Save room

Round 12: Autumn 2017


Nyah Marlowe is 31, Thomas is 30, Skye is 5, Jett and Kyra are 3 and Lina is 1. 
(Vicki is 66, Max is 61, Erin is 22 and Iona is 5.)

Narrated by Nyah Marlowe

Thomas came home early from work one day. He had started feeling a bit nauseous and soon after he came home he started coughing really badly.

We don't want the kids to catch the flu so now I'm in charge of the whole circus. I got Phoebe Lind to teach my classes so I could stay home for one day.

Skye is such a good girl. She keeps the twins occupied while I take care of Lina.

Dad offered to help when he heard that Thomas was sick. I took up his offer and he came over right away.

He's great with the kids and they adore grandpa Max. Dad tells the best stories - it doesn't matter if you're a child or an adult you're just going to sit quietly and listen.

Skye is in kindergarten now and she gets homework sometimes. Our younger kids take up so much attention that I always try to make sure that Skye doesn't feel left out.

Thomas is bored to death just resting. We bought a bed and put it in the spare room which will become Lina's room once she gets a little older. We'll need the bed for Jett soon anyway and we still need to buy a bed for Kyra because they're both getting too big to sleep in cribs. Thomas got one of his colleagues to bring some law books so that the time would pass by more quickly. Those books would get me to sleep in no time!

It's hard for the kids to understand why they can't go close to daddy now. They don't understand that he's sick so they keep trying to go see him. He finally had to lock the door.

Luckily he got better after a couple of days. I was already starting to get worried because I could hear him coughing all night but the flu is completely gone now.

Vicki came over to see the kids. Our children are so lucky to have all their grandparents. I never got to know any of my grandparents, they had all died before I was born and it's the same for Thomas too.

I think granny Vicki is Skye's favorite grandparent. She's always asking whether we could go for a visit or if granny could come over to our house.

Vicki has 7 grandchildren but she seems equally fond of everyone. She's often said how she wished to have more kids but never did so now she's pouring all her love on her grandkids.

It's difficult for us to get out of the house with four kids so we usually invite our family over to our place. Mom has hardly ever time to come over. She's still so focused on her career that sometimes I feel sad that she's missing so much of our kids' lives.

Erin will graduate from college soon so she needs to find a place to live. I promised to babysit Iona while she went to check out an apartment here in Allerdale.

Iona and Skye have become really good friends now that they see each other in school every day. I think Erin made the right decision to enroll Iona to Allerdale Elementary School. This way she knows all her classmates and it'll be easier for her to settle down in Wellington.

I've only met Erin's boyfriend Toby once about six months ago when our parents threw a party. He seemed like a nice guy and I think Erin really likes him but she doesn't want to rush into anything. I can't really blame her.

Erin told me that the apartment looked really great and she reserved one of the units. It's actually a group of four rental houses and they'll even have a small greenhouse in the backyard.

Skye and Iona seemed to have too much energy so after lunch me and Erin headed off to Henley Park with the girls.

It took a couple of hours playing outside in the fresh air but it finally did the trick. The girls calmed down and we headed back home. It'll be great to have Erin and Iona living so near to us.

Notes:

• Title from "Save room" by John Legend.
• You probably guessed that Thomas is yet another victim of the flu epidemic. I'll be extremely glad when this ROS is over - whenever that will be.
• The winter birthdays will be up tomorrow, including the highly anticipated birth of baby Greene-Cooper :)