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Mar. 19th, 2022 10:55 am
The Green Family Story - Chapter 5
Generation 2: Under the City Lights
Your parents lived a simple life on the farm, but that was never right for you. Instead, you dreamed of escaping to the big city and living under its ever-bright lights.
1. Complete City Native and Friend of the World (spouse)
1. Complete City Native and Friend of the World (spouse)
2. Reach the top of the Business career P and Social Media (Internet Influencer) career (spouse)
3. Max the charisma skill P and singing skill (founder) and video gaming skill (spouse)
5. Have kid(s), but only a single pregnancy...you can't take more time off work! P
6. Learn all the city food stall recipes
7. Attend every city festival at least once P
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Can you believe how big Walt is getting? He looks just like me, with that blonde hair and his big green eyes.
He's grown into a funny, silly boy who loves his dollhouse, blocks, and food.
For the most part he's a fairly easygoing toddler, but he's still a toddler, and there's still late night wakeups when he has a nightmare or is scared of something, or hungry, or just done with sleeping and wanting some attention.
He's generally easy enough to soothe back to sleep though. I make sure to read him a story every night, no matter how tired I am from work.
Is life with a toddler very different to our lives before? In some ways it is, but it many ways, no. Darwin still spends plenty of time streaming - it is his job, after all. Basil still drops around to our apartment regularly. There's more cleaning to do, but we hired a maid to help out.
Between the maid and the nanny, we still enjoy plenty of kid-free time out, often with my family.
Darwin is not exactly a traditional Dad in a lot of ways, but one stereotypical Dad thing he does love is grilling!
Fern and Hina are both pretty good chess partners. I'm well on my way to mastering the game.
And of course, Darwin can't go anywhere these days without making the most of it for his social media.
Which generally leads to fans getting wind of where he is and clamouring for autographs. I don't mind; because he games online, many of his fans are kids, and it tickles me to think Walt will be able to brag about how cool his Dad is once he's old enough to go to school.
Our favourite place to be is still the city though, and we still go along to most of the festivals when they roll around. We got engaged at the romance festival, so it's probably the one I like best, though you won't be surprised that Darwin really likes Geekcon.
He still sweeps me off my feet, all these years and a baby later.
Plus I'm still enjoying trying all the different city street food! I think I've tried 15 or 16 different dishes now, and loved most of them.
As Hina suggested, now that Walt is bigger I've started regularly taking him around to our parent's old farm, where Hina and Fern now live, as they still have the little play area our parents set up for us when we were kids.
Walt particularly loves the slide. It gives me something to do with him while Darwin works Saturdays, as I no longer go in to the office on weekends.
Then it's bath time when we get home.
And more playing before bed! These days with just Walt and I are pretty special, actually. I have to make sure Darwin gets a chance to do something similar, but his work hours are all over the show at the moment.
Speaking of work, I moved up in the world again - I'm now a Business Tycoon. I own and manage a range of major companies, with the help of a very big team of course. I also made an investment into another company and it paid off - $50,000, plus wrote a book and received $10,000 for it. So we have more money than we know what to do with these days, and were able to renovate the apartment. Plus, we can keep renovating it as we need to.
I still make time for looking after Walt when I can though, even if we rely on the nanny a lot.
I really do wish Darwin had more time to spend with him though.
"Hon, I'm reading Walt a story, can you finish up there and maybe join me?"
"I can't, Willow, this is a charity livestream. I'm gonna be going solid for 24 hours."
I tried not to feel resentful of his audience, who seem to see a lot more of him than we do these days.
And when he's not working he's trying to wind down from the stress. The fame element of what he does makes it harder to manage than the stress of my job, in many ways.
I know he's doing his best to balance it all though.
it just seems like I never get him to myself these days.
I can still do what I love...
But he's often beholden to fans instead of able to join me.
Still, when Winterfest rolls around, we both have the day of work and I know it'll be all about family.
My big brother is getting on in years! Still footloose and fancy free in the city though, and still Darwin's best friend.
Mine too, of course. I'm so pleased I've stayed so close to my siblings, scattered through city and country though we are.
Darwin has also stayed close to his sister, who is also getting on in years. She had her youngest child a while ago now; he's about the same age as Walt, actually.
Walt was old enough to really enjoy Winterfest this year, and of course got his very own huge serving of turkey.
As well as presents!
Darwin really made an effort to be fully present for the holiday, spending time with his son and staying away from work.
It was hard to be perfect, though, and I know he had to slip into the kitchen a couple of times to take calls. But he did his best, which is what matters.
I made sure I let him know I appreciated his effort the next day, after we were both home from work and enjoying leftover turkey.
"Walt loves it when you spend time with him, Darwin. Thanks for being there for him yesterday."
There was even time for a little alone time together, which we don't often have these days!
Luckily, Walt does really love his nanny, Ulsa, because though we're both trying, we do still work very long hours and have a lot on.
She takes excellent care of him while we're out at the office.
In fact he's so close with Ulsa that my friend, Miki, doesn't babysit anymore, but she still adores Walt and comes around regularly to see him. We're all getting older though, huh.
Between all the help we get, I even have time to take up a new skill. I feel like I'm as good as I'm ever going to get at chess, so I decide to try my hand at programming. It might be useful for work, you never know, plus I always wanted to try out some of the competitions at Geekcon, since Darwin drags me along every year.
When your life is as fast-paced as ours is, time really flies. Before I knew it, we were preparing a party for Walt, his last one before he starts school.
We rented a kid's party venue in Newcrest, and of course invited our whole family along.
The adults got a kick out of the DJ we hired.
And there was plenty of delicious food and good company.
The birthday boy got to blow out the candles on the hamburger cake his Dad had made for him...
And his birthday present was a pretty snazzy green makeover of his bedroom! Darwin used to share Walt's space when he was younger, with his video station set up where the bed now is, but Darwin is more focused on livestreaming than vlogging these days, and Walt needed the bigger space. We got him all set up with a science station and desk for his homework; we hope he will do really well at school, and go on to be successful in business or something similar, like his parents.
But Walt may have other ideas...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Can you believe how big Walt is getting? He looks just like me, with that blonde hair and his big green eyes.
He's grown into a funny, silly boy who loves his dollhouse, blocks, and food.
For the most part he's a fairly easygoing toddler, but he's still a toddler, and there's still late night wakeups when he has a nightmare or is scared of something, or hungry, or just done with sleeping and wanting some attention.
He's generally easy enough to soothe back to sleep though. I make sure to read him a story every night, no matter how tired I am from work.
Is life with a toddler very different to our lives before? In some ways it is, but it many ways, no. Darwin still spends plenty of time streaming - it is his job, after all. Basil still drops around to our apartment regularly. There's more cleaning to do, but we hired a maid to help out.
Between the maid and the nanny, we still enjoy plenty of kid-free time out, often with my family.
Darwin is not exactly a traditional Dad in a lot of ways, but one stereotypical Dad thing he does love is grilling!
Fern and Hina are both pretty good chess partners. I'm well on my way to mastering the game.
And of course, Darwin can't go anywhere these days without making the most of it for his social media.
Which generally leads to fans getting wind of where he is and clamouring for autographs. I don't mind; because he games online, many of his fans are kids, and it tickles me to think Walt will be able to brag about how cool his Dad is once he's old enough to go to school.
Our favourite place to be is still the city though, and we still go along to most of the festivals when they roll around. We got engaged at the romance festival, so it's probably the one I like best, though you won't be surprised that Darwin really likes Geekcon.
He still sweeps me off my feet, all these years and a baby later.
Plus I'm still enjoying trying all the different city street food! I think I've tried 15 or 16 different dishes now, and loved most of them.
As Hina suggested, now that Walt is bigger I've started regularly taking him around to our parent's old farm, where Hina and Fern now live, as they still have the little play area our parents set up for us when we were kids.
Walt particularly loves the slide. It gives me something to do with him while Darwin works Saturdays, as I no longer go in to the office on weekends.
Then it's bath time when we get home.
And more playing before bed! These days with just Walt and I are pretty special, actually. I have to make sure Darwin gets a chance to do something similar, but his work hours are all over the show at the moment.
Speaking of work, I moved up in the world again - I'm now a Business Tycoon. I own and manage a range of major companies, with the help of a very big team of course. I also made an investment into another company and it paid off - $50,000, plus wrote a book and received $10,000 for it. So we have more money than we know what to do with these days, and were able to renovate the apartment. Plus, we can keep renovating it as we need to.
I still make time for looking after Walt when I can though, even if we rely on the nanny a lot.
I really do wish Darwin had more time to spend with him though.
"Hon, I'm reading Walt a story, can you finish up there and maybe join me?"
"I can't, Willow, this is a charity livestream. I'm gonna be going solid for 24 hours."
I tried not to feel resentful of his audience, who seem to see a lot more of him than we do these days.
And when he's not working he's trying to wind down from the stress. The fame element of what he does makes it harder to manage than the stress of my job, in many ways.
I know he's doing his best to balance it all though.
it just seems like I never get him to myself these days.
I can still do what I love...
But he's often beholden to fans instead of able to join me.
Still, when Winterfest rolls around, we both have the day of work and I know it'll be all about family.
My big brother is getting on in years! Still footloose and fancy free in the city though, and still Darwin's best friend.
Mine too, of course. I'm so pleased I've stayed so close to my siblings, scattered through city and country though we are.
Darwin has also stayed close to his sister, who is also getting on in years. She had her youngest child a while ago now; he's about the same age as Walt, actually.
Walt was old enough to really enjoy Winterfest this year, and of course got his very own huge serving of turkey.
As well as presents!
Darwin really made an effort to be fully present for the holiday, spending time with his son and staying away from work.
It was hard to be perfect, though, and I know he had to slip into the kitchen a couple of times to take calls. But he did his best, which is what matters.
I made sure I let him know I appreciated his effort the next day, after we were both home from work and enjoying leftover turkey.
"Walt loves it when you spend time with him, Darwin. Thanks for being there for him yesterday."
There was even time for a little alone time together, which we don't often have these days!
Luckily, Walt does really love his nanny, Ulsa, because though we're both trying, we do still work very long hours and have a lot on.
She takes excellent care of him while we're out at the office.
In fact he's so close with Ulsa that my friend, Miki, doesn't babysit anymore, but she still adores Walt and comes around regularly to see him. We're all getting older though, huh.
Between all the help we get, I even have time to take up a new skill. I feel like I'm as good as I'm ever going to get at chess, so I decide to try my hand at programming. It might be useful for work, you never know, plus I always wanted to try out some of the competitions at Geekcon, since Darwin drags me along every year.
When your life is as fast-paced as ours is, time really flies. Before I knew it, we were preparing a party for Walt, his last one before he starts school.
We rented a kid's party venue in Newcrest, and of course invited our whole family along.
The adults got a kick out of the DJ we hired.
And there was plenty of delicious food and good company.
The birthday boy got to blow out the candles on the hamburger cake his Dad had made for him...
And his birthday present was a pretty snazzy green makeover of his bedroom! Darwin used to share Walt's space when he was younger, with his video station set up where the bed now is, but Darwin is more focused on livestreaming than vlogging these days, and Walt needed the bigger space. We got him all set up with a science station and desk for his homework; we hope he will do really well at school, and go on to be successful in business or something similar, like his parents.
But Walt may have other ideas...