The Beginning of the Third Trimester

Amina and her mother, Sandy, during her brief winter vacation in Hidden Springs.

Sandy is such a workaholic that she makes her business plans anywhere, even in the middle of the snow.

  

While Sandy works, Griffin and Alina build a snowman.

Back at the University, at the beginning of the third trimester.

Amina continued her studies and science research.

Clark contributed with a DNA sample for Amina's experiments.

A photgraph for Amina's social media.

Mind melding... 

With the University mascot.

Amina studied very hard, everywhere and all the time, even in her spare time. There was very little time left to finish!

Latest Events at the Alto's House

More important things happened at the Alto's home. For instance, the birth of their fifth child, Alina. Another girl at last, as they wanted. Alina would be the last according to their plans. She turned out to be even more whiny that her brother Alexis.

Speaking of Alexis, it looks like he learned to walk already.

Which made his parents so proud.

 Meanwhile, it was Aidan's birthday.

An event that the Altos celebrated with a house party without any worries cause the next morning was a day off.

Aidan became a child, now there were only two babies in the family, Alexis and Alina. Griffin's dream of raising five toddlers  to teens was about to be fullfilled.

Around those days, Sandy and Griffin decided to take a well deserved vacation, so they left their oldest children, namely Adam, in charge of the house and the family.

Adam didn't do so bad. He took good care of the house, was attentive to everything, especially his youngest siblings. He spent most of the time teaching Alexis to talk.

He fulfilled his role as the head of the family in the morning, and in the afternoon he relaxed and enjuoyed the pool in the company of his sister and a few friends.

Aidan didn't do much for helping his older siblings, he seemed more interested in sleeping and eating.

 Waking up at noon and having 'lunch' at 3 pm was his idea of freedom. Sure, once in a while he took a look at his homework, but as if this was vacation, he wasn't too worried, he'd deal with that later.

Just like Adam was focused in taking care of Alexis, Amina focused in her little sister Alina, playing with her most of the time.

The rest of it she dedicated to talk and play with Kiwi Hale, a friend of Adam with whom she got along very well. They both seemed to like each other a lot, too bad Kiwi had a girlfriend already.

Plus, soon the Alto family would move back to Hidden Springs. Goodbye, Sunlit Tides, and goodbye Kiwi...

While his friend Kiwi and his sister had fun together, Adam got an unexpected visit from his aunt Sharona Racket. She's the daughter of Mona Kamel -granpa Amin's younger sister.  Adam and Sharona had never met each other, that's why she had come to Sunlit Tides with her family and dropped by to say hi.

 The first time Adama met a pretty girl and she turned out to be his relative. Typical Kamel family. Too bad, he would've liked to ask Sharon to be his date for prom, but he had to settle for inviting her to a little party at the pool.

When Griffin and Sandy returned from their vacation, the house looked impeccable. No trace of Adam, Sandy, Kiwi and Sharona's parties.

Alexis was quietly eating in his high chair comía tranquilamente en su silla alta, Alina was napping in her swing, and Aidan was in his bedroom, peacefully doing his homework.

 Griffin and Sandy breathed in relief. The 'kids' had done a great job in their absence. They had heard some rumors about a noisy party at the pool one of those afternoons, they must be only that, rumors, cause the Alto children are angels!

The Alto Family of Sunlit Tides

We're back in Sunlit Tides with the Alto family. The last we knew about them was that Griffin had joyfully arrived to the adult age, just like his wife Sandy did before him.

As Griffin's Lifetime Wish was "Surrounded by Family", the Altos should raise five children from infants to teens. To this moment they had four already, from which Amina, the oldest, was already a teen. And Aidan, the third, still an infant.

. The next to celebrate his birthday was Adam.

He was the second son of the Altos to go from child to teen, just like his older sister.

But for Griffin's dream to be fullfilled, other three children should turn into teens.

It would take quite a while for that to happen, cause Aidan was still an infante and Alexis a newly born. By the way, after Amina, the altos had had only boys, so they wanted with all their heart that their fifth baby would be a girl. This would make things more balanced.

Obviously, having the family grown this much, the small house Sandy had rented upon her arrival to Sunlit Tides wasn't enough now. So the Altos decided to move.

Fortunately, Sandy and Griffin had done so well at their jobs that they were able to buy a bigger and prettier house, which, in additions, was right by the sea.

The moving was kind of tiring, but at last there would more space for the large family that were the Altos.

"Okay now, let the fifth child arrive whenever he wants", Griffin thought while they settled down.

 Sandy should be asked what she thinks about that.

Days later, Alexis became an infant, which his little brother Aidan didn't like so much.

It's just that Alexis demanded too much attention, but who would get enough of that in such a large family? Sandy and Griffin could barely keep up with this pair. They had put everything on hold: careers, vacations, traveling, even simple diversions like watching TV, just to take care of the two little tyrants. So - Griffin's dream was to have a super family? Well, there it was. The situation was maddening - and there was still a child to be born!

Thankfully the had the help of Amina, who seemed to like Aidan a lot. It's not the same with Alexis, he's too demanding for her.

But taking care of at least one of her little brothers has returned peace to Griffin and Sandy.

 "Thank you, Amina, how can we pay you for what you do for us?" 

Amina knows well how: "Hmm, what about a new desktop computer and complete beach wardrobe?" Aidan agrees if the reward includes a new toy. It seems like the Alto kids have turned out to be as business savvy as their parents. Maybe even more so...