1.5 Get Me Some Sleep

Don't get me wrong, the boys are super sweet, we don't feel we have children that are very busy or very attention needed. We were either lucky like that, or perhaps our method of raising just made them so easy going. But if I was thinking this second pregnancy through to much, I just couldn't help myself but freak out. Having twins is busy no matter how easy going they are, and yes, the only place to actually get some thinking done, is while your at the john.

It speaks for itself that waking up one morning, still in our first trimester, the discovery of the addition of again two new cribs had us standing still for a minute. All we could do was stand there and stare at each other, what else was there to do?

As we went from the first into the second trimester, and from there into the third, it became quite obvious by the size of her belly that they were not mistaken, as we had secretly hoped for. We were expecting twins again, and even though we both expressed our wish for a little girl, I could not shake the feeling that it would be two boys again, after all, my family has not had a girl for many generations.

I could have never expected Madeline to take care of the children as much as she used to when she was nearly due. So it was not a surprise to me that she went into labor while working on a painting again.

I kept the boys entertained in the nursery while Maddie was on her own this time around. She did a very good job and I felt a jolt of joy going through my body when she yelled that our firstborn was in fact a girl.

Only a few minutes later her brother was born. We placed Cathelijne and Rudger in their cribs, accompanied by another set of dolls we got delivered by Donovan the mailman. They fell asleep right away.

We were both stunned about how quickly the old routine returned.

And as with their older brothers, it became more and more easier the older they got. When the youngest twins would need attention, a bottle or clean diapers, their big brothers would entertain themselves.

When Cathelijne and Rudger were asleep, we'd give the boys some much needed attention. They kept us so busy that nearly a year had passed and the painting Madeline started in her last trimester, before giving birth to our youngest spawn, was still standing there on the easel, as unfinished as she left it that day.

The only time we were able to spend together, was when we were sleeping ourselves.

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So YAY :D I got myself a Ryan and Maddie female spawn :D 

As for the dolls...I went crazy when I got the message telling me these twins got the dolls as well! I have a mod that makes sure I am supposed to get them less. And in my other legacy it has worked like a charm...but here....perhaps this is the games way of trying to solve the lack of population in this town :P

1.4 Boy oh Boy

Strange as it was, the scary appearance of the nursery also made sure we were more at ease. We did not have to worry about how to take care of this baby, these babies, any longer. So those last two weeks went by like a breeze. We spend a lot of time outside, just enjoying each other. 

There was however one aspect of the arrival of our children that we failed to overlook in our worries.

Neither of us had a clue how to handle the birth. We didn't have any books to tell us what to do, there were no doctors, no hospitals. How on earth were we going to get through this.

But we did manage, and soon both our children were born, we named our two sons Luke and Levi. As we put them in their cribs, a nagging feeling started to grow inside of me again. Memories of my father and mother started to come back, conversations of how they wanted to adopt a little girl, because the chance of giving birth to one was almost zero.

But before I could properly get a hold of that memory, our sons started to cry. Still a bit insecure, we grabbed our boys and started the first time of tandem routine that we quickly developed.

The following morning Donovan the mailman brought more then just bills. Our mailbox contained a package and inside it were two dolls. There was no note attached, but we thought it very reliable that they gave the dolls for our boys. 

We were just glad at that time that they had taken away another one of our worries, what were they supposed to play with when they would grow old enough to do so. So we placed the dolls in their cribs.

The early years of their childhood went by so quickly. We always took care of them together, since there were two of us and two of them, it just seemed easier this way.

Luckely after the first few hard months, they became quite easy, a bit of playing, some bottle feeding, and they would sleep for quite some time before they needed a clean diaper.

The dolls weren't the only things that started to show up. Over the course of three years, more additions were made to the house to provide our growing sons with a place to play. And whenever something was added, we would discover money was taken from our savings. We didn't care, we would have had to pay for it if we went to the store as well.

In those three years our boys developed from helpless little babies into full grown toddlers that learned to crawl, walk, talk and wrap their mother around their little fingers. 

What I loved the most about raising my boys, was that I quickly discovered they both had their own characters. Luke loved to play with his peg box. It didn't take him long to figure out how it worked, though truth be told, if he didn't get it right, he could throw quite the fit. 

Levi was often found near Luke, though he was more socially and tended to play with his doll...a lot. We tried to get him to focus on something else a few times, but he'd frantically search the room for Lucky, as he had caller her.

With the twins growing up in those three years, we were able to spend more and more time doing what we do best again. Like sculpting, though Madeline had ordered me to put the workstation in our yard the minute we discovered it was fenced. I didn't mind to much, it gave me certain perks as well.

Though to minimize the time the children would be on their own, we would still shorten our shower time by showering at the same time.

Which hardly made it any surprise that we were expecting a third child within those three years.

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Luke = Genius, Eccentric

Levi = Neurotic, Loves the Outdoors

Right....people who also read my random legacy will know about the boy thing :) I was so annoyed by it, I really wanted a girl for those two in that challenge, I stuffed madeline with watermelons which is also used in that story. But alas, their only allowed child was a boy. So when I got pointed towards this challenge, I decided to use Ryan and Maddie again, and this time I would surely get a girl....you can perhaps understand my frustration when both of them were boys :(

1.3 Distractions

I Think it took me about 5 months before I worked up the courage to finally kiss her. And as awkward as that little moment felt, it was the best thing I ever did. 

Apparently I had been on her mind a lot as well, cause after we kissed, she whispered in my ear that it would be great if I had an easel. She loved to paint, but she loved me even more, and spending all her time with me, had put her hobby a bit to the background.

That night she stayed. When we woke up the following morning, there was no money left behind at my work studio for the sculpture that I left for them to take. Instead we found an easel standing against the wall, along with all the paint she would need for at least a few paintings. 

It didn't take me nearly as long to figure out what to do next. That same morning, only one day after we shared our first kiss, I proposed to her. I still did not know what was going on with my life, or why, but when that easel showed up, I knew that it was "allowed" for me to keep her by my side. 

We exchanged our vows at the lake where I learned to accept my fate. I thought it was fitting that the very thing that was distracting me from figuring out what that fate actually was, was made final at this place.

As the sun set that evening, we made love by the lake. Being all alone certainly had its perks, and we decided to make good use of it.

In the three years that followed our improvised wedding day, we made a small fortune with painting and sculpting. It didn't take us long to realize that the paintings Maddie created were exchanged for money the same way my sculptures were. All she had to do was leave them on the easel and the following morning there would be money found on the table, enough to cover both the price for any decent sculpture and painting. Though at first we didn't notice, it did came to our attention that Maddie never got called to a fire again. She never actively quit her job, neither could she remember attending any emergencies besides mine. The itching feeling came back, how come she can't remember anything from her past up till the point where she met me?

But before I was able to do something with that feeling, a new distraction introduced itself into our life. Considering the lack of grocery stores in our life, it actually amazed me it took us as long as three years of planning when we could and couldn't make love before it actually went wrong.

It was not that we didn't want a child, in reality we were both thrilled to have one. It was more that we weren't sure what would happen if we did have a child. After all, where would we get the necessities to raise a child. 

It wasn't until we started to think the pregnancy was nearly at its end when we really started to worry. There would not pass a single night without one of us dreaming of a new house, and every time I went to bed I couldn't shake the feeling this would end up being one big disaster. We had tons of money, but we had no where to even get a crib for the little one.

Two weeks before giving birth, Maddie woke me up. She yelled my name and even now we both are not sure weather it was from shock, or from excitement. In one night there were several changes made to our small home. Next to our bed a door appeared, and through the window we could see that there was an extra room added. But it was not until we opened the door when we got the biggest shock yet.

Not only was there a crib for the baby, there were two cribs. We were not sure what was the bit that worried us the most. The fact that they managed to build a room in one night, without us waking up. Or the fact that we were apparently having twins, and they knew it.

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So I was kind of shocked to find out that I didn't have any pictures of the vows exchanging! I do not know what happened. I'm actually rushing through life, probably because well, there's not much to talk about when you don't have anything to do.

1.2 A Fire Running Through my Vains

The next morning I proceeded to prepare my breakfast as I got used to doing in the past two years.

The only difference this time was that I had set the oven as high as possible, and that I had no intention of eating those waffles what so ever.

It did not take very long before the first flames started to break through the outer shell of my stove, and while the alarm started to sound, I anxiously watched the fire to make sure it would not get out of hand.

But what I had hoped for happened, a fire truck showed up.

And with it, a friendly fireman, or should I say women, to make my day. I was very disappointed though when she told me to be more careful and rushed of to put out another fire. It did make me wonder what other fire she had to go to, because Hidden Springs was still very empty.

So a few days later, when I was cooking some mac and cheese...

...I grabbed myself some left overs from the fridge while waiting for it to cook.

Of course I was shocked to find that I had taken so long to eat my left over waffles, that the mac and cheese burned and another fire broke out.

After a few weeks in which I had "forgotten" my meals on the stove about three times a week, things got out of hand a bit.

Before I knew it, the fire had spread, and the pretty lady tried her best to contain the flames, but I could see her efforts were to no effect. When one fire had been taken down, another piece of furniture would catch on fire.

If I wanted to keep my little house intact, I had to do something. So I had no other choice but to help her out.

"So explain to me, how does a guy gets to burn his stove on a 3 times a week average while being fully capable of extinguishing the flames himself..."

And that was the beginning of another friendship in this empty town. I explained to her I had gotten lonely out here and that I had used the first fire to figure out what would happen. 

"And when I left straight away, you saw no other option then to start another fire?"

That women had the gift to make me feel really stupid...

After that Madeline, as she introduced herself, came by regularly, up till the point where I felt as if she was nearly living with me. When she asked me where the money to pay my bills came from, it started to dawn on me,  I could talk about my situation with her. I explained to her that whenever I'd finished a project that I'd wanted to sell, I only had to leave it standing on my workstation as I did with that chair. The next morning there would be a new block of materials, accompanied with some money, and the piece I made would be gone. In the meantime my thoughts were raising through my head. How come I could explain my situation to her, but I never could to Donovan the Mailman?

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I had fun starting the fires, it did cost me a lot of money though.......I had to replace the stove several times, after the fires :). 

For rules sake, the women is Madeline Sabo (Maddie) and she is one of the spares from cece's random legacy which can be found here. In both her, and my legacy, Ryan and Maddie hooked up. And they are so cute together, so I seriously could not have Ryan in this challenge without Maddie. 

To make it clear, I did not cheat, not really. I did wait for a female NPC to show up. If it was the mailman, it would have been the mailman, but it sucked when he turned out to be male. So I came up with this, when I finished last chapter, I did not even know it would be a female that showed up. All I did was replace the female NPC (I believe she was called Cassie Ingram or something like that) with Madeline using Twallans Mastercontroller :). So the only advantage I got from this, is the genetics that will just be so hot! And of course the fact that it makes me and cece extremely happy to have these two together (again).