Yasiu and his Siblings.

Monday morning, Derek and Yulia made and stockpiled more mac and cheese frozen entrees.

Yevgenya bowled before school,

while keeping an eye on Yedrek, who was boogying away to the stereo in the bowling alley.

Yed even got some attention from the customers!

Genya left for school, and every now and then Yulia had to fish one of her toddlers out of the snow,

but otherwise they happily played with their Charisma bunnies all day.

Mid-afternoon, Genya arrived home from school, and told anyone who would listen about her excellent grades.

She played with Yana, then taught her a nursery rhyme,

before grabbing a nap (and figuring she could do her homework later).

Derek did his best to keep a smustle going out back in the bowling alley.

Yulia went to bed early, and just as she was about to lie down, the home sports venue reached Rank 8.

She woke up in the middle of the night and, as soon as she did, she went into labor.

The couple had their 4th child, their 2nd son, and named him “Yasiu”.

Yevgenya greeted her new little brother with enthusiasm.

Yulia fed her new baby,

and put him into Yedrek’s crib.

Yed went to sleep on the toddler blanket near his new little brother,

and Yulia thought, with a tinge of guilt, ‘I really should do something about decorating this room for the boys. I just didn’t think we were all going to be in this house for so long. Or that there would be so many of us!’

_____________________________________

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Here’s what annoys the crap out of me about this game:

Not only had Derek invited Daisy over to the home sports venue earlier that afternoon, he hugged her twice when she arrived!

Raising the rank of this home sports venue seems to be taking soooooo long. It’s possible that it’s just my perception, because I tend to play the home lot at normal speed (because I have to keep an eye on all 5 family members, AND the butler, who often seems to engage in counter-productive behavior, such as interfering with the toddlers sleeping on the blankets and trying to put them in the cribs), whereas I play Yulia’s Emporium at triple speed.

I got “Yasiu” from “Jasiu”, a Polish diminutive of “Jan” (so, “John”). It’s pronounced “Yah-shoo”, and my brother John’s nickname was “Yosh” all through highschool.

On the Homefront.

While Yulia was away at her store all day Sunday, Derek taught Yanastasia to walk,

and to talk.

Then he made smart milk for Yedrek,

and started potty-training the boy.

Yana played with her bunny,

as her sister sat nearby, reading a cookbook.

Derek taught his son to walk,

then finished potty-training Yana.

The little girl went to sleep on the toddler blanket in her big sister’s room.

Genya maxed out her cooking skill, changed into her pajamas, climbed into bed, and gazed at her sleeping sister. ‘She’s okay,’ Genya thought. ‘Maybe when Mommy has her new baby, Yana can move into my room.’

___________________________________

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Look—Yana is talking about money! What a mommy’s girl!!!

I’m amazed at how quickly all the kids are learning skills. In Genya’s case, I thought it was just because it was Fall. But it’s been winter now for a couple of days, and the toddlers are learning lickety-split. Sure, Derek’s using smart milk, and a thinking cap, but I’ve done that lots of times before and don’t remember kids learning this fast. Could it have something to do with Derek having Level 10 in all skills?

Good Day Turns to Bad.

Sunday morning, Derek made smart milk for Yanastasia, then taught her to walk.

Yulia headed over to her store for the day, determined to raise its rank before she had her next baby.

She made hot dogs for anyone who wanted them,

and did “Sales – May I Help You?” with confused customers,

and Yulia’s Emporium reached Rank 7 within an hour of her arrival.

Around noon, she received another Best of the Best award,

and the customers started pouring in, making it difficult for even a Silver restocker like Troy to keep up with the inventory. Yulia helped out as best she could, but it was too tiring for her,

so she decided to give Bruce a try at restocking.

Bruce turned out to be pretty good at restocking, especially for a beginner,

and Yulia did “Talk – Motivational Speech” with him, which temporarily raised his skill level.

Exhausted, she climbed into one of the tents,

and Troy and Bruce soon had the store completely restocked and were managing to keep up with demand,

and the store reached Rank 8 by late afternoon.

Shelby gained a Gold register badge,

and Troy gained a Gold restocking badge.

Yulia gave each of them a raise.

Bruce was too tired to continue with his new assignment, so Yulia sent him home for the day.

Because Troy had had a Want to get a Gold restocking badge, he was able to use Yulia’s Energizer!

Shelby, though, was also tired, so Yulia sent her home, and took over the register duties herself.

This turned out to be a mistake, because the steady pace of business was too much for Yulia’s cashier skills, and even too much for Troy to restock the store by himself.

The floor was soon littered with shopping bags whose owners had flung them down in disgust.

Troy finished ringing up the last few customers who had remained in line, Yulia cleaned up the mess,

and closed the store for the day. ‘I really should have closed it earlier—when Bruce had to go home.’ She resolved to be more reasonable in the future.

_________________________

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Why don’t pregnant women have outerwear???

It’s always safe for your owner to take a nap right after she gets a Best of the Best award—nothing’s going to go wrong for a while.

I think this is the first time I’ve been able to get an employee to use the Energizer! Yippee!!! It never occurred to me that could happen.

I should have been paying attention to Shelby's wants, and trying to satisfy them, so that she could be gold or platinum and use the Energizer, too. Then, she could have stayed at work, and the day at the store wouldn't have had such a messy end.