Take it All

Round 5: June 2012 (Summer)

Alicia Stevens and Kyle Bryant are 20, Ava and Shae are 4 months

(Edna is 68, Jeanette is 51, Dana and Darren are 17)

next update / last update

Narrated by Kyle

Around the time the twins were born, I started a new job in an office downtown as an executive assistant. It wasn't a huge bump in pay but there's more of a future working here than the odd jobs I was working before. Job hopping is something I just can't do anymore.

Things are going well so far. I did so well my first few months that they thought I'd do better in sales and promoted me.

Since I don't have a college degree yet, this is as far as I can go with this company. But if I do well in sales, I can make enough money to start taking a few classes at UCC. Hopefully I can start doing that within the next year or so.

Alicia started working again, too, just last week. She's working at her mom's clothing store again but only a few hours in the evening.

It's just enough to get her out of the house because she gets a little stir crazy being at home all day with the girls.

It’s really hard to believe that Ava and Shae are already 4 months old. I’m really enjoying being a dad but it isn't without its challenges.

Getting used to caring for 2 babies was a major adjustment at first. Luckily the girls are in sync with each other, so if one needs their diaper changed, the other will, too.

When one is hungry, so is the other one.

And when one cries, you bet that the other one will start, too. Shae seems to be the fussier twin and will usually be the first one to cry when she hasn’t been held for a while.

Sometimes it’s easy to cheer her up but sometimes they’re both so cranky that I don’t know what to do.

It's too early to be sure but Shae will probably need a lot of attention when she gets older.

We're working on a sleep schedule for them but they're not sleeping through the night yet. It'll probably be another few months before we can get a full night's sleep again.

Since Alicia's home during the day with them, I try to help out when they wake up at night. But it's hard when I have to work the next day and on those days, I tend to nod off whenever I sit still long enough.

I don't know how Alicia does it. I know she has to be just as tired but she never shows it.

Alicia's family has really been helping out, which is a relief. It gives Alicia a much needed break during the day to either run errands or just sleep.

Edna always prepares a couple of meals for us to have on hand when we need them. We definitely wouldn't be eating so well if it wasn't for her.

Even Darren and Dana have been visiting regularly. They really fawn over Ava and Shae. They're probably excited to have more twins in the family.

Darren and Dana don't come over just to see the babies, though. They chip in just as much.

It's always nice after the family comes over to help. After we put the girls down, we have a nice clean house and get a few moments to enjoy each other.

We don't get a ton of quiet time together now that the girls are here so we sneak it in whenever we can.

But the good definitely outweighs the bad. Even though they came as a surprise, I couldn't imagine being without them.

Notes:
-Yay an update! I’m still not back to my normal routine of playing but I thought I’d finally stop procrastinating and get this update written and posted. These past few months have flown by and I’m trying to get back in the groove. So posts still may be few and far between.
-I was having such a hard time getting these 2 to pose with the babies that I just said "screw it" and went with the pic at the beginning. I think it looks sweet anyway with Alicia smiling up at Kyle.
-That’s the end of the round! I’ll have a couple more posts going up soonish so at least there will be something new to read. Hopefully I can find some time to play so I can start posting again.