'll look like as a teen, so I'm sort of looking forward to it as well. I love this family so much, I doubt they could ever disappoint me!

    Heh, what is it about elders that makes them so boring alone? I don't mind playing the elders when they're part of a couple, or living with their families. On their own though...YAWN! Yeah, so Araminta will be moving in at some point. Caitlin loves Keira, so hopefully she won't mind sharing her room too much!

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL Declan!!! Wow, I can't believe he'll be a teenager next year!? I'm looking forward to seeing him grow up!

    I can see these guys wanting to wrap up their family and have some time to themselves though. They deserve it, and they really did luck out to still be together and happy after all these years. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. And LOL, funniest captcha word ever = "fearpant"!!! LMAO!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Aww, Declan's last update as a child! Oh, how the time flies. I can't wait to see what he looks like as a teen.

    No wonder this is your favorite family. They just seem like so much fun to play. It'll be nice for Victoria and Finn to get some time for themselves once their kids grow up. And how nice of them to decide to ask Araminta to live with them. I felt bad for her living alone in her house.

    I searched high and low for an ID badge but I couldn't find one. The best idea I could come up with would be to try to make one on a necklace mesh. Maybe you could request it at GOS if you don't want to try one yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow time really does fly doesn't it? And I love him running in with his "important" question lol. Just when I thought Caitlin was going to be the most intersting Romilly kid, here comes Keira! She defintely looks to be a handful and some how I don't think that is going to change with age :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Laura, they grow up fast, these kids! Not as fast as they used to when I started Sullivan but still pretty fast!

    True, not everyone ends up happily married to the person they had their first kiss with, especially when that first kiss happened at the age of 12! Finn and Victoria have done all right! ;)

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Sari, I know! *sniff* And last night, I played Austin and Lauren's last update as children - we'll have 5 new teens this January. Eek!

    They really are fun to play. I think once their kids are grown, it'll be like a second young adulthood for Finn and Victoria; they didn't really have much time for that before Declan came along. I think they visited a bar once!

    I felt bad for Araminta too, especially knowing that she probably wouldn't get played! LOL.

    I'm going to have another look around for an ID badge tonight and then I might take your advice and ask at GOS. Making one myself is way beyond my capabilities, I think!

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Mizzgin03, LOL, yeah, I still have to post that at N99. It really was quite funny!

    I based Keira's personality in this post mostly on the fact that I rolled "impatient" for her random toddler trait but also that she's very nice. I usually only use "impatient" on mean Sims but I'm mixing it up a bit with Keira. I think she'll be fun. ;)

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hi Carla-
    I love your Sims, even if I rarely comment. Since I found Sullivan, I usually stop by to catch up with your Sims and get new ideas. Kiera is really cute.

    I think the ID badge at MTS2 that you're thinking of might be this one: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=123765 ? It could pretty easily be recolored to fit her job if you don't like the default. I use it in a few of my businesses. I've thought about editing the mesh to make the cord slimmer, but I'm basically lazy and it hasn't bothered me enough to actually do it so far.

    ReplyDelete
  10. kalynn06, thank you, I'm glad you enjoy reading, even if you usually lurk. It means a lot, really. :)

    And thank you so much for that link! I tried to think up a few different terms to look for what I was looking for at MTS and somehow never came up with "identity" or "pass". Rather lame of me. But I've just rigged something up in Body Shop just then and I think it will work really well.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Finn and Victoria's family may be my favorite. The kids are so cute, and Finn and Victoria are great parents. I went back and read the entries where they first learn that Victoria is pregnant with Declan, and they've done a great job of rising to the challenge of being young parents.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I've said it already at N99, but I thought I just confirm it, I LOVE Declan and Caitlin, and I have to say that I adore little Keira as well. I love it that Declan and Caitlin spend some time with their little sister too. And Daphne and Keira bonding is just too adorable!
    Wow, I can't believe that Declan is already 11 years old!! And that this is his last update as a child, and that this was Caitlin's second-last one as a child! Though I'm looking forward to seeing them both as teens, I'm sure I'll miss them as children!
    I was glad to read that you were planning to move Araminta in with these two!
    And LOL at Declan with his very important question!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Sarah, Finn and Victoria are definitely my favourites, so I'm glad others like them so much as well. They were pretty determined to do a good job as parents, right from the start, and they've been able to do that.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    Tanja, Finn and Victoria produced some amazingly adorable kids, it's true! I love that little toddler-child kiss, with the tiny hand coming up to the child's face. I have one of Aurora/Bianca and Xavier/Justin like that (can't remember which twins it was!)

    I'll miss them all as kids too but I'm very curious to see them both as teens as well. So fun times ahead, hopefully!

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm glad victoria was able to get rid of the extra weight. I feel bad for my mom because ever since she had me, she was never able to get her shape back :(. That is too funny that Keira is a little terror, though. She is too cute, though and I love that pic of her and Declan.

    Victoria's right, though. At least they had the kids early and can now focus on their careers. And by the time the kids start college, she and Finn will still be young enough to enjoy their alone time.

    And I saw at N99 that you got your lanyard and recolored it. It looks so cool! Too funny about Declan barging into the bedroom and waiting patiently while they finish woohooing to ask mom if she wanted to play catch. That reminds me of a Modern Family episode that I saw a few weeks ago. I was trying to find a clip but I can't find one :\

    ReplyDelete
  15. Danielle, so many women never get back to their pre-baby shape - maybe even the majority. My mum is probably the kind of woman others hate. After she had me, she left the hospital half a kilo lighter than she was pre-pregnancy. She snapped right back after my sister too, the lucky thing!

    Victoria and Finn have all the time in the world for themselves, for travel and for their careers, so that's one advantage of getting started early with babies. ;) It doesn't always work out that way but they were both pretty responsible, especially Finn.

    I was so glad with how the lanyard turned out. It's a pretty easy mesh to recolour, because the actual card part is just a flat rectangle.

    As for Declan, I'm surprised Victoria and Finn haven't been barged in on more than they have. They're quite active!

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. LOL! That whole last exchange with Declan was too funny. He's old enough to know by now what's going on. Or at least he's now got the idea!

    Though it's cute to see Finn and Victoria still woohooing after all these years together. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Lunar, LOL, if Declan doesn't know what that was all about by now, Sullivan Primary School may need to institute a better sex ed program!

    I'm just glad Finn's allowed birth control. They would probably have sooo many kids by now if he wasn't!

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Aww, I love this family too!

    I can't believe how fast these kids are growing up. Declan can't already be on the verge of teenhood.

    Finn is really too sweet with his worrying about how his mother will take the offer to have her live with them. It's also especially sweet that he wants her retirement years to be easier than her years as a mother and wife. So thoughtful!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Rachel, Finn and Victoria's family are all definite favourites for me as well.

    I am both excited and sad about Declan's impending teen hood. I can't quite believe it's come up so fast!

    I always saw Finn as a bright kid, so I think he would have been very aware of his parents' financial struggles, even if they didn't share them with him. It was always something he wanted to avoid for himself but taking care of his mother now that he can is also important to him. Araminta and Henry raised a good son.

    Thanks for reading. :)

    ReplyDelete