Islands of Sunset Valley - Chapter 13: Birthdays
I eagerly read the morning’s paper to see if the announcement for Rebekah’s birth was in it, but no, the birth obviously missed the paper’s print deadline.
Julian assures me he needs to look after the garden in case it goes dormant from an early autumn frost, so I have an excellent excuse to spend all the time I want taking care of Rebekah. She is such a darling. Faith puts her in one of those baby swings which make raising her a breeze.
But I like to be able to hold her and I don’t mind changing dirty nappies. Sometimes being a Sim rocks. I enjoy feeding her although I’m not sure about those green baby bottles. But she drinks every drop. I really like it that Sim babies don’t need burping which means no pukes down my new shirt. I’m not sure why Julian finds this shirt so amusing but I don’t mind it.
There is a definite chill in the air today, so my planned use of the stroller is deferred. I use the rocking chair instead. I have to say this rocking chair is awesome. I love rocking away holding Rebekah. If our watcher wasn’t so
stingy, I could bathe Rebekah and use a changing table. (Edit by watcher: the appropriate word isn’t ‘stingy’ it is “careful with money” to you laddie!)
I just love being with Rebekah. I had let Agnes do most of the caring for Diana when she was a nooboo because Agnes wanted to and we always thought we’d have lots of children in time. But Faith has been through all this four times and has a routine timed to the minute.
“Brandon, would you just leave Rebekah in the swing, she’ll drift off to sleep a lot faster if you just watch her and not keep picking her up?”
“Oh sweetheart, look at her, she wants me to play with her. See she’s reaching for my hand. Look how tiny her hand is in mine? Isn’t she just beautiful? She has my blue eyes”
“Of course she’s beautiful. Didn’t I tell you we’d make a beautiful baby! But most babies have blue eyes at birth. They may change green later on. I think all the females in my family have green eyes.
“No, not quite, my sister Lucy – your cousin - has my father’s blue eyes.”
“Nice diversion but don’t get off the topic. You’re spoiling Rebekah. Leave her in the swing and she’ll sleep and play happily until her birthday.
“I can’t wait for her to grow up so I can teach her all the skills.”
“Good, you can take care of the potty training. That is an experience you shouldn’t miss. It’s breathtaking.”
“I don’t mind” I said.
“Yeah right, wait and see.” Faith said dryly. “Okay here’s the deal, since you won’t leave her alone, how about we have Rebekah’s birthday early. You talk the watcher into getting a birthday cake and we’ll take it from there.”
“Oh Faith, thank you for being so understanding!” I said hugging her.
Just then Diana and Keith came running into the nursery. “Daddy, a birthday cake just appeared on the dining table while we were doing our homework. Is it for me or Keith?”
“Neither kitten, it’s for Rebekah.” I replied.
“Oh that’s so not fair, her birthday’s supposed to be after ours!” Diana pouted.
“Life is rarely fair Diana,” Faith said gently, “But sometimes there’s a poetic justice to it. Your father is in a big hurry to experience the unique joy of potty training.”
“Gross!” Diana and Keith said in unison.
The family gathered around the cake on the dining table but to my disappointment, it was Faith who brought Rebekah to the cake.
Rebekah aged up to have my hair and eye colouring. My blue eyes persevered over those dominant Baker genes. Wait a minute, I’m a Baker too. But Chris and I take after our father not our mother. We had birthday cake for an early dinner. Not the most nutritious dinner but certainly filling.
To my delight, Faith dressed Rebekah in the Ombradellarosa Snow White dress that Hope had worn. “No point in wasting a perfectly pretty dress.” She said smiling as she snuggled Rebekah before handing her to me. “The potty is beside the crib and there’s a bin in the bathroom next door, knock yourself out,” she said with a wry grin.
But before I tackled that particular task, I just wanted to sit in the rocking chair and hold Rebekah’s soft sweet smelling body in my arms. I can forgive our watcher for not letting us have the Changing and Bathing Station if I could just have more moments just like this. If I was a cat, I’d be purring.
I could sit here forever but Faith is not going to be satisfied unless I get the potty training over with. I don’t know why everyone thinks this is awful... Oh my God what is that smell? How can someone so cute and pretty produce such an appalling aroma? It’s whatever was in those strange green bottles, I’m certain of that.
I read on that forum site, that you can keep putting a toddler on the potty even though they don’t need to go, to learn the skill. But I have to empty the potty after two attempts. So I persist even though emptying the potty now ranks highest on my least desirable activities. Four attempts it takes Rebekah to learn to potty. Is that normal? Well okay that took longer than I expected so I feed her on the floor while I take the trash out. No way am I going to let that odour permeate the house.
Faith comes to investigate my progress and I proudly tell her we’ve got the potty training done.
“Sweet! Now how about you shower?” she said stepping back from me.
“Would you like to join me?” I whispered.
“Hmm, tempting, but no,” she said wrinkling her nose, “not tonight. I’ll put Rebekah to bed and wait for you in our bedroom.”
So I’m guessing from that little conversation that some of Rebekah’s eye watering fragrance clings to me. I showered carefully and joined Faith in the bedroom.
“Is that better?” I asked mockingly.
“Much better!” she said kissing me thoroughly. “Come to bed and show me just how much better you can be?”
“I’ve got a big day tomorrow. I’ve got to teach Rebekah to walk and talk and take her to the library to read her the toddler books. Maybe I should save my energy?” I teased.
“You don’t have to do it all in one day you know, you have plenty of time before she ages up to a child.” Faith replied.
“I know that. I’m looking forward to taking her for strolls in the park, playing with her in that playground and just watching her experience new things. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it is that babyhood is too short to waste a day of it.
“Well I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings but the weather report has rain for the next three days. I think it’s going to be indoor activities for her like the peg box or the xylophone. Now shut up and kiss me,” Faith whispered.
Sometimes it’s in my best interests to just do what I’m told. We awoke to find the weather is foggy and an overnight frost has chilled the plants. The kids grumble about school and the boiler which keeps breaking down. Then they say they can’t wait for snow to close the school for a couple of days. I grew up in Simfield, we didn’t have seasons there, just summer all year round. So not one day of school is lost due to weather, there was not one fallen leaf to rake or plants to go dormant. But somehow I don’t miss my old home town, even its perfect weather. All the people I love are now here in Sunset Valley.
So first thing after breakfast, I begin teaching Rebekah to walk. After all, she may need to walk some distance to get to that potty.
She learns to walk easily enough and I give her lots of cuddles for encouragement. Positive reinforcement works beautifully and we achieve that skill relatively soon. After a quick feed and trip to the potty, which I now realise I have to empty… ewww! Then we head off to the library where I read a skill book about the Riding skill while Rebekah ploughs through the toddler book at an amazing rate of knots. Faith assures me Rebekah will remember every word she reads but it wasn’t as much fun as I had when I read Diana those books. But since I’m in the Library, it’s too good an opportunity to miss. If Diana still wants a horse I will need to know stuff about them.
The rain has really set in and the sky is so dark. I take Rebekah home before the predicted thunderstorm comes. We make it home as the weather holds off. We play with the peg board waiting to see if there is a break in the rain for Hope and Leon’s ballet recital. I was amazed that the twins only needed one class in ballet to learn the skill but they are both geniuses. Rebekah is Artistic and a Virtuoso. Needless to say Faith chose the traits. I think Keith is right, Rebekah’s next trait should be a bookworm to increase her skills and then if she wants, she can take the genius trait when she ages up to teen.
The weather breaks and we all rush out to get to the recital before it finishes and the weather closes in again. I know that Faith loves to dance but I would have thought that Leon would have preferred to taken scouts not ballet. Well I can always teach him to fish and garden if that interests him. When we get home, the children go off to do their own thing after dinner. Soon it will be Diana and Keith’s birthday.
I have had a very special birthday gift that I’d planned to give Diana for years. When I told Faith what I wanted to do, she said she will match it with Keith so he didn’t feel left out. I was teaching Rebekah to talk when we heard shrieks from the basement as the fire alarm went off. We all rushed down there but Julian had the self-control to grab a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. We got down there in time to see a sheepish Keith who had been trying to learn the inventing skill.
Faith scolded Keith for scaring her but he rightly pointed out where else was he to learn the skill. The workbench had been placed there in the basement and had been left disused after Keith’s father died. I think the boy was trying too hard to fill his father’s shoes.
I told him that when the weather clears, we can rearrange the side yard to build a pavilion like Chris and Gunther built for me. I’ll install a safety shower there for him and we won’t have the risk of fire in the house.
The next day, I finished teaching Rebekah to talk and she said she wanted to play with the peg board and xylophone by herself. Hmm... perhaps I should have left the talking skill to the last. She shoos me out of the nursery. I pop my head into the nursery every so often just to see if she wants anything. Apart from feeding and emptying the potty my daughter is content to be left on her own.
Since I’m at a loose end, I put together a plan to change around the side yard. If we’re going to all the trouble to build a pavilion to study invention, we may as well build a glasshouse for the garden. That way the plants would not be subjected to the frost and dormancy over winter. I show my plans to Faith who approves and when the weather lifts, we’ll get contractors in.
That evening, it was not without a tinge of regret that I read Diana to sleep for the last time. I can’t believe my little girl will be a teenager this time tomorrow. Keith particularly asked us not to have a party for him so Diana has declined having a big event too.
So it’s just the family gathered around the cakes in the dining room to see Diana make her wish and blow out her candles.
She aged up and immediately raced out of the room. She came back a few minutes later with a different outfit and hairstyle. I noticed that she chose the same hairstyle as her mother which accentuated their likeness.
Keith blew out his candles next and aged up into a striking young teen. He too left the room and came back in his familiar black tux and wearing aviator sunglasses not unlike my own. Although I only wear sunglasses when I’m in my swimwear, my eyes aren’t unusual. I am actually yet to see Keith’s eyes, so I can’t really say whether or not they are as unnerving as he believes. He must have been teased horribly as a child in Moonlight Falls.
As Keith has been careful to avoid anyone seeing him in his pyjamas I don’t even know if he wears the sunglasses to bed. Just then, Rebekah decided to let everyone know that she’d been neglected in the recent festivities and Faith gave me the look that says ‘it’s all my fault’ that Rebekah wants to be the centre of attention. Before I can utter a defence, Julian picks Rebekah up and takes her back to the nursery.
“Daddy, can we talk?” Diana asks.
“Sure kitten,” I replied.
“Privately?” she says. Uh oh what have I done now I wonder to myself? I follow Diana into the formal lounge. “Now daddy, I want you to explain to me why I can’t marry Joshua when I grow up. I think I’m old enough to be told the truth,” she said as an opening gambit.
I try as best as I can to simplify Dr Landgraab’s lecture on consanguinity and the law surrounding the degrees of separation required for cousins to marry. I explain the complication of Chris and I being identical twins which changes the degree of separation between the cousins from 4 back to 2. I explain why the state forbids marriage between people with less than 4 degrees of separation. I can see that Diana understands my explanation by her unhappy face.
“So Jared Frio was right. Joshua and I can’t ever marry,” she said with a catch in her voice and tears glistening in her eyes.
“No kitten. I’m sorry but you can’t. But you can still be BFF’s. You two have grown up as close as Chris and I did. Think of Joshua as your biological half-brother, it may make it easier to cope with.” I suggest.
“So just to see that I understand, I could marry Morty because although he is my cousin too, Aunt Cornelia and mum were not identical twins?” Diana asked.
“Yes that’s right. You are first cousins and the degree of separation is 4.” I replied.
“So what about Julian?” she asked.
Well that came out of left field. I did a quick calculation in my head. “You and Julian are second cousins once removed. The degree of separation is probably around about 6 or 7. So yes you could marry Julian.” I answered.
“But Julian is my brother,” Diana said puzzled.
“To all intents and purposes, yes. But technically, no, he is your step-brother. The degree of consanguinity is worked out on the blood or biological relationship, not a marital one. There is no state law that would prohibit you marrying Julian, or Keith for that matter, because the law is only interested in the closest blood relationship, which is that of cousins.”
“Does Joshua understand all this?” Diana asked.
“I believe Chris talked with him about this after his birthday on Sunday.” I replied.
“Well that’s not the best birthday present I’ve had so far.” She said wiping away her tears.
“I have a better one, that I hope you’ll like,” I said as I gave her a box.
Diana shook it and opened it to reveal car keys and a change of registration form for Agnes’s Bwan Speedster YL.
“You’re giving me mum’s car?” she asked.
“Yes, I think she would like you to have it.” I replied.
“Thank you daddy, can you teach me how to drive?” she asked as she hugged me.
“Sure, right now?” I asked.
“Yes, right now!” She replied, “Just the two of us together again like old times.”
“Okay, I’ll just tell Faith and meet you in the parking lot.” I smiled. Diana was still a little girl inside wanting her daddy’s attention. I make a mental note to myself to make sure I make time to include Diana and my step-children in my family time with Rebekah.
I had been monopolising Rebekah’s time but I needed to remember how to be part of a large family and spread my attention around. But I can’t stop myself from checking on Rebekah one last time before I go outside to teach Diana to drive.
