Woods Random Legacy: Chapter 9 - Remind me again, why did we have children?

As winter lifted, the Woods family prepared to move houses.  They packed up their furniture, marveling at how empty the house looked without it, and checked the listings for a place that fit their budget.

Luckily, they found something.  They waited until the weekend, so that they wouldn't have to worry about Lane missing school, and then set off across town to their new house.

It was a two-story traditional-style home, located near the shore.  The location and view drove up the price, of course, but with summer just around the corner the idea of walking across the street for a swim was just too tempting.  There was the usual living quarters - kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer - as well as a backyard and garage on the ground level.  On the second floor, there were three bedrooms and a bathroom.  The kitchen was small, and the single bathroom was cause for some concern, but the family would just have to be considerate of each other.

Lane was a particular fan of the swingset that came with the backyard.

Even after the move, Eliza's midlife crisis wasn't over yet.  She went out and bought a car big enough to fit the family, despite the fact that they had turned the garage into a laundry room.  Luckily there was enough room to park a vehicle outside as well.

At school, Lane was assigned a buddy to befriend.  His name was Locke French-Steele, Christopher's son.  Lane and Locke got along fantastically, spending many afternoons together at the library.

Of course, not all the time Lane spent at the library was with Locke.  He hadn't forgotten the events of the last full moon, and threw himself into his research.  It turned out that Gobias was in fact a real person - Gobias Koffi - but that wasn't the part that astounded him.

Reading the old books, he found fantastical tales that he wouldn't have believed if he hadn't seen things with his own eyes.  The amber eyes, the growl from the bushes, the full moon...if his research was to be believed, those were the signs of a werewolf.  A man who was also part wolf, part wild.  As he read the text, he instinctively knew that everything contained there was true.  It just sounded so right, as if it resonated with a part of him deep down inside.  A wild part.  He had an idea, but he would have to wait to execute it until the next full moon.  Because that was really what it came down to, in the end.  The moon cycle, and the power that accompanied the full moon.

Back at home, the twins were growing up.  They appeared nearly identical, so Eliza made sure to dress them carefully - yellow for Crystal, and blue for Faye.  Crystal enjoyed looking at books with large, glossy pictures, clearly appreciating the art.

Faye, on the other hand, preferred to spend her time playing with the dollhouse.  Books were boring!

As with Lane, the parents divided up the responsibilities of teaching Crystal and Faye to walk and talk.  This time, Greg handled the walking while Eliza handled the talking.  Potty training, of course, fell to whoever was free at the time.

Their hands were beyond full taking care of the twins.  The matching high chairs that they'd purchased sat, unused, in the corner of the dining room.  The kids didn't care if they ate on the floor, right?  There just wasn't any time to deal with the fancy chairs.

There was hardly even time to sleep at night.  Eliza took to catching catnaps in the living room whenever possible.

Lane wasn't old enough to help out much with his sisters, but he did what he could to keep the house clean.  It weighed heavily in the back of his mind when he left the dishes unwashed, or the bathtub unscrubbed.

It would only be a few more years until the girls were old enough to mostly take care of themselves, Greg, Eliza and Lane told themselves.  They just had to hold on until then.

~ * ~

Have I mentioned that I hate toddlers?  The only thing I hate more than taking care of the toddlers is the bathroom situation.  For some reason, I thought this house came with 1 1/2 bathrooms, but I was thinking of another one.  Bit of a nasty surprise there.  By the way, the house is the Secret American, downloaded off modthesims.  It's a nice enough house, but there's some really weird routing issues when you have two parents trying to pick up two toddlers upstairs(for some reason, toddlers don't like being picked up on the second floor, despite there being plenty of room in three of the rooms there).  I wouldn't play a household of more than 4~ sims in this house again.