January 2000- Soloman

The Soloman Family

Pedro, 49, Persephone, 50, Abigail, 14, Colin, 7, Justin, 7, Samantha, 5, Raymond, 5, Esther, 5

Narrated by Persephone



Now that the triplets are a little older life around the house has calmed down quite a bit. It's amazing how much more relaxed you can be without multiple toddlers begging for attention. I've been taking the time to enjoy the hours after they leave for school and before I head to work. One of my favorite things to do has been play chess. I always make sure to play a game or two before I need to leave, it relaxes me after having to fight with six kids to get ready and out the door on time.

Pedro and I work a bit late so we have Abigail watch the younger kids for the two hours or so before one of us gets home. She's been really good about it. She'll even do a bit of cleaning before we get home like making her bed,

and even cleaning the toilets.

She really has done a lot, so Pedro and I talked about how to thank her.

We decided that as a special treat, I would take her out to dinner.

At first she was a little embarrassed to be seen in public with her mother, but she soon got over it and opened up to me more. Her talkative, 14 year old self really made itself known over the course of the evening.

It actually went really well. I feel like I should begin taking each of the kids out, one-on-one, more often. We rarely have time to have these heartfelt chats with so many other kids all around. Of course, the evening didn't end on as great of a note as it started. Abby and I got home around 10pm to find Justin and Samantha outside playing catch.

Needless to say, I was unimpressed. I don't know what Pedro was thinking, their bedtime is 7, but I found him chatting with a friend online instead of sending the kids back inside, let alone to bed. My 5 and 7 year olds should not be outside after dark! I sent the kids to time out (they very well know better), while I dealt with trying to get their father off the computer.

The next day Justin was dealing with the after-effects of staying up so late,

while the other kids decided to spend the afternoon watching TV.

Raymond took a nap, as well, which makes me wonder what he had been up to while his father was playing on the computer.

In happier news, Justin seems to have really taken a shine to chess. He is constantly asking to play it. He'll do it on his own, when others are busy,

or he'll wait and play with me.

I've been really impressed by the way the children have been getting along lately. There's been very little fighting and they've been playing games together instead of side by side.

Even Abby has been making an effort to get along with the younger kids which is admirable since she's usually gets irritated by them easily.

Of course, the younger kids don't always see her attempts at playing with them as so light-hearted.

And they are still 7 and 5 so things aren't always good between them. Some days the first thing I hear, even when being greeted is what a sibling has done wrong and why they should be in trouble.

It is a bit strange, though, having a child in college a new teenager, and 5 young children. They're all in such different stages. I'd been enjoying the break from teenage hormonalness so I was taken a bit offguard when it started up with Abigail. Luckily she doesn't seem to have any crushes yet. She's been spending a lot of time with her friend Perdita.

And, based on her reactions while on the phone I had thought for a while that she was interested in Hamish McCarney. Listening so intently...

Getting overexcited when talking to him...

And letting little things bother her...

Even after she's been off the phone for a while.

But it seems that my concerns were unfounded. The three of them are simply all really good friends. There's no interest between Hamish and Abigail or Hamish and Perdita. But they do seem to have decided our upstairs landing is a great place to play kicky bag. That may need to be stopped soon.

Notes:

Going away last weekend and upping my hours at work has really thrown off my play schedule so there may very well be only one update a week for a little while. Probably until I get a chance to create a backlog of sorts.

Abigail had been rolling a lot of platonic wants for Hamish so I thought they might end up interested in each other, but they are practially in the negatives for attraction score so I highly doubt that anything will ever happen. Since Perdita was around as well, I checked her score against Hamish's and they aren't any better, possibly worse. So far none of these kids have decent scores with the teens they know.