Let it be me

Round 16: April 2025

Brooke Greene is 33, Charlie is 32 and Ava is 1.

Narrated by Brooke.

We bought this house a little over a year ago and we just love it. Living in an apartment was fine but living in our own house is so much better. As an added bonus we live next door to Janie and Danny. Dixie and Tom also live in the same area.

Charlie and I thought it would be nice to get our families together so we invited everyone over to celebrate Ava's first birthday. The last family reunion with my family before this was at dad's funeral so it was nice to see each other on a happy occasion. I always forget how big our families are until everyone gathers into one place. We had 26 guests over!

It was so great to see Ava play with her cousins. We try to get together every now and then but it's difficult now that I've gone back to working full-time. I used to go to Wellington every week when I was on maternity leave.

Janelle, Dixie and Tom's daughter, is the latest addition to our family. She's 2 months old and everyone adores her. Charlie's been saying that we should get another child but I've wanted to wait a while before we start trying. I have to say that seeing him with Janelle kind of made me change my mind.

Dixie complained at some point that she's barely seen Janelle since they arrived. Janie just laughed and said that she should be happy that she gets to rest her arms for a little while.

We knew that the birthday girl would probably get tired and cranky pretty quickly so we ushered everyone into the kitchen pretty quickly. I helped Ava just a little bit with the candles on her cake.

She was very enthusiastic about blowing the candles and I'm pretty sure in the end there was more saliva than cream on top of the cake. The main thing was that the party was a success. Everyone had a great time and it made Ava's first birthday really special.

I always thought Charlie would become a good father and I was right. It's one of my favourite things to just watch him with Ava. He's so relaxed even when he's giving a bath to a wet and slippery 1-year-old.

Ava makes it known to everyone if there's something bugging her. She just recently started sleeping in her own room and usually in the mornings she cries her little heart out before Charlie or I pick her up from her crib.

She's all smiles and sunshine when she gets out though so her bad moods don't last very long. Our nanny always says that it's a pleasure to take care of Ava. I'm sure she's said the same to all parents.

Charlie and I both spent some time at home when Ava was born but now we're both back to working full-time. We get to spend plenty of time with her in the evenings before she goes to sleep so it's not too bad although I miss her during the day a lot.

We often spend time in our study after Ava has gone to bed. I work on an article and Charlie writes notes in his notebook. He works as a Safari Guide now and obviously can't use a computer most of the time so all the information he needs has to be written in his notebook that he carries with him in his backpack all the time.

We took some dance lessons before our wedding but unfortunately we haven't been able to continue them. We still dance at home sometimes and it's a lot of fun.

Notes:

• Title reference: Let it be me by Ray LaMontagne.
• It has taken me forever to finish writing this update. I finally just had to force myself to write it.
• I haven't played at all for a couple of weeks but I have some time off work during Easter so hopefully I can get some simming time then.