Captain’s Log,
Leila has become the real mother of this family, not Ruby. I don’t know what Ruby’s problem is. She barely even acknowledges her children’s presences any more. All she does all day is garden, she starts out front then escapes to the community garden once someone comes home from work or school to take care of the youngest girls. Leila spends all her time playing with Darryl, feeding both Darryl and Arylon, and making sure that they have everything they need, especially attention. She loves playing with Darryl the best. I don’t know what it is about those two, but they are constantly wanting to spend time with each other and goof around even though their age differences are so great.
Maria and Hilda are of no use at all. They just spend their time doing their respective interests, music and logic/running. I don’t see them really interact with other parts of the family at all and I wonder if they even care about us at all. I can’t blame them if they don’t though. Ruby and I haven’t been the best role models in that aspect. I’ve been trying to be better about it in hopes that it would show them how they should be behaving around their family, after all I remember how they used to love hanging out with each other and Leila, but maybe the damage I caused is just too great for that.
Hilda has found one person that she cares about though. His name is Bronson and they met in high school. They have a class or together or something. When the girls first became teens I was afraid of them meeting boys and stuff happening, but now I kind of want them to meet people. If they find men to love, then maybe they will bring some of that caring back to their own family and even start families of their own. I’ve really started looking forward to becoming a grandpa. Maybe it would be my second chance to show my family that I really do care about them.
I still go out fishing a lot. I need to to get the last promotion for my job. However, instead of never being home, I try and go home after work and help the kids with homework, take care of Darryl and Arylon, and then in the evening head off for some quiet time and fish. It’s really relaxing and helps me deal with seven (six when Ruby’s not around, which is often) females in one household. I still get some uneasy feelings about it all, but fishing helps me calm down and reflect to put it all in perspective.
Now that Nelly is old enough to use the kitchen she has taken to it like a natural. She seemed to not like that our diet had been mostly cake for so long. Insisting that we needed a vegetable and fruit rich diet instead, she has taken the task of cooking meals and leaving them in the fridge for us. This reminded me of when Ruby and I started out life together and at first didn’t even have a stove, but once we did how much she loved cooking us food. It was a bitter sweet memory. I almost wish that Ruby and I could fall back in love and everything would end up being alright. But I’m afraid that that isn’t possible anymore.
Since sending Leila to France improved her attitude towards her family, even though it was already very good, I decided that maybe I could motivate Maria and Hilda to care about their siblings the same way. Maria had been wanting to learn the charisma skill for a long time now. She loved talking to people and wanted to know how to make more friends and keep them longer and thought that learning how to have charisma would help. We are still barely getting by, but I was able to save enough money to send her to the city hall to take a class in charisma. Hopefully she’ll want to help with the family more now and ease some of Leila’s burden.
It was Arylon’s birthday today. I showed up to cheer for her because I can’t wait to see how she grows up, but Ruby glared at me the whole time. I know that when Arylon was born, I was pretty messed up and didn’t even want to see her, I just wish that Ruby could see that I’ve changed and want to be a part of our children’s lives.
Arylon grew up well, I don’t think that it’s possible for a baby to not grow up well, and she’s a really adorable little thing.
Today happened to also be Darryl’s birthday. We were all pretty excited, but I think that Ruby may have been more excited that it was one more birthday away from her getting her lifetime dream and closer to not having to have as active role in caring for the girls. Leila kept her eyes on me, making sure that I was celebrating properly. I know that she said that the burnt bridges could be mended, but I don’t think that it can happen that quickly and she doesn’t trust me completely just yet.
Darryl was really excited. And is actually really cute. I hadn’t really noticed that before.
She also grew up well, which is kind of surprising because of the way that Ruby and I treated her. Now that she is a child I think that I might be able to relate to her better and I’m going to try and get to know her better.
We had enough money saved up, so Leila asked if she could go on a trip again. She still really wants to become a famous explorer. I agreed, after all it’s the least I can do for her because she has given so much to this family.
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