The Atwood DITFT: Generation 1, Chapter 12
Author's Note: You know, I was gonna make you guys wait a little longer for a chapter, and wait til I had the next chapter ready to post because I like to have a few stored up before I post, but then I realized... It's February 29! That only happens every 4 years. So I had to xD So you can thank it being Leap Year for this chapter being out today, lol! Oh, and it's the last chapter of the generation!!! I hope you're exciiiited!! ^_^
The Atwood DITFT: Generation 1, Chapter 12
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The triplets were slowly growing up, and Marigold took every opportunity to dress them in matching outfits while she still could. Reagan’s hair was beginning to grow in, and her parents were still baffled by its deep black color.
The three were the best of friends, and did absolutely everything together.
Tucker, too, was growing bigger every day, and may have surpassed his parents as “most cuddly cat of the house.”
“Um… Nick?”
“I’m up! I’m up! What is it? The baby?”
“I think so… Ow! Yes, definitely!”
“Okay, keep calm,” Nick said, trying desperately to take his own advice. “Can we-?”
“No hospital,” Marigold said between gritted teeth. “The kids-”
“What can I do?” Nick asked anxiously.
“Nothing,” Marigold said, panting. “Why don’t you go back to bed.”
“Back to-? Are you crazy?”
“No, you’re just making me more freaked out, hon. Go to bed, I’ll wake you up when it’s over.”
Nick protested for awhile, but eventually the late hour got the best of him, and he got in bed, promising he was just resting his eyes, though his snoring gave him away. Finally, after a long labor, Marigold gave birth to a healthy baby boy, whom they named Michael (figuring if the girls’ names all shared the same first letter, the boys’ should too).
“What a beautiful boy you are,” Marigold said tiredly. “Why don’t you sleep a little, baby, so Mommy can too?” She knew it was probably hopeless, but she tried anyway.
The Atwood home quickly became even more chaotic than it had been before, if that was possible.
“Honey! Rowan just said ‘mama’!”
“That’s so great, Mar! And look, Reagan finally walked to me! These girls are getting so big.”
“Babe, is that Michael crying? Can you get that?”
“Ugh,” Nick moaned. “It never ends, does it?”
“What, Daddy?” Rowan asked sweetly.
“Oh… nothing, baby. Michael’s just your fussy little brother, isn’t he?”
“Fussy bruther?” Rowan giggled. “And Ray is fussy sister!”
“That’s right,” Nick said with a laugh. “Reagan sure is fussy sometimes.”
“All right, hon,” Marigold said patiently, “see what your sissy’s doing? Can you do that for me?”
“Is easy, sissy,” Rowan said. “Yous can do it!”
“I donno,” Reagan replied. “Looks hard…”
“I don’ haf’ta do anyfing, ha ha!” Raleigh teased from her spot at the block toy.
“Shut up,” Reagan said, glaring at her sister.
“Hey, watch your mouth young lady,” Marigold admonished. “And we really need to work on your speech, Ral, don’t we? You’re next, missy, don’t you forget.”
“Pottying is fun!” Rowan said brightly. “You guys is silly.”
Ever since his parents promised to sign him up for Scouts if he got all As, Mason had been enthusiastically and diligently keeping up with his homework. He couldn’t wait to learn all the outdoor skills scouts would teach him.
For his tenth birthday, Nick and Marigold bought Mason a pet chinchilla. Mason was ecstatic, and doted on the little animal at every opportunity.
“Hi there Chilly! You’re adorable! Aw, Mikey, I can’t wait til you’re bigger so you can play with Chilly with me! We’re gonna have so much fun, little bro.”
“Good morning, bub,” Marigold said cheerfully one day as Mason joined her and Nick at the breakfast table.
“Morning Mommy! So did you see my report card last night?”
“We sure did,” Nick said proudly. “Straight As, great job, kiddo.”
“Remember what you said I could do if I did that?”
Marigold smiled at her son’s eagerness. “Hmm, I think I remember…”
“Did we say we’d let him…?” Nick asked, pretending to struggle to recall.
“Let me join boy scouts??” Mason supplied, bouncing up and down with his eagerness.
Nick and Marigold laughed. “Oh, that’s right, I knew that’s what it was,” Nick said.
“We did promise, didn’t we?” Marigold smiled. “I’ll sign you up today, how’s that sound?”
“YAY!” Mason yelled.
Soon enough, the youngest Atwood had become a toddler. Nick was overjoyed to see that Michael had inherited his father’s every characteristic.
Red-headed, blue-eyed Michael was just as adorable as everyone knew he would be.
In fact, now both parents were excited to have a ‘mini-me.’ They loved all their children, of course, but they couldn’t help but have a soft spot for the ones that shared their hair color.
* * *
“Good morning, sunshines,” Marigold said as she made her way into the triplets’ room one morning a few weeks before their birthday. “My goodness, you guys are all up already… Where’s Nick?” She glanced out the girls’ window. “Ah, of course. Already in the garden. Well, I guess I’m on wake-up duty by myself today.” She sighed. “Let’s get this started, I guess.”
“Look at your hair, Miss Reagan, it’s getting so long!”
“Mama! Up! Up! Up!”
“I know, I know, sorry baby. I guess I should’ve remembered it was your turn to get up first, huh? Tomorrow, okay?”
Marigold only had five minutes to herself once the triplets were up before she heard Michael calling for attention from his room. She sighed to herself, wondering when it had begun falling solely to her to dress and feed all four toddlers every morning.
“Morning, Mama,” Michael said, and his smile melted Marigold’s heart.
“Oh, sweetheart,” Marigold said. “Thank you for being so smiley.”
“…Bottle?”
Marigold sighed again. At least after this she’d have a few moments to herself… and she knew exactly what she was going to do with them.
“Nick. We need to talk.”
“Can it wait, honey? I’m almost done with-”
“No. Now.”
Noticing Marigold’s tone, Nick stood up quickly. Marigold had turned her back to him and was fiddling with her hands nervously. She wasn’t so good with confrontations.
“What is it, sweetheart?” he asked, trying to conceal his nervousness.
“Nick, I’m just… I’m exhausted. My morning has completely disappeared because it takes so long to get all the kids up. I’m working really hard to keep them all happy… and you’re not helping me at all.”
“Mar, honey, you know I just want the best for our family. Right now we’re running low on money, and we have five mouths to feed… I need to keep up with the garden to bring in an income, you know that. I thought we had worked out a system the way things are…”
“I know, and I do appreciate all the hard work you do for us. But the kids need things faster than I can provide for all of them, and… Look, how about this. The triplets’ birthday is coming up soon, but Reagan still wets the bed at night and Raleigh sounds ridiculous when she tries to talk. Once we get them through their fifth birthday though, they’ll be old enough to take care of themselves a little better. When there’s only one toddler, I won’t need your help as much; then you can focus on the farm again. Until then, can you promise to help me more with the kids?”
“Their birthday is so soon already?” Nick asked, shocked. How many months had he spent wrapped up so tightly in his garden that he hadn’t noticed the girls growing up? “I… I’m sorry.”
“I’ll do better; really, I will. I’m sorry I put all that work on you… Let’s go finish those girls’ skills, and I’ll worry about the garden later.” He smiled tentatively at his wife.
“That’s all I ask,” Marigold said, smiling back.
And so the triplets’ birthday grew ever closer. Social Rowan kept Michael busy while their parents were occupied with the other girls.
Raleigh finally learned to pronounce the ‘th’ sound…
And Nick even found a few spare moments to start potty-training Michael, as well.
Both Phoenix and Neville were starting to show their age; Nick was sad to find so many gray hairs in both of their coats. Not to mention their fleas!
Mason continued to be the best big brother the triplets could have asked for.
“Hey, guys, want to make a tower with me?”
“Tower?”
“Yes!”
“Well, okay,” Mason said with a laugh, “but you’ll have to stop chewing those blocks first.”
“No!”
“I thought so,” he grinned.
“Whoa!” Reagan exclaimed. “Brother, how’d you did that?”
“Well, I’ll tell you: if you stopped chewing those things long enough to put one on top of the other, you could make something like this too!” Mason smiled. He liked being the big brother who figured things out first.
Soon Raleigh tumbled over to join them. “I wanna build a tower too!”
“Don’t be silly,” Mason said. “You just want to chew on that block like your sisters.”
“Well…” Raleigh giggled and picked up a green block, putting it tentatively between her teeth. “Maybe…”
“Oh, boys, thank goodness the triplets are sleeping late today,” Marigold sighed the next morning. “Now I can actually read this book for more than a page at a time! I love my mellow boys, you know that?”
Michael giggled. “I wuv sweeping sisters too! Quiet.”
Neville shifted in his sleep, and Marigold smiled. “Quiet indeed.”
But not for long. Soon the triplets were up, more than ready to celebrate their birthday!
* * *
“All right, girls!” Marigold exclaimed, watching the triplets shift uncomfortably in the matching dresses she’d bought them. “Who’s ready for pictures?”
“But Mom,” Reagan moaned. “We don’t want to wear matching dresses. In fact, me and Raleigh don’t wanna wear dresses at all!”
“Don’t be such party poopers,” Rowan admonished. “Mom just wants a picture of us together. Right Mom?”
“That’s right,” Marigold agreed, smiling at her good-natured youngest daughter. “Now, I need you three to look at me and look cute… not that that will be hard!”
The girls smiled obediently as their mother snapped the picture.
“There we go,” Marigold said. “Adorable. All right, you never have to wear matching outfits again if you don’t want to.”
In the end, Rowan, whom her sisters called the “goodie-two-shoes,” elected to keep the dress her mother had bought for her. The other two changed out of theirs without an ounce of regret, electing to wear shorts instead. Each girl had a distinctive style to go with her personality-possibly to create as much distinction between the three of them as possible, since it was very clear they wanted to be recognized as their own people, even though they had been born on the same day.
Yes, Marigold thought later as she looked through the photos she’d taken, the triplets certainly had grown up beautifully.
“Night, sissies,” Reagan said as she climbed the ladder to her top bunk. “See you tomorrow for our first day of school!”
Raleigh mumbled something, while Rowan didn’t even try-both of them were asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. It had certainly been an eventful day.
* * *
And that's a generation, finished!! I know it feels kind of abrupt, but here's my plan. There is a bit of a time jump between this chapter and next... Don't worry, it will all be explained :D But yeah, I'm organizing generations based on the heir's plotline as opposed to when kids are born. Oh, and I guess I should tell you who the heir is? Hmm... No, I'm gonna be evil and make you wait >:D You'll find out when the next chapter is up, which will hopefully be soon! I just have to get a few more shots ^_^ Anyway, thanks for reading guys! Love you all :3 Happy simming!