Double Trouble

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Cyril and Cleo are toddlers now! Cyril is looking more and more like his dad. Cleo is clearly doing her own thing.

They’re little terrors, and they’re even worse when they work together.

They always work together.

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They also love their big sister.

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Hannah enjoys being the old sibling as well, and I love seeing how protective she is of them.

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Seeing them hug is the cutest thing.

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She doesn’t even mind dumbing down her doll games to match her little brother’s, err… simplistic playstyle.

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Parents get hugs too.

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But most of all, twins get hugs from each other. They’re best friends and they probably always will be.

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Our little ones.

Little Gamer

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Hugo and I firmly believe in letting our children live their lives and become who they want to become, not copies of us.

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That being said, if she hadn’t been able to beat all the bosses thrown her way by age eight, we would have questioned her parentage.

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She can mess them up though. She completes her first run of Density Effect without my help or her dad’s for the first time, at my greatest pride.

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My little gamer.

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“But Mom, isn’t it so much easier if you re-map the jump control?”

“You kids and your fancy re-mappings”

Helping

Hugo is dabbing into coding a little again.

He’s been getting a bit tired of playing the same games over and over, and he’s now trying to get into modding them. But he’s out of practice.

So here comes his loving developer wife, to his rescue.

Daddy’s Girl

I promised Hannah she wouldn’t get any less love and attention now that her siblings were born, and I fully intend to stick to that promise.

On a spring afternoon, we leave the twins with Grandma, and head to the park with Hannah. And it’s impressive how much Hannah is very much a mini version of us. Or rather, we’re just bigger and older versions of Hannah. Case in point: when we play in the fountain, we might as well be three eight-year-old kids.

As she is daddy’s little princess, I step back and watch fondly as she and Hugo play catch, piggyback, and dance under the pink blossoms.

It feels peaceful.

Family First

So here we are again. She finishes her story with assuring me that she’s better; that they treated her at the hospital after she overdosed.

But her hands are still trembling. And I see the trickle of sweat rolling down her forehead.

So I tell her I’m sorry.

But I can’t.

I only wish her the very, very best. I give her pointers, numbers to call, places to go, and offer money she won’t accept.

It breaks my heart to let her go; but after one last hug, she does leaves.

And I don’t know if I’ll ever see her again.

I still have a heavy weight on my stomach as I tuck Hannah in that night.

But she turns, and smiles peacefully in her stream, and I know I didn’t really have any other choice.

The twins and her come first, and they always will.

Pari’s Response

At this point, hot-headed Pari is not thinking straight by any means.

She got a phone number out of Aurelie’s phone, and she calls an acquaintance.

Who arrives promptly, with exactly what she required.

And she goes further than she’s ever gone before, too fast.

Her heartbeat goes up, and the rage she’s feeling doesn’t help; but then again the drugs don’t help her anger.

… Until it’s too much.

When Pari’s Away

Pari takes her own turns to take care of the household dog. She usually runs with him around the neighborhood.

It turns out that Alexandra and Aurelie usually make the most out of that timeframe.

The absolute most.

But that day, Bastien the dog is sick, so the walk is cut short. And she walks in.

Azalea Intervenes

Through Shanna’s sleuthing and our connections, I find Pari, for the first time, a few months after Hannah is born. I’m worried about her.

And sometimes, you express your worry for a friend by scolding them.

Scolding them, harshly.

It’s out of love; I wanted her to get better, and I didn’t want her to spiral down. Suddenly I didn’t trust these friends of hers anymore.

But she didn’t listen to me, nor did she want to.

So I went away. And didn’t see her again, or hear about her, until she knocked at our door after Cyril and Cleo were born.

The DJ Gigs

Pari is really taking a liking to DJing.

And going out to party with her refound friends.

She even gets the opportunity to mix for the club, and it feels great. And not just because there’s more than blood running through her veins.

But the nightclubs are public places; and we have common friends in some of them.

Back to the Abandoned House

Aurelie can tell Pari is not comfortable, so she proposes they go meet the club’s “provider” together. Pari is confused when they head back to her decaying childhood home. Aurelia waves the question off, explaining that when Pari vacated, the man moved in on Aurelia’s suggestion. He was looking for a place, see, and she got a good deal out of it.

Pari is not a fan of the situation.

But Aurelie and the man are apparently close friends, and she doesn’t want to disrupt.

But she doesn’t like what she sees.

At all.

Yet easily as that, Aurelie asks for an amount, and he gives it to her; and Pari just witnesses it.