Jin

All posts tagged Jin

1.16 Adventures on the Upstairs Landing

Posted by Echo Weaver on April 12, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 9 comments

Come ON, kids. Can’t you just get out of the way?

The background music in our house is the sound of screaming toddlers. Jin gets the worst of it, and one night it drove her outside to get some peace and quiet.

She got more than she bargained for.

But she didn’t miss much.

When she got back, they were still screaming.

But I guess you couldn’t blame her for passing out that time.

Hetal and I kinda didn’t notice she was gone. I have to say that Hetal is one hot pregnant lady.

Though we were both too exhausted to really do anything about it, so we went to bed.

We woke up to this strange noise. It was someone rustling through our stuff.

And she took our rocking chair!!

Hetal almost lost her mind. Not the rocking chair! She was going to have a baby, and now there wouldn’t be a rocking chair! The world was ending!

She was a little bit hormonal.

While I was frantically calling the police about the intruder, she went into another room and zapped up the towel by the sink. What will we do without a way to dry our hands? We’ll have wet hands, that’s what! Oh, the humanity!

And then it turned out she had a legal right to be there. It turns out we didn’t pay our bills. Whoops.

The next day, Ayden called Jin up for another date.

It was good for her to get out of the house, even if Ayden is kind of boring.

She found a great way to have fun.

Then she told Ayden she had to go home early because she was exhausted.

And she made it all the way to her own bed and slept there! Without passing out! Jin is just made of steel.

The house was filled with kitties. Which is a wonderful thing, but it was a lot of little mouths to feed.

Don’t think that’s complaining, though, because it is totally not. Complaining. I mean, how can you complain about this?

Or this??

And then sweet Peanut had a birthday!

Isn’t he magnificent?

Branden left for his first day of school! Well, really his second day, but it was the first day he actually showed up.

He’s such a responsible little man.

I had the day off, so I tried to focus on one of the least fun parts of being a mom. I swear, I did everything I could to get Christof to do something on that potty.

But nothing! It’s enough to make you crazy!

Finally, I got the twins someplace where they could have some fun in a way that would *not involve us*.

And they did have a good time. Faces like this are why I don’t just run off and join the circus.

Look at them play together! They’re both going to be geniuses. I’m sure of it.

Hetal and I had other plans.

The last couple of times we’d tried to woohoo, something had come up. But this time for sure. The toddlers were playing in their room. Branden was at school. Jin was asleep. What could go wrong?

But when we got to the top of the stairs, Hetal stopped. “Wait,” she said. “I think can feel the baby!”

“Right, right,” I said. “I’m sure you can feel the baby. Can we get to the bedroom?”

“No,” she said. “I mean I can feel the baby coming! Right now!”

I guess this means no woohoo for a while.

I figured now was a pretty good time to celebrate my birthday. I mean, I wasn’t going to get my birthday present, but at least I’d get another kid out of it, right?

Branden came upstairs to watch.

All this parenting stress and no woohoo is really bad for your hair.

Well gathered in the hallway to gawp at Hetal giving birth. It looked really painful. Wow, I’m glad it wasn’t me.

But it took too long, so we all got tired and went to bed.

But at last our fourth (and FINAL!) child was born.

Wait, don’t pay attention to that. You might have *thought* you saw a pale-skinned boy, but you really saw a teal-skinned girl.

This is Deanne.

Hetal laid her in her crib.

The twins were so busy playing peekaboo, they didn’t even notice.

Hetal relaxed after the stresses of childbirth with Dinah. I approve.

So you’re the new baby, huh?

Wow, you’re so sweet.

Anyone who tells this beautiful little girl what I said about her before she was born will see their house burn down. Think I’m bluffing? Don’t try me.

———-

Pregnancies: 2 + 1 = 3
Total Babies: 3 + 1 = 4

Passing out: 4 + 1 = 5
Repo visits: 0 + 1 = 1

Cheats: 0 + 1 = 1

So, my first ever repo visit!

The backstory here is that the mailbox glitched out. This lot had one of the Late Night high-rise mailboxes out front in its own little shelter. I’ve lived in places that did it that way, and I liked it. But I think around the time of the University patch, it stopped working. I’m not entirely sure. I tried all sorts of things — resetting it, moving it around, etc. The news of the bills came up, and even though Allison couldn’t get the bill from the mailbox, the late bill warning dropped it into her inventory for me. So I instructed her to pay it by clicking the bill in her inventory. It dropped out of her queue, and I did it again. And I then I thought it succeeded and all was well.

So I spent the last of their savings on those two strollers to go to the park. And that morning the repo-lady showed up.

Also, I cheated. The first kid born was a boy with Allison’s skin tone and Hetal’s hair and eyes AGAIN. After much grumbling, I used MasterController to create a new baby. This is not a particularly game-changing cheat, and I’m not sure I’m willing to take a point hit for it. (Because this is totally about the points, right? I haven’t even decided how/if I’m going to score the scoresheet.) But I’m going to record them.

Hetal tried about four times to woohoo with Allison, and they couldn’t make it to their bed. With that and the mailbox thing, plus a whole sequence from the pic at the beginning where Hetal and Christof got into a face off at the head of the stairs and neither of them could route anywhere until I reset Hetal, had me ready to dump the condo and move. But I discovered that the door was “in use” by Branden, despite the fact that Branden was in bed downstairs. I had to delete and replace the door to fix that, and while I was at it, I enlarged the landing a bit at the expense of Hetal and Allison’s bedroom. That, and deleting the mailbox and letting the game replace it with a standard one, and the lot is functioning again.

I’ve become kind of stupidly attached to this condo. But also, the Wonderlands have been living hand-to-mouth, and I’m not sure they can afford one much better.

1.15 Everyone Not Having Fun Will Be Punished

Posted by Echo Weaver on April 10, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 13 comments

“Another child is wonderful!” I told Hetal. “We can totally handle it.”

What I was actually thinking was, “We’re dead.”

But Hetal is awesome. She got up early to deal with kids.

And she made breakfast.

All while she must have been feeling terrible from morning sickness. I know. I remember what it was like.

After Branden and I finished her wonderful home-cooked meal, Branden did the dishes.

Meanwhile, our neighbor Oberon was out in the snow, playing with Peanut.

He left his front door unlocked, and Dinah wandered into his entry hall.

She lay down, sweet as can be.

And them she started howling like the end of the world was here!! Good heavens!

We all rushed out to see what was wrong, and then poof! There were kittens!

THREE KITTENS! GOOD GRIEF!

Meet Strawberry (female)

Raspberry (male)

and Plum (male)

OK, when I named the all the kittens, I was having a huge craving for peanut butter and jelly, OK?

The kittens were all really sweet the way they cuddled up to their mommy.

Hetal was the first one in to meet them.

And Strawberry started chasing her tail. So cute!!

Peanut went to meet his new younger brothers and sisters.

Now, I have to say that there are NEVER too many cats, but this is a lot of mouths to feed.

And just that much more poop to clean….

I threw myself into trying to get the house ready. There were toilets to fix.

And toddlers to feed. So many toddlers to feed.

This was really starting to get to me. I told Hetal, “We have GOT to have some fun or we’re going to go crazy.” Because we’re totally not already crazy. Plus, it was almost my birthday.

So I called a family meeting and declared that we were all going to go out and HAVE FUN. OR ELSE.

We got all the kids together.

And piled into a cab.

And showed up at the winter festival after dark. In the snow.

OK, this wasn’t my best job of planning, but I’m doing my best, OK?

I left Caitlin to play in the snow.

And tried out some snowboarding! It was amazing! I was born to do this.

Whoops!

OK, that hurt.

But I still can’t wait to do that again.

Then I decided we were all going to have a family picture. There were a bunch of creepy, drooly, grunting people who wanted to cut in line in front of us, but I am a firefighter, and I just don’t put up with that kind of stuff.

[I managed to not actually get a screenshot of the picture, which took at least three tries. It’s up on my Exchange page. I’ll try to get a shot of the game copy.)

Then it was time to go home. But there seemed to be some kind of a problem.

What? These drooly people with skin problems just don’t understand anything about personal space!

“Do you MIND?” I said in my firmest outraged hero voice. She finally stepped aside to let us pass.

And we walked all the way home in the snow. It was kind of nice. Winter is beautiful. If only it weren’t so cold.

—–

HOLY CRAP! THREE MORE KITTENS! I was lulled into thinking that pregnancies usually generated one or two kittens. So now the house has six pets and is about to have seven humans. In a duplex home on half of a 30×30 lot. On the plus side, nobody is a clone. It looks like we have interesting different body types and coloring patterns for each one. But I think everyone may have gotten Cheshire’s eyes, which is not fair because Dinah’s are gorgeous.

I was totally intending to post through to the birth of the kid, but when I got out all the pictures, I was astounded at how much happened. So baby will be born in the next post. And there will be more fail. Oh, so much more fail.

So I can just take this moment to pretend everything is all right because there is no fail in this post.

1.14 Let’s All Play Hooky

Posted by Echo Weaver on April 8, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , . 22 comments

Jin’s phone rang at stupid o’clock in the morning. It was her ex-boyfriend Ayden Van Gould, begging her to take him back.

She dropped everything to go out to see him.

He wanted to meet behind the theater where nobody could see them. Apparently, he’d just dumped some psycho named Echo Weaver, and she was stalking him. He didn’t want her to be able to find them.

He told Jin that he missed her smile every morning.

And that she was the world to him. Or at least some world with pink swirls on it. She wasn’t impressed.

But then he got on to the naughty talk, and Jin appreciated that more. I guess the old flame was still burning after all.

Meanwhile, without Jin around, who do you think was stuck doing all the child care?

And WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO OUR TABLE?

Here’s another view. Definitely no table.

I tried to get ready for work, and I had to sit in the bathroom. Branden came in to tell me that the toilet was busted.

Then he sat down to have some breakfast.

That’s right. Well all hung out and had breakfast in a broken, smelly bathroom because there was NOPLACE ELSE TO SIT.

There has to be more to life than this.

“You know,” Hetal said, “After that kind of crummy morning, I just don’t feel like going to work.” So she didn’t.

And Branden didn’t go to school either. I really wanted to yell at him, but then he did the dishes. He was sacrificing his educational future to clean up this pit of a house. He’s such a good boy.

Then he sat down and did his homework, which he couldn’t possibly have collected because he didn’t go to school.

I have such a magical, witchy son.

I decided to stay home too, since everyone else was doing it. Instead, I went outside to play with the kitties. But I couldn’t find them!

Wait, what’s that?

It’s Peanut!

Meanwhile, Hetal was getting overwhelmed trying to deal with Christof and Caitlin. And who was this chick in the room anyway? Why doesn’t she give a kid a bottle?

Those kids pretty much never stopped screaming. It made me crazy!

The whole neighborhood probably could hear them.

OK, the kid is clothed and fed. I don’t want to hear about it, OK?

At last Jin got back from her hot date and started setting things in order.

Clearly we are totally lost without her.
.

While Jin was doing some cleaning downstairs, we finally got both of the toddlers contained. I suggested Hetal might like to go on a horsey ride.

If you know what I mean.

Ride’m cowgirl.

Then work called after all, and I had to dash in to do some repairs on the fire engine! I can’t even take a mental health day in peace! A hero’s work is never done.

And while I was there, the emergency alarm went off! So I had to jump into the half-repaired clunky fire engine to save the day.

It was a family freaking out because…. their gnomes were swearing at them??

You have GOT to be kidding me. I got out of bed for this?

Fortunately, it was an easy job.

And VERY satisfying, since I got a bonus for the job AND a promotion with another bonus! Man, we could really use that money.

And it was quitting time, so I sneaked in to play with their toys.

While I was gone, Hetal broke the other toilet.

And she promised to tell Branden a bedtime story. But then she forgot where the bedtime books were.

Plus, she wasn’t feeling very well.

Branden didn’t want to go to bed without his story, so he came downstairs for a drink.

But then he was too tired to really drink it, so he left it on the floor.

Then he walked all the way out into the living room, past his bed, so that he could pass out on the floor. That’s where I found him.

While I was getting everyone to bed, Jin picked up Branden’s discarded juice box.

And sat down to finish it off at the new table I was able to buy with my bonus money.

When I came upstairs, Hetal was in the bathroom staring at herself in the mirror.

“Come to bed, baby!” I told her. “We both know you’re hot.”

“Actually,” Hetal said. “I think I’m pregnant. And do you know you stink?”

ANOTHER BABY? How are we going to manage?

Cheshire has the right idea. I need to start playing with my kids and not stress out so much.

———-

Passing out: 0 + 2 = 2

The fails is just fast and furious now, and with another kid coming I can only imagine it will get worse.

I have no memory of what happened to the table. Two options: 1, I removed a lot of custom content that had accidentally made it into my game, and it’s possible the table was just deleted. The game is SUPPOSED to replace it with something else, but perhaps that’s only if the family can pay the difference in price or something. 2, I sold it to pay the bills and then forgot about it. I intentionally made it a little harder for the Wonderlands to get ahead financially, but I don’t think I realized just HOW hard it would be for them anyway with only one person under my control.

The house is totally out of control at this point. Hetal isn’t going to work and has gotten a warning that she might be fired from her job. Branden spent all night wandering from person to person, asking for a bedtime story and then having the action cancelled before it could complete.

I think the apartment is getting glitchy. It’s getting harder and harder for Allison and Hetal to actually get to their beds to sleep.

I’m creating a new rule while I test out bedtime story mods — if any child has a successful bedtime story interaction fail out twice, I’m sending him to bed manually. The Read to Sleep action keeps canceling out of Branden or his victim’s queue, and he just wanders around asking for that story until he passes out.

With the fourth kid on the way, I am getting really concerned about losing the whole generation to the Social Worker.

At least it’s funny as heck, which is the point.

1.13 Out of Control

Posted by Echo Weaver on March 13, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

We didn’t mean to. We just got so busy, and time goes by so fast. The twins had their first birthday while both Hetal and I were at work.

Caitlin

and then Christof

Jin got to see the whole thing, and Hetal and I missed it. I didn’t want to miss anything about parenthood! I felt so bad.

Now there were three toddlers in the house. Three! We had to get a playpen to corral them all.

Branden really got into the abacus toy. I bet he’ll be a rocket scientist when he grows up. Or an accountant!

Life started to settle in with three toddlers and a kitten. Sometimes it was hard to find time to feed, and nobody did much cleaning.

Little kids are so playful and sweet. When they’re not screaming their heads off.

I tried to keep up my role as mentor.

Hetal tried to be sure that I didn’t forget that I was also a woman.

Dinah and Cheshire also took some time away from their parental responsibilities.

Branden’s birthday was coming up fast, and I sure didn’t want to make the same mistake with him. Branden’s such a sweet kid. He’s almost never been much trouble,and he’s so gentle, even with his toys. Watching him sing lullabies to his favorite doll is just too good to be real.

We made sure that we circled the date on the calendar and made time for a celebration. We bought him a nice cake.

Hetal was in bed after a long day of work, and Jin was taking a quick nap.

I figured I’d go get Branden, and then we’d wake up the sleepyheads.

Then I went up to get him at the big moment, and I guess I just spaced out a little.

When I turned around, Branden grown up without me! It’s not fair.

But, sigh, oh well. I was really tired, so I left him in his bedroom and went to bed.

Now what are we going to do with all that cake??

———

So, here’s where went control freak and had to teach myself to calm the heck down. I kept the whole family home for the winter holiday (forgot what it’s called) because I was SO CLOSE to getting Branden skilled. But he was falling-over exhausted by the time he was halfway through potty training, so I had to put him down for a nap.

Then I bought the cake to at least give him a nice age-up (those custom cake recolors I found are nifty), but both Hetal and Jin had already gone to bed. So in a dark house, I kept Allison awake to be there for his birthday. I clicked the cake. She went to get him. And when she picked him up out of the crib, she put him down again, and he aged up on the floor while she was looking at the wall.

And for all that, he got the trait of Ambitious.

Hard, hard lessons in ISBIs. Just don’t expect to give a kid all their toddler skills.

In good news, both Caitlin and Christof look more promising than Branden. As toddlers, I’d say I like Christof’s face best. Caitlin has Hetal’s hair and Allison’s eyes. Christof has Jin’s hair (which has red tips) and Hetal’s eyes.

I rewarded myself for surviving the first month at my new job with Aurora Falls, and I bought the gold version for the playpen and walker. It’s a good way to get to do something different with toddlers at least, and they might even get skills. I haven’t actually played in the town yet, but I think the Wonderlands may move there in another generation.

1.12 True Heros

Posted by Echo Weaver on March 7, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 13 comments

Nobody could get enough of Peanut.

He was just too sweet for words.

Cheshire was just an amazing daddy.

I mean, how can you resist this face?

Oh yeah, and there were crying babies.

And one nanny who REALLY needs a day off.

The stink just led to more crying.

I at least got to escape to work, where I spent some time with my favorite non-family person.

Apparently William hates kids. Or just likes to complain about things.

He’s kind of a pain in the butt to get to know.

Then this couple showed up to tour the fire house on a date.

I have to say, the only thing more romantic than fire houses are fires.

Then the guy decided to give William a hard time.

And Chris Whoovian gave him a lecture about how ugly his fangs were.

It was just not his day!

I tried to cheer him up with a good pillow fight.

Meanwhile, Jules MacDuff showed up to try to convince Jin to forgive him.

But he didn’t gain any points with her because all he did was complain about Branden crying. I mean, he could just have given the kid a bottle!

Poor Jin really is so overworked. We can’t seem to mop up the pee on the floor fast enough.

I got a call for my first really big house fire! It was so exciting!

It was THIS guy again. He just can’t seem to stop making trouble.

After I got the fire out, I headed through the front door and found his roommate freaking out in the living room. The fastest way to get him outside was to chop down the back door. I really know how to make decisions under pressure.

The homeowners were kind of mad, but Hetal appreciated my heroism. You just can’t please some people.

Sometimes I just get so ticked off a ungrateful people! I come in and trash their houses for their own good. Don’t they understand that??

Well, I am a hero, and they aren’t. So there.

———

Self-Peeing + 2

Jin is my sole source of fail at the moment, but it’s hard to complain about her. She’s really provoked.

And Allison got to the level of firefighter that actually saves people, so she’s working toward her LTW. I wasn’t clear how the rescue scenario was supposed to work, since the first time it was wrong — having Allison waltz in the front door and bash the back door open with her axe was even funnier in gameplay.

OK, and here I am asking for advice. You see, both Allison and Hetal have rolled this wish:

SHOULD I DO IT??

On one hand, I am terribly peeved that all three kids have Allison’s skintone and Anjali hair. OTOH, four kids seems a little suicidal.

1.11 This is a !@#$ Lot of Babies

Posted by Echo Weaver on March 2, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 7 comments

“Wow,” I said to Hetal when we had a chance to talk to each other with all the feedings and diaper changes. “This is a lot of work!”

But I made sure that Hetal knew that I didn’t expect her to quit her job or anything.

With her mom around to do free child care, there wasn’t any reason for either of us to stop working.

Hetal really did step up to the plate, though.

I guess actually being pregnant and giving birth was what she needed to really accept being a mother.

And not a moment too soon, because we sure had a lot of kids all of a sudden

Jin was still really into her job as nanny. In fact, sometimes I think she resented it when Hetal and I tried to care for our own kids.

She also almost single-handedly keep the house clean. She certainly earned her keep.

Three kids was a lot, and they pretty much never let her sleep. I’m sure glad Hetal and I weren’t the ones with three screaming kids in our room.

Hetal seemed to appreciate having Jin around the most.

Though sometimes she’d get this strange look on her face, and i could only imagine what she was thinking.

The holidays were coming! We made some time to decorate the house. I just love sparkling lights.

Zoe Durwood stopped by to talk about the snow. She’s really more Jin’s kind of person.

Dinah was looking pretty smug these days. She must have been eating a lot too because she was gaining weight so fast!

Jin was really starting to crack. One day, she got a call from Jules MacDuff, asking her out on a date.

I can’t remember when she last had a day off, so we hired a babysitter, and off she went.

The babysitter was kind of a moron.

I don’t know what she was doing while Hetal and I were at work, but we came home to a bunch of screaming hungry kids with putrid diapers.

I’m going to report her to the babysitting service.

Jules invited Jin out to the graveyard for a hot date.

Then he stood her up!

That guy is such a jerk. I can’t see what either of the Anjali women ever saw in him.

I got to put out another fire!

It was a nice toasty one for such a cold day.

Hetal got promoted at work!

She finally got a work uniform and stopped having to go to the courthouse in her graduation robes.

Jin spent the night in the graveyard. Apparently she was too embarrassed to come home and tell us Jules stood her up.

When Jin finally came home, Dinah started yowling outside! We all ran out to see what was the matter.

And we saw a little head peeking out of the snow!

Dinah headed inside and left her bundle of joy for us to deal with.

I dug him out of the snow. What an amazing little guy!

Meet Peanut Wonderland. Isn’t he the cutest little kitty you ever saw? Well, except for his parents of course.

I don’t know if it was Jules being such a douche or all that nonstop child care, but Jin was starting to act a bit wrong in the head.

We moved her bed to the garage.

Finally she could get some sleep

I certainly hope that helps.

———-

So much for Jin’s much-needed day off. At least she got rid of her Stir Crazy moodlet.

Jin spent most of the day napping on park benches and returned home about as exhausted as she was when she left. Now, I supposed concrete park benches in the snow are not terribly good places to get rest, but I am displeased by how little rest you get from naps to begin with. I may mod this.

The babysitter did glitch or something, and she just stood there for three hours while all the kids screamed in their cribs. I sent Allison home from work early to get rescue them. ARGH.

And I couldn’t be happier with Peanut! What a great combination of his parents. I can’t wait to see him grow up.

1.10 Now the Chaos REALLY Starts

Posted by Echo Weaver on February 28, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 10 comments

Winter settled into the Wonderland house.

I was getting promotions at work and getting to spend more time with really big fires!

Hetal was still a Podium Polisher, but she was really good at it.

Jin was the best live-in nanny you could imagine. She worked really hard to be sure that Branden had everything he needed while his mommies were away.

She just couldn’t get enough of him. Maybe part of it was that there was such a close family resemblance.

Just between you and me, I’m not sure that part was such a great thing. No offense to Jin or anything, but her face could turn you to stone.

Great big noses aside, Branden was just amazing. I never tired of watching him explore and learn.

And he had that special way with his toys. I think he gets it from Hetal’s side of the family.

Dinah and Cheshire were so adorable. I’m blessed every day by having my kitties in my life.

I’m a pretty good momma if I do say so myself! After a busy day of work, I always made time to spend with my little boy.

Jin made sure that Hetal and I got a bit of precious time to spend together, even if it was just a bit of conversation at the dinner table.

I got my first solo call to a really big fire! The kitchen at the Mome Rath Cafe caught fire.

Don’t worry, weird Chinese guy, I’m here to save you!

At the end of the day, I was victorious. Like the cowboys of old, I rode off on my WooWoo 10000 into the setting sun.

And I got a promotion!

All that woowooing can be hard on your ears, though.

Then the big surprise came! Hetal was pregnant!

She’s still having trouble with her responsibilities toward Branden. I hope she comes to her senses soon.

She sure is sexy when she’s expecting, though.

With a new baby on the way and me spending long hours at work, Jin really picked up the slack for us.

Hetal still worked hard to keep us all fed.

But with all those hormones raging, she was kind of off her game.

There days when she was so sick from the pregnancy that I almost had to carry her to the kitchen to make me breakfast.

When she couldn’t do it, I tried to help out.

Then at last the moment came!

The baby was on its way!

I have to say that I did a bit better at being the support parent than Hetal did when she was in my shoes. I stayed with her and hailed a cab for us to go to the hospital together.

No wonder Hetal’s pregnancy was rough! We walked out of the hospital with not one, but two bundles of joy. Two!

Introducing Christof in the blue and Caitlin in the green.

Now life is going to get VERY interesting.

———-

BOTH OF THEM HAVE ALLISON’S SKIN! ARRRGH!

I did not do anything to stimulate twins on purpose. They don’t even have a radio or a television. I figured tracking two toddlers at the same time would be eye-crossing. But it happened anyway, so I’ll take the points!

Christof is a non-witch who is Friendly and Athletic. Caitlin is a witch who is Good and Insane. I’m going to try to focus on getting Christof trained so that he can get Insane. There’s no way they’ll both get all their skills.

And yes, that does mean that both of the witches are Good. I swear I didn’t choose that.

1.9 Motherhood Changes Everything

Posted by Echo Weaver on February 27, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a Comment

I’m so sure parenting will be easy! Just as soon as I figure out how to work the crib…

See, the bottle goes there. I can do this.

Hetal was a big help. She made sure I had plenty to eat.

She certainly had more interest in… you know… than I did right after Branden was born. She couldn’t get enough of it.

Most of the time, I just wanted to sleep.

What she didn’t do was get anywhere near Branden. She couldn’t get out of the bedroom fast enough in the morning.

Clearly she has issues with being a mommy. Well, I’ll just have to be patient with her. I hope she realizes how precious he is soon. He won’t be tiny like this forever.

Fortunately, Jin turned out to be the best grandmother ever! Who would have guessed!

It was like she had this telepathic connection to Branden and knew what he wanted faster than I did.

Come to think of it, I’m not sure how I feel about someone caring for Branden better than I do. But at least it was good to get some sleep.

It didn’t seem like I could get enough sleep. I guess having a kid is kind of tiring.

While we were so caught up with the baby, Dinah grew up! I feel bad that she didn’t get a better birthday, but I tray to make sure she knows how much I love her every day.

Cheshire certainly noticed that Dinah was more mature.

They’d always been best pals, but now they seemed to spend even more time together. They’d go sneaking out of the house all the time. I can just imagine the kind of adventures they were having together.

Then Feast Day rolled around! And it was also Branden’s birthday! We decided to throw a big feast in celebration.

We invited some of my favorite people.

William was really into me holding a baby. Maybe a little bit TOO into it.

I’m not going to tell is girlfriend Beatrice, who was home with *their* new baby.

Things got a bit crowded in the kitchen. Everyone crowded around the baby and wouldn’t let me through! I swear, some people just lose their heads when a baby is around.

Branden still had a great birthday!

My little boy! Isn’t he so handome?

I’m, um, sure he’ll grow into the nose.

Jin had the best time at the party, though. She and Jules MacDuff really hit it off.

Jules went dating the daughter to hitting on her mother. He’s a pretty creepy guy, now that I think about it. At least he keeps his paws off my Hetal.

Whatever you might say about Jules, he made Jin act like a little girl again. They talked all afternoon and gazed into each other’s eyes for hours. When he left, she dashed upstairs for some alone time.

By the time we actually got to the feast, only one guy was around to eat it.

We had all these amazing leftovers. I figured we’d be able to eat for weeks. But they all went bad immediately. All this healthy cooking fad has gone too far. People should cook with a few preservatives.

Hetal and I had to work, and Branden was waking us up in the night all the time. We figured that Jin was such a good grandmother that she wouldn’t mind sharing her room with him instead.

Man did a good night’s sleep bring my libido back! Hetal really knows how to give a girl a good time.

Though the next morning, she wasn’t feeling too well. I hope she feels better soon!

———-

Scoresheet: +1 Self-peeing, +! Pregnancy

OK, so the answer to my writer’s block turned out to be pretty simple — go on a business trip that involves flying from Boston to Albuquerque, NM and back. It’s something like nine hours in transit. There’s no way I could play Sim on a plane, but I have this huge folder of screen shots, and writing posts takes almost no battery power :).

So I wrote five Wonderland posts and half a Sample post, and that’s the outbound trip. We’ll see if I can tackle the 2-3 posts left in Sample Generation 4 on the return trip. No promises. My brain might be full of work stuff then.

I’m going to ration out my backlog of posts to one every couple of days. I wouldn’t want to miss out on any comments.

Adult Dinah is an amazing creation by the DNA Request Team at thesims3.com. If anyone is interested, I can produce a link to her to go with the link to the Cheshire Cat.

1.8 Those Annoying Dangling Romances

Posted by Echo Weaver on January 22, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , . 15 comments

Here’s one of our new neighbors, Oberon Summerdream.

We don’t see him a lot, but when we do he usually comes home and can’t figure out which house is his.

Well, it didn’t take long for me to figure out why I was feeling so tired and pukey. We were going to be moms! It was so exciting!

I got up before Hetal and went downstairs. I thought maybe I’d clean up a couple of the dishes somebody left out on the floor a couple of days ago. I mean, soon there would be a baby here, and I wanted the place to be nice for little him or her!

When Hetal wandered downstairs, I thought I’d get her ready for the big news by being really gross and shocking.

I figured that way, when I broke the news that we were having a baby, it would be less shocking than eating dirt.

Hetal took it well, I think. I hope so.

She didn’t say anything for a long time.

Then her cell phone rang. It was some guy named Jules MacDuff. Hetal looked kind of uncomfortable talking to him. When she hung up, she told me that she needed to head out, and I had nothing to worry about.

Why would I have something to worry about?

It rained all day, and Hetal didn’t come home.

I kept busy fixing up appliances around the house.

And playing with my kitties.

And complaining about the new furniture.

Oh, and my mother-in-law Jin had a birthday.

She claims that she had Hetal when she was really, really young. By my math, she would have had to be in grade school when Hetal was born.

I wonder if she’s lying about her age.

Night fell, and Hetal still hadn’t come home. I started to worry. When Jin heard that Hetal was talking to this Jules guy on the phone, she didn’t want to talk to me about it.

What if Jules was some kind of stalker guy who would kidnap my love and lock her in a room where she could do nothing but sing to him and cook him pancakes? Like she cooks me pancakes?

I had to take a deep breath. Hetal’s a big girl. She can handle herself. I headed off to bed alone. I don’t like to sleep alone anymore.

Then my phone went off at 3am. “Allisssson? Izzat you?” said the voice on the other end of the line.

“Hetal?” I gasped.

“I kinda need a ride home,” Hetal slurred. “I got kinda smashed.”

“You want your pregnant wife to go out in the pouring rain to pick you up at a bar??” I demanded.

“Uh,” Hetal said. “Sure?”

I hung up and went and got her at The Toadstool. It closed at 2am. After they kicked her out, she’d stood under the awning and watched the rain for over an hour before she even called me. Jules MacDuff was with her and a bunch of other people including two fairy kids. It was really crowded under that awning. The whole area smelled like pee, and some of it was Hetal’s.

When I got there, Hetal strolled out into the rain to meet me. “On second thought,” she said, “I think I’ll call a cab.”

So I rode home on the bike alone. She met me there.

We stood together, dripping on the carpet of our new home. I was soggy all the way down to my baby bump. My baby was probably soggy too. If he or she caught a cold and was coughing and sneezing in there, it would be all Hetal’s falt.

“I can explain,” Hetal said.

“OK,” I said. “It better be good.”

It kind of was.

So it turns out Jules MacDuff was her boyfriend in high school. He was graduating today, and he called her to invite her to his party. Jules was a real puppydog kind of guy, and he still thought there was something between them. She wanted to see him as soon as possible, so she headed to his party to make it clear that they were now just friends.

When she got there, she stood out in the rain for a long time before anyone came to the door. Then it was his sister, who said he’d already left.

So she called him up to find out what the heck was going on. He apologized and said he’d meet her someplace. She told him to meet her at the Toadstool. Then she went there and hung around all afternoon, but he still didn’t show.

So she called him again. He said he’d be right there. This time he came running in wearing his cap and gown. Turns out that graduation had been this afternoon. Why hadn’t he just said so??

She didn’t waste any time telling him the news. He didn’t take it very well.

He swore she’d invited him out on a date, and he gave her a really hard time about it.

But then he swore he didn’t want to be around her anymore, and he was going to go straight home, but he didn’t. He hung around, and they had a drink together, and then another one, and another one….

And then the bar closed and kicked everyone out, which is where I found her.

I admit, maybe I wasn’t being a very supportive wife, but I was pretty ticked off. It was too late to talk about it anymore, so we went to bed. When I got up in the morning, I felt a lot better.

I mean, Hetal had gone to all that trouble in the rain to break it off with her old boyfriend. She must really, really love me. And we were having a baby together now. I think it was time to leave the past in the past and focus on having a wonderful new life together.

I’m sure there wouldn’t be any more trouble with this Jules guy anyway.

The next day, I went out to check the mail. Mixed up in all the bills was a note from William Pierce. Apparently he and his fiancee are expecting a baby too! Wow, we’re going to have kids the same age! Isn’t that an amazing coincidence!

I wonder why they didn’t get married first.

Oh, and there was a note to tell us to pick up a… really big wedding gift.

So Jules sent us a wedding gift?? That must mean he’s totally over Hetal and wants us to be happy together! I’m so glad he spent a lot of money to tell us that, because selling that table really helped us pay our bills.

Then things started to really, um, hurt.

Our neighbor Oberon totally freaked out and helped me get to the hospital.

It was still raining. It’s a wonder the whole town hasn’t flooded.

But Hetal came running as soon as she heard. She was with me every moment of the excruciating childbirth. I love her so much.

Our little boy was born pretty soon after that. His name is Branden, and he’s our little angel.

Wow. We’re parents now. Can you believe it?

———-

Introducing Branden Wonderland, the first of Generation 2! And I made it! All the way through a pregnancy in one post. Of course, it was easier now than when there are more people in the house.

Branden is Good and Insane, and he’s a Witch. His favorite color is even white. We now have a Good Witch and a Bad Witch in this house. I wonder how that’s going to work out when they grow up. Sadly, he didn’t inherit either Hetal or Jin’s skintones.

Oh, I never gave you Hetal’s traits. She’s Flirty, Great Kisser, Clumsy, Evil, and No Sense of Humor. The last one is what she added when she aged up, and it doesn’t seem to suit her that well, but what can you do? Oh, and her LTW is Master Romancer, for Heaven’s sake. This girl is a real femme fatale. Allison may be in for some rocky romance in the future.

ARRRRGH MISSING PICTURES!!! How do these things happen?? I’ve looked all over for the shots of Hetal’s misadventures tracking down Jules to break off a dangling romantic interest. The whole thing was frustrating, but hilarious, and it would have been funnier with pictures. It would be so nice if a townie sim would know that he’s going to graduation and notify you of that instead of accepting invitations to meet and then not showing up.

After the Toadstool closed, there was some kind of glitch, and nobody went home. They just stood there at the door, complaining about being tired and peeing themselves. So of course I got my first self-wetting. I finally hauled Allison out of bed and sent her to the bar to see if she could go home with Hetal. As soon as Allison showed up on the lot, the spell was broken and everyone headed home. I took this funny shot of Allison getting off her bicycle in the rain, and Hetal walking right past her to get into a taxi to go home.

I will point out that I wrote my house rules about considering all actions required to break off a romantic interest to be one action before this happened, but I wasn’t visualizing quite so many actions.

The serial numbers in my screenshots folder are sequential, but I’d swear I looked at those pictures. It makes me wonder if there’s some circumstance that leads the game to start at the wrong number and overwrite old screenshots.

At any rate, I took a few Mac screenshots to get the notification messages, and we’re stuck with this. You can imagine it.

1.7 Home Is Where the Bedroom Is

Posted by Echo Weaver on January 7, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a Comment

We had to scramble around to find a place we could afford that would fit all five of us on a really tight budget.

But we found it! It’s a cute little duplex close to the Courthouse so that Hetal will have a quick commute to work.

Of course, the house was about ALL we could afford.

At least everyone has a place to sleep, including the kitties.

If we eat in shifts, we’ll be all right until we can get a bit more money coming in.

Fortunately, Hetal wasn’t asking for all that much. We have each other, a roof over our heads, and a bedroom.

That bedroom part is very important.

I really hope she likes our new home. We wanted to scamper upstairs and get some alone time before Hetal’s mother got home from hanging out with her best friend.

But it was a new place, and we were trying too hard.

Nothing quite worked out as we planned.

Fortunately, Hetal said she had a better idea.

Our wedding night ended up just fine.

And I got to sleep by my wife for the very first time. Wife! Can you believe that!

I had sweet dreams. I hope Hetal did too.

When I got up the next morning, Hetal was already downstairs cooking me breakfast. I could get used to this.

Then came the moment of truth. My mother-in-law came home. Her name is Jin, and she looks terrifying.

But she immediately started cleaning all the dishes. Finally someone was cleaning up around here!

Cheshire headed outside a made a new friend.

I hope Dinah doesn’t get jealous!

I decided to have some fun with Jin.

It turns out I’m scarier than she is!

Of course, that might not have been the best idea for family relationships.

The view out the window is lovely. I can see just a bit of the fire house from here too.

But I swear, these crumb-filled plats just get left around everywhere! I just put my dirty plate down on the counter, and it’s still here! Disgusting!

Blah blah blah, yadda yadda. Talk to the hand. It’s talking to you.

I made sure that Dinah got extra cuddles while Cheshire was out roughhousing with some strange kitty.

But as I bent over, I had the most awful feeling.

Ugh! I hope I don’t have the stomach flu! That’s not the way to spend your honeymoon.


———-

We now have idiots, and we’ve moved into an apartment! So far, the idiots are taking better care of the place than Allison did.

Gameplay note: I have Same Sex Try for Baby set on Twallan’s mod to impregnate randomly, so I have no idea who will turn up pregnant for a given baby chime.

The new apartment is 4603 Scarlet Lane.

Also, since Jenn was interested, here’s the link to the Cheshire Cat.

I discovered after falling in love with it that there is NO PLACE to put a double bed in either bedroom. Well then. Not sure what the logic was in that.After Allison and Hetal failed to get to the bed that I thought I had placed correctly, I managed to place one via moveobjects that works fine and looks OK. However, the long-term plan is to put it on a wider lot and expand the whole structure several squares. The Wonderlands can’t afford that right now of course.

Otherwise, the place is adorable. Money is tight, and it’s kind of fun for it to be tight. I’ve added a handicap to this legacy that I can’t buy No Bills Ever, so it should be longer before the household assets explode. I had to strip out most of the furniture to buy this place, even with the money Hetal and Jin brought in. Then after I started playing, I realized that the inflated price was coming from a ton of art on the walls. So they’re living on folding chairs, but they have a big Nicely Decorated moodlet all the time. I’m going to leave it that way because it seems so appropriate for Insanity :).