Generation 4: Part 10. Keep It Simple Sunshine

Being the oldest child meant a lot of responsibility, but also a lot of freedom to our Grace. She was the only one who could already take care of herself, so that we focused on Henner and the twins more than on her. Like before, we felt bad about this and tried to talk to her about it. But she would just tell us that it’s okay and go off to do her homework. Apparently, she really was fine with the situation by now. At first it must have been hard for her, but she got used to it and even sad advantages in her special role in our family. It was her who was allowed to stay up the longest, it was her who got the credits for helping out in the daily chores, it was her who we were proud of because of her good grades. And there were a lot of those, as she conscientiously did her homework every day. One day there was no homework to do and she just did some reading in advance. One could think she was a workaholic of young age, but she wasn’t really. Every now and then she came home and told us how she lost a book or accidentally fell on a pen, which was now broken. I think, if she really was a workaholic, she would pay more attention to her stuff. To me it looked like she was a child enjoying school, but sometimes acting a little clumsy. Stories like the one with the ruined pen happened almost weekly and we sometimes wondered if they were really true or if she was bothered by others at school. But watching her in her daily routine at home made us let go of that thought. It was fascinating to see how toothbrushes magically disappeared, plates with food on it found themselves at the kitchen floor (the food side facing the floor, of course) or piles of clean clothes were accidentally thrown into the washing machine because there was a dirty sock on top of them. Grace really was a little clumsy, there was no doubt. 

But despite that she was still reliable and also able to get along on her own, which left us more time with the twins. Isabella and Ivy both were so demanding and needed our attention the entire time. While Isabella smiled at us every time we entered the room and made us feel like she was really friendly from the beginning, Ivy often would not even let us lift her from her bed. She was so comfortable there that she refused to get up. Unfortunately my mother was not around anymore to consult, but I had the feeling that I had been the same when I was a baby. This would mean that she was lazy and a couch potato, just like me. Also, when one of us carried her around the house so that the other one could clean her bed, there were always little bits of the pillows or little toys all over the bed. She didn’t seem to mind, though. How could she live and sleep in such a chaos, if she was not chaotic herself?

Speaking of chaotic – Grace finally found some friends in her class and often visited them at home in the afternoon. This was so great for her, but at the same time it meant that there was nobody to clean the dishes or the house. While Grace was playing with other pupils [note his shoes!!!] and enjoyed her childhood, our house was drowning in chaos. But there was no way we would deprive Grace of her fun afternoons. She had to act like a grown up most of the time, so she had really earned those. We just had to cut back our free time a little and then we would get along. 

With everything going on in the house, we completely forgot about our oldest son aging up! Henner’s toddler days were past him and we didn’t even throw him a little birthday party, because we just weren’t aware that it was time already. Four kids in the house maybe really was a little too much. So our little boy had to age up by himself, while in the middle of playing.

Isn’t he darling? I felt like he looked more like me every day and I was so proud of him. His beautiful brown eyes were about to break some little girl’s hearts, that was for sure. Hopefully he would find some friends soon!

Time was passing by so quickly – now we already had two school children in our house! This meant that there was absolutely no quiet day left, as one of them always brought some friends home. Grace had gotten over her shyness regarding the state of our house, and starting inviting friends home, too. And Henner found some pupils to play with the first day of school, he was really popular. But at the same time he cared a great deal about his homework, even more than Grace! Often kids had to wait for him in our house, while he was already doing his homework, instead of playing with his friends. Grace was happy to pitch in and met some new kids this way. Although they all were a little younger than her, she didn’t care much about that. 

The one creature in the house being neglected sometimes was Flip. Cassie and I were busy with our jobs –me now being in politics and she still stuck in the business I worked at the beginning of my career – and with our kids, and didn’t have time for long walks with our dog. But Grace still loved him like a full family member and took him out sometimes. With time passing, she started backing out of meetings with friends and cared more and more about the dog. Of course it was nice to see Flip kept busy, but at the same time we were a little worried that Grace would lose her friends if she didn’t care about them anymore. But maybe it had just been a little too much for her and she needed some alone time. Only she knew about this and as long as she was okay, we had to be fine with this, too. After all, there was so much going on in the house that we couldn’t keep track of everything!

Time with my two older kids was rare. My work hours were crazy and Cassie couldn’t cope with Isabella and Ivy on her own, so that their room was my first stop after work. Henner and Grace were both surprisingly independent, but still I didn’t want to miss their childhood! So I tried to make some time before they went to school, so that they could talk to me. My little boy already was on the honor roll, which made me so proud! He had earned it, that was for sure, as he had been doing his homework every single day and not forgetting about it once. Grace not necessarily was a workaholic, but my son sure was.

And he was also smart! One morning we found ourselves playing chess in our beautiful garden and although he told me he had never played before, he kicked my ass! I explained the basic rules to him, not mentioning some special tricks, because I considered them too difficult for him, but he could easily take them. The two only men in the house had a great time together and I decided this was something I wanted to do regularly.

Some alone time with Cassie was even rarer than time with my kids, but somehow we managed to get together every now and then for one or two hours of romance. But lately she had avoided me, which worried me a little. Was there something wrong with us? We were a happy family, with four gorgeous kids and a sweet dog, enough money and a beautiful house. What could possibly turn that around?

While I had to worry about that, Grace and Henner were bonding over chess. Henner had taught her everything he knew from me and they often played together in the afternoon. It seemed like their friends became of less importance for them, but instead their relationship was getting more and more significant. A great picture, seeing our oldest two children getting along this great and being good friends like this.

That night, when Cassie and I were talking about what had happened during the day, I told her how Grace and Henner were bonding and that I thought it was great that they got along like this. I also mentioned that I hoped for our youngest ones, Isabella and Ivy, that they also would be friends and be accepted by their older siblings. It was that moment when she turned around in bed, struck back the blanket and stood up. I thought she wanted to leave for some reasons and also got out of bed. With her back turned on me, she confessed that she was expecting again. We would have a fifth child.

Author's notes: SURPRISE!! Cassie desperately wanted a fifth child, so I finally gave in. This is why the heir vote won't be up for another few chapters, because the new baby isn't even born yet and I want you to have to chance of getting to know it first. Besides that, the twins are not even toddlers yet. I thought I had made up my mind about who is going to be heir, but recent developments made me insecure about that. So there might be an inofficial heir vote with me taking your choices into consideration, but not necessarily acting according to them. I don't know yet. :)

Chapter title is a song by a canadian musician I really like. He has been on tour through Europe a number of times and due to some of his concerts I helped out on we know each other by now. ;) His songs are really great, check them out:  http://music.dylanbell.ca/

 

Generation 4: Part 9. Astronaut

With two kids in the house, there wasn’t much free time anymore. Whenever I had a break from my new job in sports – where I had transferred to after I had become head of my apartment in my old company -, I tried to fulfill my basic needs, like eating or sleeping. Apart from that it was just taking care of Grace and Henner. Grace already did a lot of things on her own, but I’m not sure if this was because of her need to manage her life alone or because we were so busy with Henner that there was simply no time left for her. What came first, the hen or the egg? Her independence or our focus on Henner?

Either way, she did great on her own. After coming home from school she straight went to doing her homework and only allowed herself to play after she had finished. Mostly she would dive into other worlds, explore the space as an astronaut and stuff like that. Maybe she felt like one – being in her own universe, separated from all of us. Of course this wasn’t true; we loved her so much and tried to pay as much attention as possible. But her little brother was so demanding that we literally couldn’t do more. Whenever I tried to talk to her about her position in her family, she blocked me off and went to play something on her own. This saddened and also scared me a little. It felt like our baby was growing up too fast.

Which was true for the other one as well. Henner grew bigger every day, I swear. But his little face with his cute smile always remained the same. It was amazing that it had been us who had created him! Hopefully he would look a little like me, this way I could live on in the next generation.

Although there were some small problems with Grace, we were a well-working family, including Flip. He was happy to be surrounded by so many people, because this meant that there was somebody to play with him all the time. Grace had fallen for him the minute he licked her face for the first time.

We were relieved to see that Grace did not shut herself out from the entire family, but at least was friends with Flip. Regularly she took him for a walk to the pool or the park, where they played together the entire afternoon.

We didn’t fully realize that every day that passed by was one step closer to Henner actually growing into a toddler until it was time. Of course he didn’t really understand what was going on, but we threw him a little birthday party, inviting Freya and her two kids Anna and Chris over to join us.

And then our little baby grew up.

Wasn’t he just adorable? I loved that he had my hair color and looked like me a lot. He had his mother’s nose as well, just like Grace. Another true mixture of our families.

See what I mean? When I looked at Henner, I saw myself, like looking into a mirror that made you younger. 

Speaking of being young – my birthday into a senior approached quickly and Cassie and I felt that we were not quite done yet with our family. Two kids were great, that’s for sure, but we still thought there was more. So we spent a lot of time with each other.

Well, of course we didn’t forget about our kids in that time! The mornings before work I did my best to teach Henner the basic skills for life. It wasn’t that hard to teach him how to talk, because he seemed really eager for that. Something I really loved about him that he would not say single words, but rather sing them. His voice was really melodious and that was just so adorable.

While I prepared our youngest for life, Cassie had discovered something wonderful – our tries to create something new had worked, she was pregnant with our third child! We still wanted to have another girl, so she went down to the grocery store and got some more watermelons, hoping that it would work out this time. I still don’t know why she thinks this helps, but she assured me she had read about it. Well, I didn’t want to argue with her…

It was the same evening that I surprisingly turned into a senior. We knew that I almost was there, but we had no idea it would happen THIS fast! All of a sudden I felt so old and fragile and also wondered about our kid’s future. Would I still see them grow up or would I die before they turned into teenagers? 

Cassie sure thought about this, too. Although she didn’t always tell me, I could see the look in her eyes, that grew sadder every day. She was worried that I would leave her alone with the entire responsibility and a house full of children. And what was even sadder – I couldn’t tell her she was completely wrong, because I didn’t know what was going to happen or when it was going to happen. For all we knew, I could go to bed one evening and not wake up again.

I tried not to think about it too hard and focus on my wonderful family instead. Working in sports had worked out great and I had recently begun working as a journalist. Since I knew a lot of people there, it wasn’t too hard to fit in. Soon I was almost ready to change over to my last career which I wanted to be politics. But before that I had to teach my son how to walk. This was much harder than the whole talking thing, because he often just refused to stand up and stayed where he was. Apparently, he wasn’t really into athletics or anything, but language and music instead…

And into being with his bigger sister. Just like we had imagined it, Grace and Henner got along just great and formed a little play group more than one time. A huge relief for us! 

A relief that was perfectly on time, because shortly after we noticed this, Cassie went into labor and we had to leave them on their own. We hoped that the two of them would get along with their little sibling as well. Little did we know that everything would turn out unexpectedly.

Because we had twins! There are no words to describe how I felt when we carried those two little babies inside our house. Ivy and Isabella (please don’t ask me which is which) made our family perfect and complete.

Author's notes: What can I say... Finn and Cassie wanted another child. It wasn't my fault that they had twins, I swear! So now there are four children in the house. Grace being a kid, Henner a toddler and Ivy and Isabella being babies.

Chapter title is actually a German Song, although the title does not automatically lead to that conclusion. It is a song about a man who does not feel like belonging to this world and therefore perfectly matched Grace and her behaviour. Again it's a song by my favourite singer/songwriter. ;)

Generation 4: Part 8. All you need is love

Having a baby was a big step. This was something we both had been aware of, but now that little Grace was in this world, it felt even more real. I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about how our life was going to change now. We would have to change diapers and get up in the middle of the night to calm her down, but it was all worth it. There was a small human being that we created, and we would be the ones preparing her to enter the world.

After the first euphoria had faded, the stress kicked in. Grace cried all night and even when we went over to her room she wouldn’t stop. It seemed like our attendance made her feel worse, if that is even possible. After some time we always managed to console her, but still it was a challenge. Apparently she was more of a loner, just like her mother, and didn’t want to be around other people much. Even if they were her loving family.

With a little baby in the house we couldn’t possibly take care of five big dogs. It was not fair for them that they were on their own the entire day, only because we were busy with Grace and our jobs. Something had to change and so I made a significant phone call.

Delilah was going to live in another family, some place where she could get what we didn’t give her. It was sad to see her go, but at the same time we knew it was for the best. One last hug and it was time for her to go.

Cassie couldn’t watch her get into the car that would drive her away, but I did. I waited until the last bit of the car had disappeared into the rising darkness.

Then we had to do something that was even harder – say goodbye to Bodo as well. He had grown into an old dog and needed some place where he could live happily for the rest of his life, without so much trouble around him. Saying goodbye to Delilah was hard, but seeing Bodo leave almost broke my heart.

The last step was about to happen. Benny was the wildest of the five dogs and we decided that he could too easily scare Grace once she was out of her crib. So we wanted him to find a new place to live as well.

Giving away three of our five dogs was a tough decision. But at the same time it meant time to connect with our beautiful little daughter who slowly opened up to us. She stopped crying when she saw us and smiled instead – probably the sweetest smile I had ever seen. (Please don’t tell Cassie I said this)

We also had some free time on our hands, which we used to sustain our relationship. During the first few days with Grace in our life, we didn’t have any time to be there for each other, which we now made up for. This didn’t always result in pillow fights but sometimes in other situations that involved pillows and beds, if you know what I mean.

Now only living with two dogs made us realize that our decision to give away three of them had been right. There was enough time to play with Flip and Cora, without neglecting our daughter. Flip was such a sweet dog that never stopped playing. Sometimes it could get a little annoying, but in general it was just sweet. Cassie loved to play with him outside, which was weird, since she hated the outdoors. I guess, living with me changed her quite a bit. She had once told me that she was afraid of commitments and only wanted to be in one if she was really sure about it. Apparently this was what we had and it made me incredibly happy. Having someone who enjoyed being on her own be with you and knowing that it feels right to her was great.

When she wasn’t outside, with our daughter or with me she started writing on a novel she had wanted to work on for quite some time now. It had always been her dream to make a living with writing books, but so far she had no writing experience. It didn’t really help that she was afraid of everything technical…

Like I said, when she moved in with me, she changed a lot. And this was a good thing, because in her novels she could keep hold of what happened in our lives. One of those things being Grace’s first birthday! Time had rushed by so fast and we couldn’t wait to see how she would look like. She would be blonde, that we were sure of. But the eyes? And the shape of her face?

Apparently we had completely forgotten that genetics could skip a generation. My father had been the only black haired person in our family and Grace had gotten his hair. This was a very touching moment and made me wish he could still be there to see her. But I was sure that he could see her from heaven.

Teaching Grace how to walk and talk was easier than I thought. I had expected that it would take her a long time to understand how this works. Obviously I couldn’t remember anything from my childhood and there were no parents to ask. So I just did what I thought was right, and it actually worked. Before we knew it, Grace was up and running.

Soon after our little angel was born, it was time for somebody else to leave our world. Cora had led a wonderful life here, had kept me and my father company when my mother died and now was ready to leave us. Still we were devastated. And although Grace was too small to really understand what is going on, she did realize that Cora wasn’t around anymore and was sad about it. Poor little girl.

I think it even got to her more than we would have thought – all of a sudden she started playing with her dollhouse that had been unused for quite some time, but was really cruel to the little dolls. Maybe expressing anger like this was her way of dealing with Cora’s death, I don’t really know much about that. But it did worry me a little to see her like this. And every time we found another doll head on the floor in her room, we looked at each other and tried to find a way of helping her.

Time passed on and Grace spent more and more time with her toys. It was nice for us to have some alone time, but we worried about her being lonely. Apparently, this was what she wanted, but still it couldn’t be good for her to be on her own all the time. So we made a decision, both based on our love to each other and our thoughts about Grace. A decision that meant some serious alone time, if you know what I mean.

Cassie’s second pregnancy (or should I say “our pregnancy”?) passed by rather quickly. We were so involved with Grace and our jobs that there was not much time to relax. So much had to be done! I often regretted that I couldn’t take more care of Cassie, but she repeatedly told me that she was fine.

She took great care of Grace during that time. Not that she had ignored her before, but the moment her emotions kicked in again she started to act even more like a loving mother. Something Grace enjoyed a lot!

Before Grace’s little sister or brother was born, it was time for another miracle – Grace was aging up already! Her days as a toddler had gone by so quickly and she was about to turn into a school kid.

An enormously cute kid, might I add! Obviously, a part of me is saying this because she is my daughter and I love her more than anything in the world, but also because I really think she is pretty. Her nose was very much like her mother’s, and her hair was from my father (which we had already noticed before), but we loved it. She was a true mix of our two families.

Then it happened. During the evening of Grace’s birthday, the moment Cassie wanted to take a little swim in our pool, she went into labor! I panicked, although we had been through this before. So I called the babysitter agency we had looked up before (for emergencies just like this) and drove her to the hospital. On the way there we talked about names. Both of us really wanted another girl and Cassie had taken every precaution to make sure our dream came true. She even told me she ate great amounts of watermelons, since this was supposed to help. Anyway, we were discussing all the way there and had only settled on the first letter, which was going to be an H. Then I was asked to stay outside the room while she was being prepared, and only entered when she was in the middle of giving birth to our little, beautiful baby gi….

BOY! This took us completely by surprise. But when his melodious laughter reached our ears, we knew what name he was going to have. It was still supposed to start with an H, and since a former friend of ours, who was a great musician, was named Henner, this was the name for our baby boy. He really looked like he could be a musician himself, a musician and a genius at the same time.


Author's Notes:  So, this was a big surprise I hadn't expected! Cassie ate three watermelons and everything. And suddenly that little window said "Congratulations, it's a boy!" My face was looking like this: O______________O Stupid game.
ANYWAY. Henner actually is the name of a musician I know (he's also the brother of my favourite singer/songwriter AND was very close to be my boss in his music company, but then he chose someone over me.) and the first name I thought about. And since I wanted this baby to relate to music,this worked out nicely.
I realized that I didn't really introduce Cassie and Grace to you, so I tried to put it into the story itself. Cassie is a loner, hates the outdoors and commitments, is a technophobe and athletic. Her lifetime wish is to earn a certain amount of money with writing (I think it's 4000 $ a week?).
Grace is a loner, hydrophobic and now also clumsy.
And Henner is a genius and virtuoso.
So now there are two children to choose from. So far. And only one dog left in the house, which is a good thing, since 5 were way too much. Which is why I had to give away three of them...
The chapter title is from a great song by The Beatles.