Day 5 – Shocker!

At 6:10 on Thursday morning, Fiona had finally gone back to sleep following her latest nightmare. It had been a long night for Sonya. After giving Fiona a bath, making a large batch of spaghetti for the family, cleaning three potties and taking out the trash, she was finally able to go back to bed herself.

By 7:15 Isabel and Isaac were awake and famished, so they helped themselves to some spaghetti. Isabel was the last of the toddlers to master the potty skill after breakfast.

When Jesse woke up, he grabbed a serving and took a few bites in the kitchen to quell his hunger.

Then he wandered into the kids’ room and sat down, chatting with Isabel about what skills they were going to work on today. She was always up for learning something new, even if she preferred to do so on her own most of the time.

Once Jesse finished breakfast, he took out a pack of flashcards and began showing them to Isabel. “Toothbrush,” Jesse said as he showed her the image on the card. “This is what you use to brush your teeth to make them nice and clean.” When they were finished, Jesse was pleased with the progress they had made.

It was 11:30 by the time Samuel and Wyatt woke up, and both of them were absolutely famished and needed to use the potty. It was hard to determine which need was more pressing, especially in Samuel’s case.

Samuel almost didn’t make it to the potty in time. To say he was angry would be an understatement. Luckily, once his basic needs were satisfied, Samuel was back to being a happy little boy.

After Wyatt was done with breakfast, Jesse gave him a bath.

Isabel got hold of her Daddy’s paints and decided to make an artistic statement on the light-colored rug.

Sonya was none too pleased and disciplined her daughter. “Isabel, you’re not supposed to play with Daddy’s paints. Look at the mess you made.” Isabel heaved a heavy sigh, not happy that her playtime was disrupted.

The stereo had been broken since late last night, and Jesse wanted to hear some music. So, he attempted to repair it himself.

Unfortunately, he was not handy whatsoever and managed to electrocute himself in the process. He was seriously fried. “Man, that was a close call. I better not mess with any more electronics until I know what the hell I’m doing,” he muttered to himself. He took a shower to cool off while Sonya cleaned up the mess he’d left behind.

It was nearly 4:30 in the afternoon, and most of the kids were still in their pajamas. Sonya and Jesse got them all changed into their play clothes, except for Isabel, who was napping.

Jesse was still in a daze and a bit cross-eyed when he picked up Annie.

His body was emanating smoke as he began helping Annie learn her shapes with the blocks. Although he wasn’t feeling well, Jesse was determined not to let his foolish attempt to repair the stereo keep him from helping his children achieve their full potential.

The room was filled with activity. Sonya was helping Fiona, and the boys were working on either their blocks or the SimShape tablet app, while chatting with one another. All the toddlers were increasing their skills, making their parents proud.

When she finished with Fiona, Sonya went into the kitchen and got started on dinner.

Meanwhile, Jesse kept an eye on the kids, all of whom were playing nicely.

Using her oven for the first time, Sonya made a taco casserole for dinner. Every now and then, she tried to broaden her toddlers’ palettes by introducing new cuisines. Last night, she’d made spaghetti — an Italian staple — and tonight’s dinner had a distinctly Latin flair. She hoped by doing so that she’d have less picky eaters to deal with when they grew up. She placed the platter on the kitchen table, in easy reach of the toddlers.

Sonya had barely begun to clean the dirty counter when she heard the pitter-patter of Annie’s little red shoes. Clearly, the spicy aroma had made it back to the kids’ room and alerted them that dinner was ready. Annie must’ve been the hungriest of the bunch. Each of them grabbed food as they got hungry.

After Fiona ate dinner, she nodded off to sleep for a bit just as Isabel was waking up from her nap. Meanwhile, Jesse was teaching Wyatt shapes on his blocks while Isaac watched, trying to follow along.

When Isaac got tired of watching Wyatt have all the fun, he got hold of Jesse’s paint, spilling it all over the floor. Jesse was too focused on Wyatt at the time to notice.

Sonya came into the room and caught Isaac red-handed. “Isaac, stop that. You’re making a big mess and Mommy is going to have to clean it up.”

Isaac looked up at his Mommy when she scolded him, which made him sad for a moment. As they all seem to do now, he shook it off quickly and got back to playing.

While the drama unfolded nearby, Jesse remained focused on Wyatt and applauded the progress he was making.

Wyatt beamed with pride at learning something new and because of all the positive attention he was getting from his Daddy.

After the kids finished their dinner, some of them were tired and ready for bed. After Annie used the potty, Jesse read her a book until she fell sleep. While Jesse was busy with Annie, Sonya read to Isabel.

All the kids got a story before bedtime tonight. The last two were Isaac and Samuel, and Sonya and Jesse divided and conquered as they often did.

Samuel fell asleep before Isaac, so Jesse was done first. As he sat on the edge of Samuel’s bed, he waited until Sonya finished and then said in a low voice, “We’re getting better at this, babe.” It was 11:30 and the kids were all sound asleep.

Jesse cleaned the potties while Sonya grabbed a piece of her taco casserole. Jesse joined her a couple of minutes later.

After taking his first bite, he said, “Mm … this is really good. You’re a great cook, babe.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you like it,” Sonya replied.

She continued, “I don’t know how you do it. Even after chasing six toddlers all day, you still look hot.”

“Babe, are you trying to get lucky tonight? ‘Cause you know I’m a sure thing when it comes to you.”

Sonya smiled coyly, dragging out the first syllable. “Maybe? You’ll just have to wait and see, won’t you?”

Jesse shook his head and softly chuckled. They finished their meal, and Jesse did the dishes while Sonya went to the bathroom to get ready for bed. While she was brushing her teeth, the sink sprung a leak.

Sonya went to get Jesse. “The sink’s gushing water all over the floor. Can you please see if you can fix it?”

“Sure thing, babe.” Jesse walked into the bathroom and saw the large arc of water flowing from the faucet onto the bathroom floor.

He grabbed his trusty wrench and tightened the loose fixture. It took him a few minutes, but he finally got it under control.

He still had to mop the large puddle that had formed. By the time he was done, he was almost certain Sonya would be asleep.

When Jesse walked into the bedroom, he found Sonya fast asleep and giggling to herself. “That must be some dream you’re having,” he muttered to himself and sighed. “So much for getting lucky tonight.” He pulled back the covers and crawled into bed, promptly falling into a sound sleep.

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Author’s note:  Sonya rolled a wish to ‘try for baby’ with Jesse tonight and started autonomously flirting with him over dinner. While I’d love to see Jesse’s expressive face in all the pregnancy animations because I adore him, we’ve got a full house already. I don’t know what Sonya’s thinking. Could they really handle a baby right now, seriously? I think not.

Let’s take a look at skills at the end of Day 5:

The toddlers:

As a reminder, the yellow-highlighted skills represent the ‘Happy Toddler’ reward trait levels, while the green-highlighted skills are at the ‘Top-Notch Toddler’ level. Potty skill is maxed at level 3.

If the boys were to age up today, they would receive the ‘Happy Toddler’ reward trait. The girls are nearly there, but are lacking in imagination skill. Isabel is about 99% of the way to level 3 in imagination, Annie’s about halfway to level 3 and Fiona still needs a lot of work just to get to level 2.

Today was focused on increasing thinking skill to mitigate the issues we’ve been having with nightmares. It worked! With a good night’s sleep, everyone should be better able to focus on skill building tomorrow. Fingers crossed! I’m on a mission. 🙂

The parents:

Both Sonya and Jesse increased their parenting skill. Sonya also gained a level in cooking skill, while Jesse gained two levels in handiness. Jesse’s handiness gain came at a high cost, though, considering he was electrocuted today. (I missed getting a screenshot of that because I was watching the toddlers. Drat! With one set of eyes watching 8 sims, I was bound to miss something, I suppose.)

 

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