Generation 4: Part 12. Respect.

With five children in the house we had not one moment to ourselves. One of the three little ones was always crying or demanding attention otherwise, while Grace and Henner completely were on their own. I barely saw them during the day, also because I was at work most of the time. Cassie had quitted work some time ago, because we couldn’t handle the household with both of us being out all day. At first we were worried that I didn’t earn enough money for all of us, but that wasn’t necessary. We sure weren’t rich, but we were doing fine, at least when it came to the money. Often we would find ourselves sitting somewhere, just staring straight ahead of us. All this trouble was getting too much for us, but there was nothing we could do about that. We chose to have five children (well, more or less) and now we had to deal with that. Whenever Cassie told me she felt nothing but tired, I snapped at her that I felt the exact same way but that nobody would care about that, either. Later I was sorry for getting angry at her, but there was no energy to feel sorry for her. There was not even enough energy to manage a smile.

Nevertheless our life had to go on. Cassie tried hard to teach the twins everything they needed for life, which worked well with Bella. Walking and talking were really easy, while she had a few problems with her potty-training. But eventually she did fine, like always. I was really proud of my little girl.

As if five children were not enough, Henner decided to have a sleepover on one weekend. He begged us to let him have it and as soon as we agreed, he started calling all of his friends. Most of them we had never seen before, but apparently he knew them pretty well. It was one of those days where everything had gone wrong and I just wanted to go to bed early, but Henner never asked for anything else, so we decided to let him have some fun. He earned it. And after all, it was a nice weekend – all of the kids behaved really well and even cleaned the dishes they used!

Something we had completely forgotten that happened that weekend also – Cassie’s birthday! Of course she had known, but she didn’t want to be reminded of that. Her elder birthday meant no more children for us, something I was really happy about, as I still regretted having Julia. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my little daughter, like all of them! But I simply couldn’t handle it any longer, which is why I also longed for Bella’s and Ivy’s birthday! Two more children meant concentrating on Julia the most.

Cassie celebrated her birthday by spending the entire evening in the hot tub, on her own. She left it to me to take care of all the kids inside and told me about having time for herself. I couldn’t believe it! I was stressed, too, but I didn’t just walk away from the misery. But then again, it was her birthday, so I probably was supposed to cut her some slack. Maybe I was just sad because she didn’t want to spend any time with me on her special night.

As the night progressed, all of the foreign children fell asleep and it was only me and the toddlers. Bella was busy with the doll house, so once again I tried to teach Ivy how to walk. This time she seemed really interested and we made good progress, although one time I almost squashed her when she pulled me over instead of standing up. But no one got hurt.

Later that night I found myself on bed with Cassie. She had returned from the hot tub, all relaxed, and we had a really good and long talk that had been necessary. It felt so good to speak about everything that was on my mind and to make up with her.

Soon it was time for the day that was supposed to change our life once more – the twins’ birthday! Bella and Ivy were aging up into school children. It was exciting to see them age, but at the same time it was a great relief. Only that it didn’t work out the way we thought it would, because only Bella aged up into a child. That night we found her walking into the wrong rooms over and over again, tripping over something or stopping to walk, wondering why she was heading there. It was cute to watch her being some kind of absent-minded.

The other kid who surprisingly aged up that night was our littlest one, Julia! She turned out to have her grandfather’s hair, which was really great. Grace and her both had inherited his hair color, a great reminder of the old times. And although they had never met him, they were now connected to him somehow. [And yes, I like that hairstyle]

Julia was incredible. She seemed to sense that we were more than exhausted, so she played on her own most of the time. We actually couldn’t get her away from the toys to teach her things, because she was so busy all the time.

 During one of those evenings when I tried to gently pull her away from the dollhouse, I felt really strange. Everything was spinning around me and I could hardly keep my eyes open. The previous night had been really short and the day at work had been extremely hard. I was so close to getting the last promotion, after which I would have completed my lifetime wish. All that excitement led to me passing out right in front of my smallest daughter! Julia screamed when she saw me lying on the floor, which made Cassie come over to see what was going on. She was shocked to see me there, and immediately dragged me to bed, where she later told me that she had arranged some days off work for me. I apparently needed a break and she gave me the opportunity. I wasn’t too happy about it, since so much work had to be done and that meant waiting for the promotion even longer, but my health was also pretty important, I guess.

Finally Ivy’s birthday was there as well! [You see, I really, really like that hairstyle!] When we went to congratulate her, she slapped our hands away and told us to get lost. Wow, what was going on there? Tears sprung to Cassie’s eyes, being rejected by her own daughter. But Ivy just laughed at her, like some really evil person. She was quite the opposite of Bella, that was for sure!

That difference between her and her sister reflected in her entire behavior – at night Ivy often would sneak out of bed and play video games for hours. A few times we caught her and told her to go to bed again, but she didn’t really listen to us. This one was a real troublemaker!

Fortunately Julia was easier to handle than her older sister. She enjoyed time with us, but continued being on her own a lot. We were still not sure if this was a good thing, to be honest. But for now, it helped a lot.

Author's Notes: So yeah, I am just really motivated to write at the moment :) Julia really got Felipe's hair, which is awesome.  That was about the only GOOD thing that happened in this chapter - Ivy getting the evil trait was a bit of a shock. Apparently, I had forgotten about her potty-training and this how they reward me for that. She is the total opposite of her sister Bella, who is friendly AND good! 

According to my notes, there are four more chapters before a possible heir vote, but maybe I can put the pictures into three chapters, as well. I really want to find out who is going to be heir! Apparently, writing about the family does make me want to play more. That is a good sign!

Chapter title is a song by Aretha Franklin which I really love. And it fits since Ivy does not pay their parents any respect, AT ALL!