Tag Archive | forest

4.38 All’s Fair in Love and News

Though the Samples never saw him, someone was spending more and more time around the school while the triplets were studying.

There were more stories to write about a bunch of hybrid ghost children, and Kirby Hawkins was determined to find them.

One afternoon, Hunter persuaded Forest to come the park to work on their homework together. Ada kept an eye on them as she finalize wedding plans.

When she looked up, she discovered she had some unexpected company.

“You don’t belong here,” Ada hissed.

Kirby smiled. “It’s a free country, and I”m here to keep information free. Do you care to go on the record with your thoughts on living with a bunch freak children?”

Ada looked up a the boys, who were completely unaware they were being watched.

“I don’t get it, and I’m not going to get it!” Hunter cried. “Can’t we just go home? I’m starving.”

“I’ll drive you back,” Ada called. “Just give me a second.”

“You suck,” she said to Kirby. “We’re going to keep you out. The kids deserve a normal life.”

“Normal like you?” Kirby asked.

“We’ll keep you out,” Ada said.

Kirby chuckled. The Samples had certainly thrown a lot of walls and technology at keeping him and his people out.

But they were really naive. All those defenses didn’t amount to much if you had someone on the inside.

You couldn’t escape the press.

———-

I’m not writing my best work right now, but I want to tell the story. So imagine this was a lot more menacing.

No matter what I did with this lot, I never was able to keep out the paparazzi. I think it’s because it’s a rocky lot set in the mountains, and I thought the two-storey-tall boulders and hundred-foot waterfall would serve as barriers. Apparently not.

Veronica got hit again with being disgraced for Woohooing with an Occult.

4.37 Growing Pains

Oct27

“I’ve been thinking, Sky,” Forest said. “I think the real reason nobody will talk to you in school is that being around you makes them think about death.”

“Shut up, Forest,” Sky said. “You think you’re so smart, but you don’t know anything about people.”

“I know everything about people,” Forest retorted. “You just let emotion cloud your judgement. I’m not saying it’s GOOD that you make people think about death, but you can’t do anything about it if you can’t admit it.”

“I don’t know,” Hunter said. “I think it’s kind of, I don’t know, spiritual that we’re all descended from a ghost who fell in love with a mortal. It doesn’t make me think about death. It makes me think about defeating death. You know, making death into just another stage of life.”

“Defeating death is called undeath,” Forest said. “Sky and Dad are totally undead.”

“You two can say exactly the same thing, and Hunter still sounds smarter than you, Forest,” Sky said.

“You won’t say that when I design the first manned spaceflight to Mars or something awesome like that. The power of the brain is what defines the world.”

“Whatever,” Sky said. “You think you can make everything about numbers. Music lets you see people’s hearts.”

“Music is still numbers and math, you know,” Forest said.

Hunter sighed. “I’ve always thought we’re more than just hearts and brains. Something more… special. Hey! Zap the zombie will you??”

The triplets were becoming their own people day by day.

Forest dreamed of ruling the world, and nobody could tell him that was too grandiose a dream.

Then again, he spent so much time on his big plans that he kept losing track of the little things.

Hunter dreamed of magic places and the secret souls inside all living things.

But he was also haunted by nightmares. He confided some of these to Forest, who only told him to expect the world to be like that.

Sky, on the other hand, didn’t seem to dream. Or if she did, she refused to talk about it.

Sky struggled with school. Homework wasn’t hard for her, but at the same time, it gave her no satisfaction. There had to be more to life than dates and figures. She quickly gave up trying to reach out to her classmates. Nobody would talk to her. They were either frightened or just creeped out by her otherness.

She did her best to have fun by herself.

Art and music were her lifeline. She wheedled Aunt Ada into showing her the basics of painting, and soon she was filling canvasses with the beauty she saw around her.

When she was sure nobody was around to hear her, she sang softly to her dolls — airy, haunting melodies that she made up herself. Sometimes the songs didn’t even have words.

Hunter had no more success socially, but it was because the thought of talking to someone outside his family filled him with terror.

He envied Forest’s easy confidence, and he spent a lot of time tagging along.

Forest could be a lot of fun. You just had to wait for the right moment. Though whatever Forest put in his pillowcases for pillow fights hurt more than a pillow ought to.

Whatever the strange gleam was in Forest’s eye sometimes, he spent hours tutoring Hunter and helping him through his homework. Hunter was endlessly grateful, and he was willing to do anything to make Forest happy. Forest was so smart, and Hunter knew he was stupid. He really tried, but it was so hard to make the letters on the page organize into anything that made sense. When Forest read things aloud, it made things so much easier.

Whenever Forest wasn’t around to help him out, Hunter tended to retreat into his imagination.

His fantasy world was so much more interesting than the real world. Nobody was hard to talk to.

And there was never a time when he zigged when he should have zagged.

Forest had big plans than his brother and sister for what to do when there was nobody around to see.

Or maybe just more annoying.

“What!” Veronica exclaimed as she stepped out of the shower. “Which one of the kids did this??”

Then she reached up, and the color came away on her hand. “Damn it,” she swore. “This stuff looks awesome. If the kids were going to prank, they could at least use better hair dye!”

———-

Just a picture of the kids as they’re growing older. I didn’t think I could have a sim I loved more than Charles, but the triplets are giving me a run for my money. I don’t know who my favorite is.

I thought Veronica looked awesome in that prank hair dye, and clearly so did she!

Here are some Not Safe For Work pictures of our lovely legacy consort as she gets hit with the prank: Here and Here

I almost included them, but I didn’t want to give my blog an NC-17 rating. Veronica knows how to flaunt it :).

4.34 Wet Mishaps

Sep18

Hunter liked food. Since his folks wouldn’t let him use the stove, he persuaded them to buy him an Easy Bake oven for his creations.

“You should try this one,” he told Forest in between bites of muffin. “I remembered the sugar this time, and it’s a lot less crunchy.”

“Um, thanks,” Forest said. “I think I’m going to have a can of soup.”

“I’ve been planning on what to do with my math homework,” Forest said while he slurped. “I tested out of arithmetic, but now I’m stuck in algebra, and they told me that nobody does Calculus until high school at least. So I was going to tell my teacher –“

He stood up suddenly, looking surprised. “I was supposed to do something wasn’t I?”

“Wow. I was thinking so hard that I didn’t even notice I had to go! I’ll make a note to check before dinner.”

“Yeah,” Hunter said, looking from the puddle to Forest’s bemused face and back again. “You do that. Go pee before dinner.”

Forest gave his brother a hard stare across the table. “This never happened. I mean it.”

Hunter shrank. “Right. Don’t know what you’re talking about. Why don’t I go run you a bath?”

But no sooner had Hunter turned on the bath water than the hot water knob came off in his hand. The fountaining leak got all over everything.

“This always happens,” Hunter said forlornly.

“Let your mom fix the tub when she gets home,” Zahra said. “I used to do that sort of thing, but now she’s the up and coming technician in this house. Why don’t you pick out a story, and I’ll read it to you.”

Hunter picked out the one about the dryad defending her forest from the builder who wanted to cut it down. It was his favorite story, and he never tired of listening to it. Listening was easier than reading it himself. He still had trouble with some of the words.

Veronica came home to find her quietest child curled around her pillow, smiling at some happy dream. She sighed. “Zahra could have used her own bed.”

Sky woke up in the middle of the night. “Daddy? Why are you sleeping in Hunter’s bed? Where’s Mom?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Charles whispered back.

———-

Stop the presses, Sara! I got February into the game. It turned out the alternate installer was throwing errors, but it was actually working after all. I even got February’s custom hair. So if you haven’t wasted a bunch of time making a new version for me, forget about it. If you have, well, sorry about that :-p

This is a bit disjoint. I’m trying to assemble some episodes from the pics I took of the kids. Some later events resolve themselves better.

It turns out that Sky is underrepresented in childhood. I think that’s going to remedy itself during teenagerhood, since she’s a Virtuoso who is *not allowed to play any instruments* while a child. Ugh. These people have clearly never heard of the Suzuki Method. Or, really, actually looked at a school music program. I started at age 11 with the viola, and that was kind of late.

Sigh. More peeing. There was a lot of peeing in the first few days of the triplets’ childhood. Yes, Forest is Absent Minded, and Hunter is Clumsy :).

4.30 For the Children

Aug11

Charles called on Aunt Shanni as soon as he could get away the next day. He dropped by the Crumplebottom Estate, but Jeanette reported that her mom was at work. Charles dropped by to find her at closing time.

Shanni’s eyes looked empty as he hurried up to her. He suddenly found himself unsure of what to say.

“I didn’t expect you to be here,” he said awkwardly. “You don’t need the money. Why don’t you take some time to heal?”

“I’m trying,” Shanni said. Her voice was raw. “It’s just–” She brushed a tear out of her eye almost angrily. “It’s just that work reminds me of Agnes a lot less that home does.”

“I’m sorry. You can stay with us for a few days if you need to. You should’t be alone at a time like this.”

Shanni smiled wanly. “I’m not alone. The kids have been wonderful. Especially Jeanette. She’s growing up to be an amazing young woman.”

Then a real smile played on Shanni’s lips. It makes me think of what Agnes said to me when we were getting together. “You’ll do it, and you’ll be the better for it.”

Charles smiled back. “She was usually right.”

Shanni nodded. “And I usually didn’t notice until later. You know thing she said the same day that has helped me through my entire career? ‘The line between trashy and powerful is all about style!'”

Shanni was going to be OK.

“Please come home for dinner at least. It’s the kids’ birthday. They’d love to see you.”

Shanni shook her head. “Give them my love. Jeannette and Garry are making dinner, and I think we need some family time.”

So the triplets’ birthday was a local family affair, but it was plenty happy for all that.

In order of birth, first Forest blew out the candles.

(Better picture, but without glasses:)

Then Hunter.

Then Sky.

The partying ran too late on a school night, but eventually Veronica kicked them upstairs to sleep in their newly renovated bedroom.

Tomorrow would be a long and exciting day.

The next morning, after the hustle and bustle of getting the kids off to their first day of school, Charles heard Veronica calling his name from the yard.

“Oh, Charlllles!” she called. Her voice was almost a singsong.

He found her at the gazebo, engaging in her favorite hobby.

“Hey stranger,” she said with a sly smile. “You know, I keep having this dream where we were wicked young things who used to go skinny dipping and worse at all hours of the day. You ever have that dream?”

“Once or twice,” Charles admitted.

“We did it!” Veronica chortled. “The kids are off to school. Your folks are off at work. We have the whole place to ourselves! It’s been so long I’ve almost forgotten what to do.”

“I haven’t,” Charles said. “I’d be glad to remind you.”

Veronica sank into his arms with a sigh. “It’s good to get some of our own back.”

“They’re great kids,” Charles said, “But I’m looking forward to recovering my hobbies.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself!” Veronica exclaimed and pulled him down under the water.

——–

Patient readers, the triplets finally grew up!

After the bit with Shanni, which was actually Charles’s failed attempt to get a makeover, I completely redid the lighting at the Salon. I have no idea why nothing I did would make things light up in there. Argh. And now I don’t think there will be another reason for the Samples to go there before they move.

Come to think of it, I had that problem with the dojo when I placed it. There was a lot of lighting in there already, but none of it activated. I had to redo the lighting in there too.

4.29 Third Shift

Aug11

The triplets were growing like weeds. Every time Veronica and Charles turned around, they seemed to have learned a word or a new skill.

Three toddlers were a lot of work, and that means a LOT of work. There was barely time for anyone to follow their personal lives. Zahra and Charles’s beloved garden became overgrown with weeds. Charles cancelled his classes at the dojo as often as he taught them.

Fabian at least made it his personal mission to make sure everyone was fed.

He spent most of his spare time cooking. It was nice to at least not have to worry about food.

Especially since Fabian had the least patience of the family. And with the way things were going at work, he didn’t always treat the adventures of parenthood with good grace.

Then every once in a while, in the middle of all the hard work and exhaustion, there was a golden moment where everything was quiet…

but those moments seldom lasted long enough for anyone to do anything about them.

There were new ideas to teach the children.

And new physical skills too.

And then there was potty training.

And potty training.

And did we mention potty training?

The lifestyle was hardest on Veronica. She often came home from a long shift gathering ghost specimens to jump right into child care. She subsisted on catnaps and stubbornness.

Charles would ask her over and over again if she needed a break. She’d smile and say, “Of course not! I’m fine!” And then in a heartbeat she’d become a raving, sobbing lunatic. During those times, Charles banished her to her room to get some sleep.

But all the hard work, long nights, and lost sleep were paying off. Day by day, the triplets were becoming their own people.

Hunter’s first word was, “Pretty.”

Forest’s was, “Color,” but he seemed to mean more by it, like he wanted to color the world to his liking.

Sky’s was, simply, “Art!”

There were lots of fun times too. There’s nothing that warms your heart like a happy toddler.

And those unexpected moments of silliness.

One day, Charles realized how independent they were becoming. The workload was lifting. They were getting some of their own back.

Charles began to walk with a spring in his step. This parenthood thing was hard, but he was schooled in the arts of zen and endurance. He would win, and it would be worth it.

That’s when Fabian got the call. “Shanni? Is that you? I can barely hear you. Are you crying?”

Shanni was at Sacred Speen Memorial Hospital. Agnes was rushed there in the night, but it was too late. She had passed on.

———-

Sorry to end on such a downer, but it had to happen sometime :(. I actually saw Agnes’s age on a Twallan menu, and she was 92.

I have a great picture of Fabian throwing a temper tantrum over being awakened by screaming kids, but I can’t find it. Not like it vanished, just that I didn’t get it into the right folder and haven’t been able to find it again in the mountains of pictures that I take. I may try once more tonight if I have some time :). EDIT: Found it!

I’ve really been blocking on this post too because I just dumped all the cute toddler pics into a big pile, but I couldn’t think of anything to say about them. So here were are — the toddler skilling redux. Dang, five adults pretty much did nothing but work, sleep, and skill toddlers, and Hunter still finishing potty training on the morning of his birthday!

Avalon Update: I am VERY close to moving the family over in current gameplay. I’ve downloaded all the families except the ones you let me know about in the last week-ish. Once I finish up playing in Sunset Valley, I’ll download the last, drop in the other sims I’m downloading and adding to round out the population, and to the final tweaks to the world. Then we cross our fingers and go.

I am about a bajillion posts behind, so the plan is that I’ll get my posting up to current while I’m finishing getting the world in order.

Yes to Simmentary, I love doing the town updates, and I hope they’re something fun and distinctive about this legacy. I definitely plan to do updates on the cross-pollination families. I think I will do a post with a quick introduction to the families so that you guys can follow along.

4.21 Triple Toddlers

May30

The Samples were still settling into their house when the triplets’ birthday arrived. “We can’t do much, but we’re going to do something,” Veronica insisted. So all the family — except Fabian, who was working overtime again — gathered outside by the lake to cheer the little ones on and see who they would become.

By order of birth, first came Forest.

Then Hunter.

And at last Sky.

Ghostly Sky stared up at her daddy, then screwed up her eyes, and *pop* became visible!

“Well, I’ll be darned,” Charles breathed.

“I guess you rubbed off on her,” Veronica said with a wink. “Maybe she just needed role model to show her how it’s done.”

They rang in the birthday with bottles all around. Pretty quickly, it was time for bed. Not the most elaborate celebration, but the triplets had a wonderful time anyway.

As time wore on, the children began to show their individuality. Whenever she could get away from the looming adults, Sky made a beeline for anything that would make noise: the top of the toybox, the bannister railing, even her toy xylophone. She was fascinated by all manner of sounds. And the noise she made sounded more like music than noise.

Hunter was quiet and sensitive, especially for a toddler. He became terribly fond of his toys and would spend hours cuddling and burbling to them.

Despite being nearly identical in appearance, Forest showed no real sensitivity at all. He hoarded toys and tried to keep his brother and sister from playing with them. Sometimes you could hear him cackling to his blocks with almost sinister baby gabble.

They all played hard and exhausted themselves. Once in a blue moon, they did it all together, and the adults could get a bit of peace.

———-

So here they are! Forest and Hunter got the exact same skintone, similar facial features (at least at the toddler level), and very similar hair. They’re about as close as you can get to identical twins in this game.

Forest got Zahra’s red and black hair and Susie/Zahra’s green eyes.

Hunter got Veronica’s dark eyes, and it took me forever to figure out whose hair he has. I think it’s Cyclone’s!

Sky was essentially a Veronica clone. Her skin was a tiny bit lighter, but not much, and she got Veronica’s hair and eyes as well. I changed her skin to silver because she is a ghost.

NOBODY got anything from Charles! It wasn’t fair. At least I had the right to change Sky’s skin. It’s neat to have the dark silver next to the very pale silver.

It’s hard to tell more delicate details from toddlers, of course, but everyone’s face seems to have been influenced by Veronica’s high cheekbones. Time will tell, of course. We’ll have to see how identical the boys come out by the time they’re adults!

4.20 Strategic Retreat

May15

The next few days were a blur of out-of-sync feeding schedules and catnaps in between. Everyone pitched in to help, but three infants was still a staggering amount of work.

Finally, a bit of a rhythm began to develop to life, and there were small segments of time to do something other than feed babies, cuddle babies, change babies, and sleep.

At which point, Veronica looked out the window to watch her parents-in-law and saw red.

She ran out of the house shrieking. “You crazy trespassing bastard! Get out of my house! Get off my lawn!”

The paparazzi was so taken by surprise that he dropped his camera and ran. Veronica ground the expensive equipment under her heel and glared at Fabian, Zahra, and a shocked Charles standing in the doorway.

“That’s it,” she said. “We’re moving.”

Nobody saw fit to protest. “It’s nice to be on the beach,” Charles said haltingly, “but this place is awfully close to downtown. It would be nice to live a bit closer to nature.”

“Close to nature we’ll have,” Veronica agreed. “Someplace nice, secluded, and private. Let’s go hunting.”

While Veronica and Charles looked for a new place to live, Fabian and Zahra picked up the slack. They scheduled movers and packed up the car in between baby feedings.

They really outdid themselves. 57 Waterfall Way was an old park that had been converted into private property. It was private, secluded, and breathtakingly beautiful while still within an acceptable drive of town.

The house itself was rustic and cozy.

With a few incredibly luxurious features.

And best of all, it was on the shores of a private lake stocked with fish.

With some of the most beautiful fishing views to be found anywhere.

There was a perfect nursery with space for three cribs.

A downstairs bedroom that would be perfect for Fabian and Zahra just as soon as Fabian took down all the decorations and replaced them with Ada’s paintings.

There was a cozy little bedroom with just enough space for Ada’s bed and writing desk.

And an upstairs master bedroom right next to the nursery with a back deck just the right size for Veronica’s chemistry gear.

“Thank you for rolling with me on this, Veronica told Charles as they retired, exhausted from the move.

“I think you could make it up to me,” Charles suggested with a raised eyebrow.

And she did.

Meanwhile, Zahra reinterred Cyclone’s ashes in the newly-relocated family graveyard.

“It’s time,” she confided in his headstone. “You’ve been sitting beside my bed for most of my adult life. I miss you. I hope there’s something for us to find in the Netherworld. But I’m ready for just the living to sleep inside my house.”

Veronica took breakfast at the new breakfast bar, gazing out over the beautiful scenery that was now theirs.”

“All right, you bastards,” she said under her breath. “This place is my castle. If you cross me here, you’ll regret it.”

———

The story timing was good, but the truth is that I got completely fed up with the English Country Estate. It was a lovely home, but it was clearly not well playtested and was filled with things that looked pretty but didn’t work. There were navigation issues in the house. Something was rotting in the kitchen/dining area that the maid never cleaned up and I couldn’t find, so whenever anyone walked into that area, they took something like a -40 hit for being in a disgusting environment. The stairs in the landscaped yard never worked — the sims would take forever to walk way around them on the grass.

And then the final blow was that I added the garden improperly to the concrete patio. The sprinklers dumped huge amounts of water onto the patio, and the water couldn’t be cleaned up due to routing issues. I wanted to add a fence around the garden to keep the water in, but you can’t put fencing on top of water puddles, and the water puddles couldn’t be cleaned up because of routing problems ARGH!

On the contrary, THIS house is the best house I have EVER played in the game, hands down.

Waterfall Way Estate.

It had a couple of weird minor issues, like the bathroom had no wall covering and gave an “unfinished” moodlet. That was easy to fix. And it had almost no lighting. But it’s very attractively decorated and has perfect routing. And it’s just a friggin gorgeous lot. It’s such a delight to play in that it is affecting my decision to move to Elfland soon. I think I may have to try to move the lot too, even though it doesn’t fit the style of the Harry Potter world very well. And I’ll lose the water fall because that is part of the worldscape. Ah, well.

In best news of all, I have gotten to play!

4.19 Too Much of a Good Thing

May11

By the end, pregnancy wasn’t sitting so well with Veronica anymore. She got huge. She couldn’t sleep. She had to eat in tiny snacks and spent half her days in the bathroom.

“Please,” she moaned to Charles in a fit of weakness, “just bring back the morning sickness. That part was grand.”

Charles was beside himself trying to be supportive. He massaged her shoulders, fetched her breakfast in bed, and hovered around until she kicked him out of the house to get some space.

“At least try to do something comfortable for yourself,” he said almost pleadingly. “You don’t have to suck it up. Take a day at the spa or something.”

Veronica thought about it. “All right, I will.” She pulled 1000 simoleons out of their joint bank account and bought herself a day of the royal treatment.

And, she had to admit, it worked. She left the spa feeling like a million bucks even with indigestion and a baby stomping on her bladder.

In fact, she felt so great that when she got home and found that Fabian had broken the shower before leaving for work and just left it that way, she had to do something about it.

Didn’t that make a perfect moment for the baby to come?

Charles was at the dojo. She called him on her cell phone, lay out plastic on the seat of her car, and drove herself to the hospital. She could have waited for Charles to teleport home and drive her, but the thought didn’t occur in the haze of contractions.

Charles was there with her by the time she got to the hospital, though, and he never left her side through the long labor.

“AAAAAUGH! Well, THAT was the hardest thing I have done in my entire life!”

It’s a boy! Forest Sample was born at 6:29 AM.

“No! Not again! There can’t be another one in there!”

And another boy! Hunter Sample was born at 6:33 AM.

“YOU! YOU DID THIS TO ME! You have some kind of twisted occult ghost fertility!”

And a girl! Sky Sample was born at 6:37 AM.

Babies are all doing fine.

Mother is doing fine, but it may be a while before she speaks to the father.

When it became clear just how much bigger their bundle of joy was going to be than they expected, Charles called his mother in a panic.

By the time they made it home from the hospital, Zahra and Fabian had turned Lance and Layla’s old room into a fine triplet-sized nursery.

This really was going to take a village.

Charles had spent Veronica’s entire pregnancy worrying about what he would do if his child turned out to be like him. When Forest and Hunter were born with totally normal, squalling, mocha-skinned faces, he was delighted.

But the third child, Sky, realized his fears. Life has a half-ghost, an “occult” according the newspaper, had been no easy road for Charles. How could he wish that on his only daughter?

When he looked back on his isolated, lonely life, though, he had trouble convincing himself that it had been either isolated or lonely. Even beyond his supportive family was Jabari, Zhan Wu, and now dozens of students who looked to him as a Sim Fu master.

There was no use trying to fight Sky’s battles before he even knew what they were.

Veronica fed little Forest and lay him gently in his crib. For a brief moment, all three babies were sleeping.

She drew Charles into her arms. “I’m sorry for being a monster,” she said.

He relaxed against her. “Childbirth is monstrous,” he said. “I’m sorry you had to do it alone.”

“Our children are beautiful,” she said. “I love you with all my heart.”

“And I you,” he replied huskily.

“I also want you to know that I’m calling the doctor tomorrow and getting my tubes tied. If you want any more kids, you can goddamn have them yourself.”

———-

Surprise three times over! Gotta get posts out while I have the time. Plus I know all you really want to do is see the babies 🙂 🙂 :).

In case you didn’t catch it, the naming theme is nature words. What else would an eco-hippie name his kids? (Sure, Veronica named them too, but Charles is still the patron dangit.)

The multiples thing wasn’t an accident. I gave Charles Fertility Treatment, and I managed to get enough Happiness Points to give it to Veronica too by their wedding night. In Gen 2, I had given just Layla Fertility Treatment, and she didn’t get twins until her second pregnancy. I wasn’t sure what the probability of multiples was, and I didn’t want to take any chances. Once the honeymoon vacation and maternity leave were up, Veronica was going to be a full adult before she even got to start her new job as a Ghost Hunter, and she has a career LTW. I didn’t want her to take the career hit for multiple pregnancies and run the risk of not making her wish.

And I knew triplets were a possibility, but I thought, “Hey great! Three’s a charm!”

I had no idea how hard it would be to skill three toddlers before their child birthday. The whole five-adult household has been skilling in shifts and dropping almost all their personal wishes for the whole life stage, and it still will be a near thing. Charles and Veronica spent about a week with an unfulfilled wish to Woohoo sitting in their queues. Ah, that is perhaps too close to what new parenthood is really like :).

Veronica got a wish to spend 1000 simoleons at the spa, and she got a huge mood bonus for a WEEK! Don’t say the spa never did anything for you. It got her through a whole lot of the grind of starting a new job and endless endless toddler skilling.

Oh, and sorry about the crappy unfinished state of the nursery. The house had routing problems in that room, and I had to restructure the wall just a little bit. I THOUGHT I had repainted everything properly in the inside, but man was I wrong! And the roof doesn’t even connect property to the half wall! I’d’ve paused everything and gone into Build Mode to fix it, but I’d already had to reload twice at that point and just want to save and GET OUT.

I’m not entirely sure what I want to do with Sky. On one hand, I’m glad one kid turned out to be a ghost. OTOH, Charles’s aging is completely borked and I’m just aging him up using Twallan’s mods when Veronica has a birthday because they are exactly the same age. Cyclone got so borked that I had to annihilate him. It just seems like there are real game issues with playable ghosts, and I’m not sure I want to risk it again. I have been boosting Charles’s fishing and Fabian’s cooking with the thought of feeding her ambrosia before her YA birthday. She can still be a ghost child for story purposes, but unless I can find some fix for the aging trouble, I think enough ghosts is enough for one game.

(Oh, and I have to say that I thought Veronica’s game-generated maternity wear was adorable. It’s the first time I think I’ve liked any of the maternity wear.)