Caitlin

All posts tagged Caitlin

1.31 For Truth and Justice

Posted by Echo Weaver on August 12, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The next morning dawned with Deanne complaining to the kitchen sink that the refrigerator was such a jerk.

Caitlyn heard the whole story from her sister.

She wasn’t talking to the refrigerator either.

I’m not sure I can handle all this social tension in the house. I may have to stage an intervention and make all three of them talk out their differences.

Christoff was taking care of Erin.

Jin called to say she was just back from a far-flung honeymoon with Chauncey with lots of woohoo!

That was probably more detail than I needed to hear, to be honest.

The babysitter spent all day playing with the kitties.

But Erin managed to entertain herself.

And after a while, he did manage to pay more attention to her than the last two babysitters.

I was upgrading the fire engine when the alarm went off.

An emergency like this couldn’t wait for the fire engine to be ready to go. I decided to get there on foot. I dashed down the street,

Stepped into a phone booth behind a shed in someone’s backyard,

And poof! I was someplace else on the street, and the fire engine was waiting for me.

Magic. What won’t they think of next?

What a familiar house!

I wanted to see the new owners screaming out on the front lawn, but it turns out that it’s empty right now and on the market. I’m sure glad we sold it when we did!

Sometimes you just have to take a moment to stop and smell the burning furniture. I love fire so much.

The owner of our old house has a lot to thank me for, but it’s all in a day’s work for a hero like me.

When I got home, the kids were back from school.

Christoff was reading to Deanne, or showing off. I’m not sure which.

Caitlyn was doing her homework.

Deanne was eager to tell me about how she got a chance to brown-nose her teacher at school.

Branden was showing artistic appreciation for our kitchen painting.

The kitties were being cute.

It’s a good think everyone is so responsible because I was called away at the last minute to deal with an emergency that threatened the very fabric of democracy in Moonlight Falls!

The work of a heroine is never done.

When I got back, Caitlyn was getting the house ready for a big celebration. She didn’t want Erin to miss it.

It was Dinah’s birthday!

She’s a truly elegant elder, I have to say.

Branden wasn’t impressed by Erin’s complaining.

But he fed her anyway.

Caitlyn and Christoff finished the evening up with a game of frisbee. I swear, even now that they’re teens, those two have a special bond.

Hetal cleaned. She’s so domestic these days!

Caitlyn really appreciated our old family photographs than I hung in my and Hetal’s bedroom.

Plum finally had to tell her to go to bed.

She always listens to him.

When I got to work the next morning, I met a shocking sight!

William was all right, though. He needs to be more careful about the sunlight!

Caitlyn has been pushing herself too hard. She barely got off the school bus on her way home before collapsing.

I got a call for a three-alarm fire right before heading home for the day. What timing!

It was at a big house owned by the Mai family: Miyuki

Mazuki

And Leah.

It might have used up my evening, but at least they were very grateful.

Caitlyn still wasn’t doing well. Maybe she has a cold, poor dear.

When I got home, everyone had already had dinner and were heading to bed. I took a bit of precious time to play with the kitties.

Then I saw the kids to bed.

After that, I was pretty tired, but there was so much I wanted to do while the house was quiet. So I tried this bottle of stuff that I got in the mail. I think it was a free sample of something.

I felt great! Now I don’t need to sleep! Time to upgrade the dishwasher.

———-

Passing Out: 14 + 2 = 16

This was not my best post, but it’s written, so here it is. I thought those of you who read the Sample legacy would appreciate seeing the Mais. None of them have done any dating in this game, despite the fact that Leah is a Hopeless Romantic.

I take a lot of pictures of the teens loving on their baby sister and doing their homework. I’m sure everyone is sick of it by now. They’ve become so disturbingly responsible. At least Caitlyn spent an afternoon passing out to prove that this is still an ISBI. Also, next post will definitely prove that it’s an ISBI. Take that as a teaser.

1.30 Telephones and Hormones

Posted by Echo Weaver on August 5, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Monday was a holiday. Or maybe Friday was a holiday and this was Sunday? Wow, when nobody is working and going to school, you sure lose track of the days.

At any rate, Christof was up early talking to Larry Pierce on the phone.

Not sure how that conversation went.

Branden began a structured morning with coffee and his homework.

Then he took some personal time to call up Lacey, the girl he danced with at prom.

He just couldn’t stop thinking about her since they danced together. It was so sweet.

It appears that she, however, was able to stop thinking about him.

Maybe Branden ought to think about other girls. There are a lot of fish in the sea.
Meanwhile, Hetal thought Christof should have an apple.

A poisoned apple.

She does have some very strange ideas about parenting.

I took some time to practice my heroic firefighting moves.

Um, that one just got a little bit out of control, that’s all.

And Erin needed to use the potty.

At least she tries really hard.

Caitlyn also got a call. This one was from Gustavo Singh, asking her out on a date!

How exciting! My little girl is growing up.

She immediately got out on her broom in the rain to go see Gustavo at a local club.

I do hope I have brought her up right, and she’ll be responsible.

He picked a good place for a date, I’ll give him that.

But then he wanted to stand out in the rain and talk. Perhaps not the best follow-through.

Caitlyn opened up with some smalltalk about crazy things that her baby sister does.

But Gustavo interrupted to talk about me!

He wanted an introduction! And he wanted to know what I thought about men.

I’m not sure what he had in mind, but I don’t think I approve.

Then he left Caitlyn out in the rain to run inside.

Where he hid in the bathroom for hours.

Caitlyn gave up waiting for him and sat down to play Conquer and Obliterate on a club computer.

We had a quieter afternoon at home.

Branden smashed me and Hetal at dominoes.

Deanne watched for a little while and then got bored. She headed upstairs to call a friend from school.

So she could complain about the fact that our upstairs bathroom doesn’t have a toilet yet. Picky picky!

Then she headed outside to our little fishing pond to try her luck, but first she got tangled up in the fishing line.

It didn’t take too much to sort out, and she dressed just right for the rain.

Strawberry appreciated Dinah.

Branden cleaned the cat litter.

And I decided that it was time to make this fireplace more safe so that we could actually light a fire.

At the Port-a-Party club, Caitlyn finished her video game and get really interested in the plants.

Gustavo sneaked out while she was looking the other way. What a creep.

Deanne started a long conversation with the refrigerator. I think she was trying to make peace after Caitlyn’s nasty fight with it earlier.

Unfortunately, Hetal was trying to get something to eat!

The whole thing didn’t go over well.

Hetal managed to wrestle some waffles away from Deanne, but I don’t think they were in very good shape.

Deanne’s fight with the fridge wasn’t going very well.

Caitlyn made it home. That date was a waste of her time, and Gustavo was rubbish. My girl can find someone so much better for her.

The kitties were cute.

Really cute.

Hetal had the usual reaction to eating spoiled waffles.

But the toilet had a surprising reaction to her!

Poor Hetal. It just wasn’t her day.

Caitlyn headed to bed so she would be well-rested for school the next day.

So did Christof and Branden. Such good boys!

Deanne, on the other hand, just couldn’t let it go with the refrigerator.

Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. It’s one of those important lessons of life.

———-

No fails! The Wonderlands seem to be getting better at living life! Also, perhaps the extra space in this house is helping them keep from route-failing themselves into fails.

It turned out that Deanne was stuck in the floor, and all she could do was crazy idles. I had to reset her.

Her backyard fishing was her childhood free action. I keep hoping that an Angler sim will go out and fish on her own, but I provided a fish pond that Jin never used, and so far Deanne hasn’t used it autonomously either.

1.29 A Grand Day Out

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 30, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

We were all well-rested the next morning after a good, quiet night’s sleep. Alone. In our own house.

Hetal was up first to feed Erin.

Then I got to work upgrading our appliances to keep them from breaking. With this many teenagers, you have to expect everything to be broken all the time if you don’t take precautions.

I got a little too involved in my work.

Branden and Christof are so picky about their food these days. On the positive side, they’re always making delicious salads for us to eat. Even if it’s annoying, I think we all eat healthier with both of them bugging us.

Caitlin and Christof are still joined at the hip. Or the shoulder. Or something. It’s so cute to see them together.

We’re just a big old happy family!

All the older kids just love Erin.

She is going to be so spoiled when she’s older.

Isn’t she cute?

Today was a Sunday. We were all moved in, which didn’t take much because we had to sell almost all our stuff to get into this house. Work and school didn’t start until Monday. There wasn’t even a holiday festival in town. What were we going to do with our day?



I decided to take the bull by the horns. We were all going to spend some time outside for a while! The fresh air would do us good.

I gathered the whole family together and took us to the playground. The teens protested that they were too old, but I put my foot down. They could find something to do there, and they would like it. Or else.

We took the cab for about two blocks to the elixer shop.

Then loaded up into the local LLAMA to get most of the rest of the way there.

LLAMA: The only way to travel! At least in this town.

Deanne couldn’t cram herself in, but she got in after we were done.

The teens got more cheerful once we arrived.

Branden shot hoops with Hetal.

He had a lot to learn.

Then this waif of a girl showed up and joined us with her toddler.

I swear, she should eat more! You could see right through her!

Deanne played pretend, pretty much the same way she always does when she’s at home, but at least she was outside doing it.

Christof and Caitlin threw the frisbee around.

Hetal and I played on the swings. Whee!

And when a toddler started screaming, it wasn’t Erin.

Erin was playing with her doll like an angel. It’s so nice when the screaming kid isn’t yours once in a while.

Branden was the first one to head home. He was anxious about his grades and wanted to get a good start on the school week.

After a while, the rest of us decided we’d had enough fun, and also the playground didn’t have much in the way of lights.

Christof fed the kitties and then tried to show them what to do about it!

Branden was more direct.

Then Christof and Branden decided to play frisbee in the back yard while Deanne headed to bed.

Branden tries hard. You have to give him that.

Hetal and I settled down to a late dinner. Suddenly, Hetal said, “Do you get the feeling we forgot a couple of kids?”

Ulp.

Where was Erin??

Fortunately, Caitlyn, who we’d also forgotten, took care of the littlest Wonderland.

We have such a responsible family!

All’s well that ends well. Could somebody get that kid a bottle?

———-

I have now played all the way to Branden’s birthday. I can’t wait to know who the heir is going to be, so I’m going to try to power through the final posts as fast as I can manage. The kids head off to school in the next post, so maybe I can manage more then one day in the next post :).

1.28 Hot Llama

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 24, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 13 comments

In today’s episode of the So-Crazy-They’re-Reponsible Wonderlands, Hetal got up early to feed Erin.

Just don’t look at what Cheshire is doing in the kitchen. If we don’t look, we can pretend it didn’t happen.

Then Branden played with Erin.

And even changed her diaper!

Christof cleaned

Hetal cooked breakfast.

Branden did the dishes

The kitties loved on each other.

And Deanne couldn’t go outside because the door was in the way.

Whew! I was worried there! Now things are getting back to normal.

Actually, this was far more than a normal day because we were finally GETTING OUT OF THAT CONDO. Yes, indeed, I had to persuade Hetal to sell her car to do it, but we are getting a house of our very own.

I desperately hope this will stop all the strangers from running into our living room. One can only hope.

Of course, we can’t afford to furnish it yet, but that hardly matters.

Once we were all getting settled in the new place, I took some time away from the family to go to another award ceremony.

Where they yet again gave me a useless trophy instead of money. I can’t even sell these things.

Couldn’t they give me a trophy shaped like a chair or something?

While I was gone, everyone was mesmerized by Erin playing with her new doll.

She named him Bungle. I really don’t want to know.

Branden was really impressed that we could at least afford a toilet.

Caitlin posed in front of the mirror.

I got home in time for the real celebration!

My twins were growing up!

Christof was pretty impressed with his new look.

Then he got into an argument with his reflection, and I knew that he was finally one of us.

While the rest of the family was getting cake.

I answered the doorbell. I real, working doorbell, can you imagine?

At the door was a furry who claimed to be working for the local university.

She brought some free stuff I can probably sell at the pawn shop.

I invited her in to join the party. I mean, I have nothing against furries. Some of my best friends are furries. Really.

Besides, this one was strangely, well, hot.

Hetal noticed the way I was looking at our guest immediately, so I had to convince her I only had eyes for her.

Caitlyn told us to go to our room.

Christof did his homework again. He’s so studious all of a sudden! Of course, he hasn’t actually been to high school yet, so that might have been his elementary homework.

I played some soccer with Branden.

Caitlyn got into an argument with the refrigerator.

I think she won.

The llama danced in the living room.

Branden took a new interest in personal hygiene.

Which didn’t include actually making it to the toilet to pee.

Christof cleaned the litter box.

Deanne bonded with the llama.

Then it got dark, and I realized we hadn’t actually bought any lights for this house yet.

Hetal took the opportunity to scare the stuffing out of Caitlyn.

I guess that’s an evil witch for you.

The teens loved on their baby sister.

Deanne flew her dragon across the room.

I finally kicked out the llama.

And everyone went to bed. Now the girls have a room!

And the boys have a room!

And the baby has a corner in the upstairs hallway.

Close enough, right?

Also, Hetal and I have a room. With a new bed. Which needed to be well-tested.

After which Caitlyn walked in to tell us to keep down the noise!

Well, I never!

———-

Self-Peeing: 7 + 1 = 8.

Branden blows the winning streak. Go Branden!

These posts are getting long. All these idiots are being very entertaining, and there are so MANY of them.

So, I finally decided enough was enough with the town home. This is a house that I pulled out of the EA residential bin. I really like downloading custom homes, but with the string of glitches I’ve been seeing, I decided to keep it simple stupid.

It’s interesting to see how those killer eyebrows change at the characters grow up. Caitlyn’s are now not so pointy. You can tell I spent a lot of time playing around with her look.

Also, he hasn’t done anything to demonstrate it, but Christof’s sudden attack of studiousness and my strategic use of the “Work Hard” school tone actually got him an A in elementary school. (But not honor roll, so no points :-p.) That shocked me because it was so rapid. He had a straight C until a couple of days before aging up, then suddenly started both doing his homework and going to bed so that his mood was actually high enough to Work Hard for some part of the school day. At any rate, he actually got his Insane trait this time around, and I have a full set.  I’m starting to think that there should be points for the Insane thing — either losing points if a kid makes it to adulthood without Insane or gaining them if the whole generation gets the trait.

That said, it looks like I’m going to get to choose Erin’s next trait, and she’s already Insane, so any suggestions on what I should give her?

Miscellaneous notes on game fail:
That bit with Deanne being stuck in the house turned out to be significant. When I moved houses, the only person who was able to get to the new house was Branden, who happened to be standing in the back yard when I triggered the move. Everyone else was stuck in the house. After several tries to get them out, I finally just used MasterController Reset Everything, which placed them in their actual house after reset. My leading theory is that the unused newspaper collection combined with the university goodie basket closed off routing from the front door (if so, good going EA :-p). But there’s a BACK DOOR that should’ve been perfectly routable. So your guess is as good as mine. Let’s hope for less bizarre routing for a while.

Also, I discovered that my amazing disaster from my previous move was 100% my fault. I used MoveObjects in build/buy mode to move several sims because I read someplace that you could. When you’re trying to remodel a house containing 7 sims and 6 pets, it gets to be nearly impossible to get a room clear to work on. However, DO NOT DO THIS. It seems to permanently unstick the sim from their vertical location. The game perpetually thinks they’re between floors, creating all sorts of amazing badness. Rebooting the game does not fix this. Resetting the sim does not fix it. (Despite forums saying it would.) The only way to fix it that I’ve found is to use Twallan’s GoHere mod –> at the City Hall menu, turn on teleport for everyone. Then take control of the sim and use “Teleport me here” to teleport them someplace.

Next time, I’ll break the no-user-control rule and just send everyone outside if I want to remodel. Or do it while the maximum number of sims are at work/school. Bah. I’m kind of cranky b/c that really was the most awesome lot for my family. Sadly, I think the moment has passed, plus I really do want to try the simple, EA-approved life for a while.

Finally, I figured out why half the kids had bizarrely colored eyebrows. Allison’s eyebrows are not set to match her hair color. They’re set separately to the same color, which affects the wonderfully unintuitive sim genetics. So all these black-haired sims were inheriting Allison’s blonde eyebrows. I edited all of them to set their eyebrow color to match their hair. If they want to dye ’em, I’ll let them do it when they’re adults :).

1.27 Brief Shining Moment

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 23, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Branden has gotten really attached to Strawberry. Aren’t they sweet together?

Christof has started taking school seriously all of a sudden!

Deanne is serious about everything, even play.

Erin, on the other hand, immediately figured out how to have a good time.

I swear, she always knows when you’re looking at her.

And she always strikes a pose!

Hetal finally got to go back to work! She said she wanted to dress for success on her first day back.

I’m not sure that outfit says “success” exactly.

Still, she was really happy to get to drive to the courthouse in that car she made us buy.

I certainly hope that car will be the end of her spending spree.

I go in to work later than I used to, so I tried to have a balanced breakfast.

I didn’t go terribly well.

Then the babysitter got here.

With a look like that, he’s either a responsible young man or an axe murderer. For Erin’s sake, I hope it’s the former.

I got Erin ready in her playpen with a fresh diaper and fresh bottle.

That’s about as idiot-proof as I can make babysitting. Let’s home this boy doesn’t screw it up.

I mean, seriously, all he has to do is stand in the same room with her and do nothing, right?

The weird green lady was still in our front yard when I left for work.

Doesn’t she have someplace else she should go?

At least I got a really big, nifty fire to fight at work.

The homeowner has the most amazing taste in clothes I’ve ever seen.

Oh, and hey, Ms. Maldano! Funny running into her here!

While I was gone, I hear that my clan of angels was incredibly responsible!

Christof went home with a very rich friend of his.

Then ditched him for his dad? Big brother? Random other guy in the house?

It was as if this guy was the father he never had.

Two moms weren’t enough? Sniff!

I hope his new friend is good to him.

After a nice nap, he got up and rehearsed a speech for class.

The babysitter didn’t burn the house down, and when I got home, Erin was playing just where I left her. Isn’t she just a cutie-wootie little girly-whirly??

Then I picked her up, and she whispered baby talk in my ear. Awww.

When Branden go home, he freaked out over how messy things got.

Hetal didn’t mind, though. It just made more things for the kitties to play with.

Caitlyn took a page from Branden’s book and stayed out until dark.

But she did head home in time to go to bed, so I guess I shouldn’t be too strict.

Then we all went to bed on time.

Almost everyone.

And for one brief, shining moment, everyone was happy.

If we ended the story here, we could just say, “Happily Ever After,” huh?

———-

STILL no fails!

Beautiful Moments: 1 + 1 = 2

This episode was so horrifyingly responsible that we could almost forget we’re in an ISBI.

Except maybe the part where Christof’s friend had a deleted CC skin tone, and so he looked like a Grim Reaper kid.

1.26 Let’s Party!

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 22, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 12 comments

After Deanne’s birthday, Jin headed out on a mission of her ow. She seemed pretty nervous, but not so nervous that she couldn’t appreciate the local scenery.

She headed straight to Chauncey’s house. She must have been worried about what he would think of her new, older self.

But she needn’t have worried. Jin and Chauncey are the same age, after all.

They headed inside to do whatever it is they do when they’re alone. It’s certainly none of MY business.

Well, she didn’t come home that night. She called in the morning to tell me that we should get the family out to Eerie Festival Grounds, and we should dress up.

Who am I to question Jin?

We even brought out little Erin, who wasn’t terribly thrilled.

I guess she just needed out of the stroller to play.

Then Jin showed up, looking like a million bucks!

And it started to hail.

“Today’s your lucky day” she told Chauncey. “We’re getting married!”

Chauncey seemed surprised, but he decided now was as good a time as any. Chauncey’s such an easy-going fellow.

Jules MacDuff didn’t seem to be getting the hint, though.

He’s not terribly good about personal space.

Another unhappy wedding guest was Ayden van Gould.

And you can add William to Jin’s fan club.

He seemed to have something against Branden.

It took quite a long time for Chauncey to make it from one side of the park to the ceremony.

I thought Jin’s look was going to burn my head off.

But at last Chauncey made it. You just have to give those seniors extra time.

“I know what we’re doin’ tonight!” Chauncey declared.

Jin couldn’t stop laughing.

Then they got to the vows.

And Jin was Mrs. Jin Grimm-Anjali! I was so happy for her!

I’d been hoping that we could have Erin’s birthday in the park, but it was still hailing, and Erin was still screaming on the sidewalk, so I decided to take the family home. I invited Jin and Chauncey back for birthday cake, but they seemed to have something else planned.

Oh, well. The house sure isn’t going to be the same without her.

Wow, two major parties in one day! At least Erin’s was in out of the rain.

And here’s my little Erin! What a beautiful little girl!

She better be a genius at potty training. That’s all I have to say about that.

Branden bailed out on cake because apparently prom was tonight.

It would have been nice if he’d told me beforehand. I don’t even know if he had a date!

The other kids bonded over cake, though.

I event got to have some while Hetal put Erin to bed.

Oh, and somebody we don’t know crashed the party. I’m starting to get really tired of the lack of privacy around here.

I waited up for Branden and asked him how prom went. See, I really am a good mom!

He said it was kind of boring.

Most of the time everyone just stood around.

But he did get to hang out with Larry Pierce for a bit.

And he met this wonderful girl Lacey!

He couldn’t stop talking about her. He says she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. And she even danced with him.!

Well, I can’t wait to meet her!

During the night, it seems we had a vistor.

Our house seems to be popular with people from everywhere, I have to say!

———

Wait, we still don’t have any fails! Two posts without fails? How is that possible??

Does dumping your baby on the sidewalk in a hail storm so you can go watch a wedding (outside in a hail storm) count as a fail?

OMG, all of a sudden I’m not so annoyed about having a fifth kid. Erin is perfect. Hetal’s skin, Jin’s hair, Allison’s eyes, Hetal’s nose, and Allison’s eyebrows. She also has Anjali pointed ears (not visible with that hairstyle), and I think she has Hetal’s expressive mouth. That’s just what I see from her as a toddler!

Even though, out of five kids, THREE of them have Jin’s hair, and NONE of them have Allison’s! And grandparent hair is supposed to be lower probability than parent hair. *headesk*

I considered keeping Jin around as slave nanny for one last child, but I wanted to get her out of the house to have some of her own life. I don’t know how the Wonderlands will manage without her, but I bet she’s happier now.

1.25 Cat Pictures on the Internet (And kitty heir poll!)

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 3, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , . 6 comments

Right when we least expected it, the kittens grew up!

Well, everyone but Caitlyn. She always paid attention to the kitties, and she was right there to cheer them on.

I was, um, out of the house at the time I think.

Four grown kittens. Cheshire and Dinah congratulated themselves on a job well done.

And here they are.

Peanut:

Raspberry:

Strawberry:

Plum:

And Cheshire got old! I think he looks so distinguished.

But I’m sure you want to see more pictures of my wonderful cats!

Dinah nuzzles Strawberry while Cheshire looks on with approval.

Raspberry plays with Dinah.

Plum pesters Strawberry.

Peanut loves on Strawberry.

Peanut looks soft and fluffy and adorable, and he knows it.

Peanut and Plum become one solid tangle of purple stripes!

Dinah grooms Peanut.

Peanut destroys the furniture (of course).

And they all dream kitty dreams.

———-

Well, it’s sort of a post. More importantly, it’s the poll for the heir to the second generation of the Wonderland cat legacy!

Here I was, waiting for the kitten’s birthday to turn up in my backlog of pictures, and it turned out I’d missed it! It was right before Branden’s birthday, actually.

So, which of Dinah and Cheshire’s four adorable progeny would you like to see pass their genes on?

Poll in sidebar as usual. If you can’t use it, comment with your vote!

1.24 Let it All Hang Out

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 3, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 5 comments

We now had two little ones, and only one crib. But it turned out that wouldn’t be a problem.

It was Deanne’s big day.

While we all got ready to welcome Our second-youngest into childhood, Hetal slipped away to put the youngest to bed.

It was kind of neat and tidy that way, actually. Having our last child so much later than the others had its benefits.

Deanne was only too eager to get her cake, which was Branden’s cake that he failed to use.

Afterward, we tried to clean up. But the dishwasher was broken.

Also the bathtub. You’d think I never fix anything around here.

Afterward Hetal read Caitlyn a bedtime story. She really has become a model mom.

Though Caitlyn wasn’t satisfied. It seems like the kids never get the bedtime story they want.

Christof wanted his own bedtime story, and Hetal was occupied. Apparently I wasn’t good enough, so he ran across the street to ask a stranger

When he got there, he realized that was actually kind of creepy.

So he ran back home instead.

The next morning, my little genius was off to school!

I just know she’ll do well.

But I guess the first day was a field trip to the jail, which didn’t go all the well.

The poor girl has a bit of a sensitive stomach.

I headed off to work, and where do you think the emergency was?

William’s house! He was home on his honeymoon, and apparently things got a little out of hand.

I would never have guessed it, but William is a big baby when HIS house is the one on fire.

He freaked out, hid in the basement, and peed himself.

But I won’t tell.

The first thing I had to do was clear the escape for a…. young woman who is not Beatrice.

Wait a minute…. maybe William wasn’t hiding because of the fire!

What are you up to, William? Does your wife know about this??

I guess a good friend asks no questions. So I went ahead a opened up the bathroom for him.

No wonder he peed himself.

Meanwhile, Jin was back to baby care duty. She decided to relax and let everything hang loose.

Or maybe she forgot her clothes? I’m not sure. She went to play with the kitties.

Then she headed to the bathroom, and a strange feeling swept over her.

Well, it was about time, I guess. She certainly earned her gray hairs. Considering her new, wisened state, perhaps it would be a good idea for her to put on some clothes.

But she decided to sleep in my bed instead.

———-

NO FAILS! Really! There will be plenty next post, though.

I’m on a roll, so let’s keep going!

I wanted to get all the way to Erin’s age-up, but there is SO MUCH STUFF happening, and I was starting to feel that having too much in one post makes it hard to appreciate all the hilarity. So we’ll get there next time.

William and Beatrice are living in a copy of Buffy’s Revello Drive house that I downloaded from ModTheSims. It was nice to get to show it off a bit.

Now that Deanne is a child, I’d say she’s not quite a face clone of Allison. She has Allison’s face shape, nose, and eyebrows, but I think she has Jin’s mouth. Jin almost always looks stern or unhappy. Deanne also looks serious almost all the time, either contemplative or just vacant.

And no, Deanne is not a Genius. She is, however, Insane as of her childhood birthday. Allison managed to give her all her skills with the help of the deliciously cheaty playpen and walker. Deanne is a Clumsy, Insane Angler.

Now only Christof is sane.

Hetal, by the way, had such an amazing fifth pregnancy that I got to pick both of Erin’s traits despite her being born outside the hospital. I rolled the second one. She’s an Insane Schmoozer.

Cats. We need more cat pictures. I think that will be in the next update too. We need a kitty heir poll!

1.23 Now That’s What I Call Magic

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 3, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

It turned out Branden ALMOST got his birthday right, but not quite.

So we shoved the cake in the refrigerator and hoped it would last until Deanne’s birthday

“Let me cook you dinner,” Hetal said anxiously.

“That’s all right,” I said flatly. “I have leftover waffles.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Hetal said. “I’d never lie about that.”

I softened. “That’s a relief to know,” I said, and I meant it. Of course I believed her. When had my beloved Hetal ever lied to me? That I found out about?

“I was wishing for another baby,” Hetal said, “and it just happened. I never thought I wanted to be a parent, but you know? It turned out to be the best thing in my life. What I want more than anything else in the world is to be a good parent.

“I didn’t know you felt so strongly about it,” I said, impressed.

“Well, I do now,” she said.

I couldn’t help but smile at her. My, had my Hetal changed since we were married! “All right, then,” I said. “We’re having a baby!”

And so all the pregnancy stuff started over. Again.

I did my best to take care of Hetal through the sickness and backaches.

While random people came running in through our garage, around the house, and out the front door.

Who WERE these people, anyway?

It’s like our house has become one big game of tag.

Well, not a lot to do about it, and I had to get to work.

To Hetal’s credit, she worked very hard to make my life easier. She cleaned.

And cooked.

Though, since becoming a teen, Branden wasn’t terribly interested in what she cooked. He said he found it inhuman to eat the flesh of animals. So he made his own waffles and salads.

Christof was pretty excited about Branden’s cooking. Hetal wasn’t too pleased. It’s hard to deal with picky eaters.

Sometimes Hetal worked so hard she didn’t take the time to take care of herself.

One day when I came home from work, there was a car in the driveway! Hetal said it was high time we stopped riding bicycles to work and started behaving like mature parents.

I thought she was crazy, and we had a long talk about how expensive another baby would be. But I had to admit in private that the Renault was pretty sweet.

Jin had been floating around the house, humming to herself. She was terribly distracted, but she seemed so happy that I didn’t have the heart to try to bring her down to reality.

I caught her murmuring to herself, “He’s the apple of my eye,” a lot. And then she’d conjure and apple.

She must have had a lot of apples.

One evening, she got a phone call and went dashing out to the festival grounds. I think she was going to meet Chauncey Grimm.

I heard through the grapevine that Chauncey’s ex-fiancee didn’t take long to get over him.

I can’t keep up with Jin’s love life. The mailbox is always stuffed with letters from her admirers.

But I have to admit that things seemed different with Chauncey.

She and her beau must’ve had a wonderful time, because she didn’t come home.

It just seemed like there was magic in the air that night.

I think she wanted to ask him something very important, but he had to dash off to work at dawn before she worked up the nerve.

Plus, she’d been holding back some… personal needs… until he left.

I spent some time catching up with William at the fire house.

Then the alarm went off. Wow, does he react fast!

He called the firefighters to get to the emergency, which was funny because I was right there.

This time, it was Ayden van Gould’s mansion. If I were a less honorable hero, I’d just have turned around to go home. Who needs that jerk face anyway?

He called us out to deal with his swearing gnomes. Way to waste my time.

He sure knows how to live.

And all these bookcases! Who would ever want to read this much?

They just kept getting in my way.

But even though the house was a maze, I eventually sneaked up on the little bastards.

At least van Gould pays well.

Branden came home from school pretty nervous and worked up.

Something really big was going on at school.

Christof and Caitlyn hung out after school to be with their friends.

Christof more than Caitlyn.

They both came home talking about this cool guy they were playing with called Larry Pierce who had glowing eyes and sharp teeth.

That must be William’s son! I guess he finally married his girlfriend, Beatrice Saunders.

Christof got home and went to bed early, but thoughtful Caitlyn hung around the school and did her homework.

I got to take the quiet time to spend a little time with my baby while she was still my little baby.

Jin was gone for almost 24 hours. She must have had a really good time.

She came home with a terrible sunburn.

It must have been painful, but I have to admit that the color kind of looked good on her.

Then I came home home after a long day at work, and it was time!

Branden was just taking the trash out, and when he saw his mom, he freaked out and dumped it on the front porch.

Hetal’s such a pro at this that she didn’t even bother with the hospital. She had her baby in the driveway while the weird kid who runs through our garage watched in horror.

And that’s how Erin, our VERY LAST CHILD, was brought into the world.

The weird kid thought that having babies in the driveway was pretty awful. What does he know about the miracle of life?

I told him what’s what. How dare he talk to my wife that way!

———-

Passing Out: 12 + 2 = 14
Self-Peeing: 6 + 1 = 7
Yes, Jin peed herself STANDING BY THE BATHROOM! Go Jin.

Minor Cheats: 1 + 2 = 3
Babies: 4 + 1 = 5!

Another long one, but there was just so much awesomeness to get through before the baby was born. I had a real glitch-fest in here someplace and had to replay one of the days about three times, so the fail count is approximate. It was a bit hard to track which of the fails in my screenshots were from the day I kept. During one of them, I couldn’t get either Christof OR Caitlyn to go to bed, so they were dropping all over the place. If that day had been the keeper, I’d have about 5 more passing out to count.

Yes, that was Jin and Chauncey woohooing in an invisible hot tub. Somebody PLEASE tell me that Eerie Festival Grounds has a hot tub in that spot during one of the seasons.

I have to own up to another minor cheat. I forced the baby’s gender with MasterController. I have no attachment to the gender preference of any of the Wonderlands, but since the heir is essentially betrothed at birth, I AM rather attached to Spike being straight. So I figured that if I was going to be stuck with another baby, I could at least swing the odds in favor of a female heir. It wouldn’t even be cheating if it had been Allison, since I could have her eat watermelons, but ah well.

Also, I couldn’t resist the name, considering her origins. Err in Wonderland, amiright?

I’m never going to replace a baby outright again, though. I can’t handle the guilt.

That does mean that the child was born with Hetal’s skintone with no influence by me! One out of five! Woot!

I have used StoryProgression to turn off pregnancy for both Hetal and Allison, just in case Woohooer gets “confused” again.

This is the first time I’ve raised five sim kids. I decided that I might as well get an idiot LTW out of this.

1.22 Lunacy

Posted by Echo Weaver on June 14, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

The kids were starting to get more independent. I can’t describe what a relief that was.

Caitlyn had an active imagination.

Christof liked to run and exercise whenever he could.

He was the most level headed of the kids. He didn’t have wild conversations with the furniture. He tended to be the most responsible.

Even Deanne played on her own more.

She was a smart one. I can tell. My little genius.

Branden, of all the kids, was a little TOO independent. But he seemed to open up a little more toward Jin.

It warmed my heart to see them bonding.

He even did his homework sometimes, which is better than you can say for the twins.

He was clearly brilliant, but he always had his head in the clouds, and he sometimes didn’t think to take care of the most basic needs.

Hetal was taking more interest in her political career. She’d spend hours practicing speeches in front of the mirror. Of course, right now she was just falsifying vote counts for her boss, but she could dream.

Branden started following in her footsteps when he thought no one was looking. He really does have a sweet side.

That’s not say that things always ran smoothly around here. Things were always breaking down, and the place was always a bit.

I did my best to keep up with the repairs, but sometimes I really felt unappreciated.

I couldn’t get a minute to work without someone complaining!

Other times, I felt like my contributions were a lot more appreciated. One evening, I spent hours standing in the bathroom telling Jin about this amazing, gorgeous fire I got to fight.

She was really impressed, but eventually she kicked me out because she had to pee.

And of course, Hetal and I always made some alone time.

“Have you ever thought of having another kid?” Hetal asked suddenly one night.

“Every once in a while,” I admitted. “I want another kid sort of the way I want to pull out my fingernails. I’m so glad we’re about to finish potty training our last child.”

“Oh,” Hetal said. “Want to woohoo?”

Of course!
One strange night, under a full moon, a frightening creature rose up from the ground in our front lawn.

He crept up on Bailey Swain, who was standing on our front porch for some reason.

Then he spent all evening hitting on her.

The nerve of some people.

At last, Branden’s birthday rolled around. He didn’t want us to make a big deal about it, but I insisted on a traditional family party. I’m not sure he completely got the point.

Jin, Caitlin, and I cheered Branden into teenager hood.

Where were Hetal and Christof? Out playing tag in the back yard. They completely forgot about Branden’s birthday.

I love that they are spending so much time together, but I wish they’d picked a better time!

I think Branden preferred it to be a smaller party. Even with just family, it’s a lot of people.

*Sniff* My little boy is almost a man!

Meanwhile, in the back yard, something ominous was happening.

“Um, Allison? Can we talk?” Hetal said sheepishly when she came in after the party.

“Sure!” I said. “Deanne is potty trained! Use the potty for mommy, Deanne! I am so glad I’m never going to have to do this again!”

“Uh,” Hetal said. “About that….”

———-

Self-peeing: 5 + 1 = 6 (Yeah, that was Branden peeing in the bathroom. He was just halfway through the door, so I couldn’t get a good shot. All kinds of fail there.)

This was a really long chapter for this ISBI, but I just HAD to get to Branden’s birthday and the big reveal, and there was so much funny stuff to cover.

There are no words for the screaming and the swearing on my side of the computer screen when Hetal’s pregnancy popped. I even got the little popup about her maternity leave during Branden’s birthday and thought, “Oh, wow, that’s a weird glitch.”

For the record, she really wasn’t pregnant when she threw up in the last chapter. I went back and checked over my pictures. Hetal and Allison are always at it like bunnies. The woohoo in THIS chapter was a “Try for Baby” initiated autonomously by Hetal. However, I noticed, canceled the action, replaced it with ordinary woohoo, and breathed a sigh of relief that I’d been on the ball. I mean, I had the maximum house size for autonomous Try for Baby se at 7 in Woohooer, and the household had 7 human sims in it, so I shouldn’t have *needed* to be checking. I thought that was that, and I never thought about it again until Hetail popped. She had no morning sickness that I noticed.

Wellll…. it appears that my settings in Woohooer got reset somehow back to 8, and my little cancel-and-switch didn’t actually work. Or something.

ARRRRRRRGH. For a split second, I thought about canceling the pregnancy with MasterController. Then I gave myself a lecture about being a control freak in an ISBI.

OK, then, if that’s the way we’re going to play it, here we go. One more kid.

That makes Branden’s age-up a complete anti-climax. If there was one guy I was sure would not be heir, it was Branden. And I actually love the way he looks now that he’s a teen! He really did grow into that face. It’s rather aristocratic.

Oh, yeah, and the scenes in front of the mirror were Hetal and Branden’s free actions for their age state. Hetal is finally learning Charisma for her political career. I also turned on speeches in front of the mirror for children with Retuner, which EA doesn’t permit for some reason even though kids can learn almost all the other skills that you can learn from objects. I figure that the free action for teens should be to go to prom, but I wasn’t sure what to do with kids. I think I will have most kids use their free action to learn Charism. Once you have a point, it just levels up from social interactions that sims do autonomously all the time, and it’s so valuable.