Chapter 1.3: The Growing

“Honey? Are you ready yet? The photographer is here.” Adam’s voice called out from the front porch. Despite the sun being out, the winter morning was still bitterly cold, and stark white snow covered the landscape. Amity smoothed out her dress and smiled at herself in the mirror. She could hardly believe this day had finally come - she’d dreamed about it for so long and now that it was finally a reality, she felt a little overwhelmed.

She and Adam had been in each other’s company constantly ever since his rugby team, The Aurora Skies Huskies, had fallen to the Sunset Valley Llamas in the conference championship last year. This year, the Huskies had taken the championship and Adam had gotten down on one knee and proposed to Amity right there on the field. She had been taken completely by surprise, and accepted his proposal. The crowd roared and Amity could hardly believe how much her life had changed since she first moved to Aurora Skies. She was lonely and working a dead end job for so long, and now she was engaged to a local sports hero and had made quite a name for herself in the local journalism scene.

Today, she and Adam made it official during a small ceremony at city hall. Only family and close friends were invited, as Adam didn’t want anything ostentatious to set off the press. They’d hired a photographer to take their photos after the ceremony. Amity shivered as she stepped onto the porch, and she wondered why they hadn’t waited until a warm Spring day to have their wedding.

But one look into Adam’s eyes told her why she hadn’t waited. How could she? She was completely smitten, and could barely believe how easily they’d fallen in love.

The camera clicked away and the photographer directed the happy couple into a variety of happy, wedding-day poses.

“Now, pick her up. No, not like that. Pick her up like you’re going to whisk her away to an exotic locale. You’re her knight in shining armor!” the photographer bellowed.

And so Adam scooped Amity up and put on his most debonair expression. She giggled felt completely swept away in the pomp of it all, but she had to admit she was having a wonderful time.

After the photographer snapped the last few shots, Amity and Adam stole away to Amity’s bedroom. Although technically it belonged to both of them now. Adam had a small studio apartment in the middle of town close to the sports arena, and they had decided that it would be better if he moved in with Amity. Not only did she own her house outright, but the house was also situated on a large chunk of land that backed right up onto the hot springs. There was plenty of room for expansion.

…..For both the house and the family. 

After the wedding, life marched on as usual. Amity continued to hone her painting skill, while Adam exercised in his spare time.

Amity hated to admit that her painting skill was lacking, but she vowed to continue practicing when she was not writing and trying to keep up with her job and husband.

She tried to have dinner on the table for him every night when he arrived home, sweaty and stinking from practice or a game. Amity tried to catch as many games as she could – she was surprised by how invested she had become in the sport since she and Adam got together.

They spent every night cuddling in bed before falling asleep in each other’s arms, and they had pleasant dreams, which were oddly correlated with their desires in life.

They were madly in love and it almost seemed like their "honeymoon" phase was neverending. Adam came home from work every day and wrapped his arms around his wife, kissing her deeply and telling her how much he loved her. Amity felt weak in the knees every time – she felt so fortunate to have fallen in love with someone who made her feel like a giddy teenager every time he looked her way.

In the months following the wedding, Amity found her painting skills had improved. She finally found inspiration in the most cliche of places - nature. At least it helped her paintings become something more worthwhile.

And it was in those few months following the wedding that she began to feel fatigued. Amity had no idea what the problem was – she was normally a ball of energy and ready to face the day. But lately she’d found herself growing more sluggish and tired. She even found herself stealing naps immediately after getting off work, which is something she never did before. 

It was only after a trip to the doctor with a worried Adam in tow that Amity discovered she was pregnant. She was beside herself with glee about becoming a mom, but it didn’t take long for the worry to set in. In fact, she bombarded poor Adam with questions later that night. Most of them were along the lines of how he expected to raise a child when he was always so busy with his sporting endeavors. 

Adam quietly ate his salad and didn’t dare voice his thoughts that perhaps her pregnancy hormones had already begun raging.

In the months that followed, he found himself helping out a lot more around the house.

 

Much to Amity’s chagrin, her pregnancy was marred with nausea and aches to the point where she was unable to work from the office as much as she would have liked. Luckily, Rajita was understanding (having 3 children of her own) and allowed Amity to do much of her writing at home. Amity found she enjoyed it much more than reporting in to the office every day.

 

Adam read as much as he could about pregnancy and what to expect once the baby arrived. He sighed and furrowed his brow a lot more these days. Amity noticed how worried he seemed, and it only made her worry as well.

They decided to focus themselves on renovating the house. The main floor was too small to accommodate an additional bedroom, so they added a second level to the house. Amity was quite pleased with how it turned out.

She also busied herself with decorating and furnishing the nursery. She wanted to make sure everything was in place when the baby arrived. 

She couldn’t decide on a color scheme, so she decided to go with a brown/green/yellow theme. The results were…well, they were certainly results. Adam tried to show his enthusiasm when she brought him into the new room for the first time – he certainly didn’t want to hurt his wife’s feelings, especially not in her current state.

"It looks great, honey," he chimed, his voice dripping with false enthusiasm.

Amity sighed in the kitchen on a cold evening. Spring had arrived but the town was experiencing a pocket of cold, snowy weather. Amity chopped the ingredients for her autumn salad (geez these two eat a lot of salad) and tried to ignore the dull pain in the small of her back.  She was ready to burst and couldn’t believe her due date had come and gone with no baby in sight. She was three days past that due date now and she grew more impatient by the moment. Her entire body felt like it was ready to fall apart and she was never comfortable anymore, regardless of where she was sitting or what she was doing.

Suddenly, a sharp pain gripped her body and she cried out for Adam.

“The baby! Adam, the baby is coming.”

I love the reaction of sims when someone goes into labor.

Despite all of the books he’d read on the subject, Adam felt completely unprepared for the arrival of his first child. He finally gathered himself enough to grab the keys to the car and carefully usher Amity inside. They sped off for the hospital.

Hours later, they arrived home with baby Atticus.

Adam loved his son from the first moment he saw him, and when he held him in his arms he felt completely at peace.

Amity also could not believe they had managed to create such a beautiful, wonderful son. She spent the first few days following his birth simply holding him every time she got the chance.

Amity smiled to herself as she thought back to the lonely new girl in town who spent her nights eating ice cream in a bare room and lamenting about her job.  Where was she now?

As it turns out, she was nowhere to be found.