Chapter 4: Growing Up

Captain’s Log, Day 10

Ruby stayed up half the night to take care of Hilda, Maria, and Leila (Leila was a lot more maintenance now, and she still needed to be taught the toddler skills).

When I took off for work this morning, Ruby had passed out on the bed, but I knew that the moment one of our daughters needed something, she would wake up instantly to take care of her.

It was a rare moment or tranquility, all three girls were asleep at the same time. I do not think this has happened before and doubt that it will again until all three are children. Ruby was able to catch up on sleep when this happened, which was good. I hope caring for our daughters does not make her regret marrying me. She’s all that I have now and I would not want to lose her. I worry about her health, but it is not my place to stay home and take care of children, it is hers, and so she will do it and does a good job.

I worked extra hard today at work and was able to wrangle another promotion. We were able to partly rebuild the kitchen from the money that was left over from…

Building the girls a nursery!

We really needed to get them out of the kitchen and into their own room. This way when Leila wants to play loudly with her toys she won’t wake the other two. Now all out extra money is going to go into building a room for Leila when she grows up and some more things to do around the house. That is after we get a stove again. Ruby has been asking for one since she misses being able to cook herself and me meals everyday.

Captain’s Log, Day ?

The last few days ran together now and I do not know when one starts and another begins, but I will tell you what has been happening.

With the money I earn from work, we were able to buy a stove and a mirror. I did not understand the significance of the mirror until Ruby told me. Apparently you cannot change anything about your looks (hair, make-up, etc) without one. She said that she had been wanting one since the twins were born. With all that running around, she wanted to have shorter hair that wouldn’t get in her way as much. I think she looks rather fantastic with her new look and I think she agrees.

Leila is progressing well in her toddler skills. She continues to practice walking with her mom and is becoming very good at it.

She too took a turn at the mirror (I don’t know how she did since she is way too short to be able to see into it) and decided to simply pull her hair back into a loose ponytail. Both Ruby and I approve of this new look. I swear, everyday she just gets more and more adorable.

On my day off, I stepped up and helped around the house. I may not be the best at taking care of the children, but my help means that Ruby is able to have a full night of uninterrupted sleep, something that she hasn’t been able to have in a very long time. I really enjoy taking care of the children too.

Since Ruby wanted to teach Leila how to walk, I decided that I wanted to teach her how to talk. I don’t really know how to teach her how to talk though. I started out just trying to make her repeat random words after me, but that wasn’t working, so I tried just talking to her to see if she would respond to anything I said.

Because of my new strategy, her first word was “planet”. It’s a strange word to be your first, but I think it might be fitting. I was talking about my home planet and all the differences and how I feel like an outsider still even after all my time here. I don’t know what it is about her, but I find myself easily pouring my heart out to my little girl.

Ruby and I still have an amazing love that we share, but it has toned down just a little. We decided to wait to have another child until Leila turned into a child because the thought of having more than three toddlers around scared Ruby. We also had to wait because we did not have the money to afford another baby.

Captain’s Log, Day 13

Things have stabilized a little now. Our lives have fallen into a resemblance of a pattern in a way. In my days off, I go around the house improving the appliances to both make them better and to improve my mechanical skill. Afterwards, I go off and work on my gardening skill. Those are the two skills that are most important for me to gain promotions right now.

We were able to spare enough money to buy a wardrobe as well. According to Ruby we would not be able to change clothes without it. Leila was the first to use it. I think she may have retreated into our bedroom just to get away from her sisters. She doesn’t seem to be a big fan of them right now, but I hope that in time all three of them will become good friends.

Leila spent what time she could in the community garden. She spent all day at home caring for the children and really needed to get away. It helps a lot too because we still are selling all the produce just to make ends meet and hopefully start to get ahead.

Meanwhile, I stayed home to care for the twins and Leila. I decided to continue to teach Leila how to talk. She is getting better at it, but has a way to go. Although I’m not sure if she is learning slowly because of me or because that’s just the speed children normally learn.

We also had bought a new toy chest today from Ruby’s harvest. Whenever our backs were turned, Leila would immediately head over to it and pull out some toys to play with.

With all the craziness of the past few day, Ruby and I unfortunately forgot something very important.

Today was the twins’ birthday. Instinctively, Ruby knew to take them out of their cribs and place them on the floor, she said that we had run out of time to celebrate, but I don’t know how that is possible. Anyway, being the older of the twins, Maria was the first to turn into a toddler.

Next it was Hilda’s turn to grow up.

Both of them are very cute toddlers, but decided that they wanted to change their hair and clothes, so the crawled off to do it before we had a real chance to see what they looked like.

Maria is a real character. She decided to dress up like a panda bear. And although I’m not sure why she did, I think she might look even more adorable than Leila. After her makeover she was exhausted so I put her straight to bed.

Hilda seems to be a slight tom-boy and decided to keep her hair short and stay in overalls. She still had a lot of energy so Ruby decided to continue the tradition and immediately started teaching her to walk.

Captain’s Log, Days 14 and 15

It’s the weekend and although things seem to have settled a little, the next two days blurred together into one.

Today it really seemed to hit me that we had three toddlers in the house and no money. With too of the girls in the room I couldn’t talk with Ruby about my fears, but I think that she understood just by my face. She tried to reassure me nonverbally, but I was still worried after breakfast.

When we finished eating, Leila had to be put to bed. However, Maria just woke up, so Ruby got to teaching her how to talk. I wasn’t able to see or hear how she did it, but I think she was much more successful that I have been with Leila. Hopefully she will give me some pointers so that Leila will be able to learn better.

Meanwhile, to clear my head I went out to garden. Recently we had to throw away a lot of our old plants, they really age quickly, and plant new ones. Unfortunately that means that our harvests are smaller until the new plants grow bigger and thus our income from selling the harvests has decreased as well. With the twins now toddlers, I did not have time to go out to learn more skills.

Instead I started to teach Maria to walk. It is much easier to teach them walking than talking I think. However, I still didn’t have complete hang of it before I had to take care of another of the toddlers’ needs.

Leila finally learned all of her toddler skills so she spent all her waking time playing with different toys. Her favorite was the toy chest. She even crawled inside of it and played peek-a-boo. It was so cute that I kind of want her to stay this way forever, but I know that she is approaching her child birthday soon.

Ruby spent much of the time continuing to teach Maria how to talk. I overheard something about broken hearts when I happened to walk by, so I’m not sure what exactly Ruby was trying to teach our little girl, but it was probably just something about how when she grew old she would break hearts.

With the girls constantly needed food, sleep, and potty training it wasn’t long before Ruby had to switch to teaching Hilda how to walk. She seems to be as fast at learning this skill as Leila was.

With our backs turned, Maria also would get play with the toy chest. Leila and her would even fight over it sometimes and she almost scared me once. I was in the kitchen eating some cold cereal, thinking I was all alone, when out she popped. I nearly wetted myself. I haven’t had such a fright since the old times when I used to adventure on my airship.

I continue to have a special bond with Leila. She just seems so friendly and I really depend on her. I don’t know how much she understands, but I always talk to her about my old home and the life that I have given up. Even tough she never says anything, I think that she understands. It feels good to tell her about my old life, I hope one day I may even be able to show it to her. Of the three she seems the most adventurous and I think she would do rather well back where I am from.

Some of what I tell her must have rubbed off though. She’s taken to playing with the toy rocket ships, a kind of airship I’m told, instead of the pink rabbits that she used to favor. I like to imagine that one day we’ll be able to travel someplace together and have all sorts of exciting adventures.

When Maria cannot play in the toy chest she heads to the toy xylophone. It’s hard to tell, but I think that she is really talented. True, they say all parents are biased, but already she seems to play much better than Leila and Leila became quite good at it. Although it’s all relative because it is a toy and no one can really become amazing at it.

Captain’s Log, Day 16

Today I had to go back to work. I almost missed the carpool because home life is so crazy. I helped out as much as I could before hand, but I have a feeling that Ruby is going to have a very long day.

Ruby’s day was spent taking care of the girls and teaching Hilda and Maria the skills that they still needed to learn. Maria is doing very well in learning how to talk. She really seems to enjoy it.

My day was also rather slow. I received another promotion at work though, which really came just in time.

Because today is Leila’s birthday. I brought home another cake and we set it out right away. Leila could feel the excitement. We tried to explain to her what was going on, but I don’t think that she understood it. However, when the time came, she was able to blow out her own candles.

Ruby had to put her on the floor once again because it was time for her age transition. The sparkles came again and Leila stood up and seemed to be as amazed by what was happening as I was that first time. Suddenly she jumped up.

And landed as a full grown child. She grew up to be just as cute as when she was a toddler and I’m proud to say that she got off of her toddler skills learned before she hit the transition. According to Ruby, that means that Leila will develop a much better personality in life.

That night, Leila and I shared some cake before going to bed (although I had gotten a promotion, the second bedroom was not ready yet so her bed was placed in Ruby and my bedroom for now). Although we had been close when she was a toddler, I started to feel a little awkward around her. I don’t know what it was, maybe it was that now she could really understand and talk back, but I feel like we may slip away and be less than best friends. I hope this does not happen though because we share a special bond that I do not have with the twins. Hopefully this bond will carry us through the initial awkwardness and let us continue to be best friends.