Monday 8 February 2016

The mercy wheel

Round 36: September 2043 (Spring)

Dominic Lachance is 33, Leslie is 32 and Oscar and Stella are 3. 
(Jonas is 65, Tatiana is 60, Rebecca is 34, Nathan is 33, Chloe is 32, Audrey and Jack are 31, Edward and Lucy are 28, Zoe is 1 and Cary is 8 weeks old)


Narrated by Dominic Lachance


Audrey and I have always been close but now that she and Jack have Zoe, we see each other even more often.

We really want to encourage that cousin relationship. It’s adorable watching them interact.

Zoe’s two years younger and not nearly as verbal as Oscar and Stella but they play prettily happily together anyway.

We’ve got the activity table in a very convenient place, so we can all catch up while keeping an eye on the kids.

Audrey and Jack recently had Jack’s parents move into their place. Their house is huge and Tate and Zelda were excited at the prospect of spending more time with Zoe. 

Tate and Zelda are both relatively fit now but things might change in the future, so they’ll have some support at home if there’s ever a need too. 

Edward and Lucy did the opposite and moved in with Mum and Dad. They’ve settled in pretty well and have been very happy there. 

They’ve got a ton more privacy than they had living with Chris and they have two rooms they’re not even using yet. 

They’re talking about starting a family soon too, so that’s a huge plus for them. They don’t want to wait much longer for a baby.

Edward’s a fair way away from a promotion and Lucy’s not likely to ever make much more than she does now, unless she buys her own place, which of course, would take even more money. 

They haven’t decided for sure yet but they may end up living with Mum and Dad permanently. It’s working out pretty well for all of them. 

Our parents certainly don’t mind. If it were at all practical, they would have us all living at home with them forever. 

They never seem to get enough of us or of the grandkids, now that they have them. 

I think they’ll always want more. They are really awesome grandparents though. 

And they’re the only grandparents Oscar and Stella will ever have too, so thank goodness they’re such good ones.

As good as they are though, I’m glad Leslie and I have our own place. The space Edward and Lucy have is enviable but I like our little house.

We have enough for now but we might soon be a little more cramped around here, if all goes well.

Leslie and I decided to start trying for our third child and after a few months, she fell pregnant!

We weren't expecting things to happen that quickly but sure enough, Leslie started experiencing that familiar nausea and we confirmed with a test. 

I was ready for more basically as soon as we had the twins but at the time, Leslie (understandably) wanted to wait.

We’d talked about maybe trying when the twins went off to pre-school. That’s happening in February, so we’re basically sticking to our original plan.

We have our fingers crossed that it’s just one baby this time! We might have a fourth one day but we’re not quite ready for that yet. 

We're not even sure we're ready for 3. Oscar has calmed down a little with his sleep and has stopped breaking out of his crib, only for Stella to start doing it! Twins again would be twice the insanity.

It’s too early to find out but it’s been on our minds anyway, because my friend Nathan and his wife Rebecca are expecting twins in February. 

They’re ready with everything practical - compact double crib squeezed into the nursery, clothing, toys, various baby supplies, et cetera. 

They’re both still a little shell-shocked, though less so than a few months ago. Neither of them feel quite ready to actually bring two babies home in just a few months’ time!

I remember that feeling pretty well. We were excited but pretty lost at the same time! 

It really did all work out though. You get used to the chaos and we've had so much fun with the twins to make up for the not-so-great parts. 

Nathan and Rebecca think they’ll probably be done after the twins. Neither of them want a big family and two seems like a good place to stop.

Who knows though? They could have a really easy time with their twins and be ready for another even sooner than Leslie and I were.

We didn’t share our own news with Nathan and Rebecca but I like the idea of their twins and our new baby starting school together. It’d be great if they ended up becoming lifelong friends, like Nathan and I have been.

It’s way too early to tell anyone yet but I can’t wait to see Oscar and Stella’s reactions when we do. I think they’re going to be really excited.

When Chloe and Zane had Cary, they brought him over to meet us and both the twins were extremely interested.

They haven’t asked anything else about babies since then but I’m hoping their new sibling will be as exciting to them as Cary was!

Notes:
  • Title is from The Mercy Wheel by AA Bondy.
  • I can't remember if I mentioned in an update that Tate and Zelda had moved in with Audrey and Jack, so I worked it in here! They're coming up next after Connor and Lila's wedding.
  • Leslie hadn't rolled a baby want but now that I'm using InTeen BC with ACR, I could see they were trying for a baby. So I took them off BC, they tried a few more times and then conceived. Baby is due in May. :)
  • Rebecca's belly has popped to third trimester already but she still has a while until she actually gets there. Seeing it's twins and she'd be bigger faster anyway, I'm not too annoyed. 

12 comments:

  1. Another baby (or babies) how exciting. It seems like you are having a baby boom at the moment and that it doesn't show any signs of stopping.

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    1. So it would appear! I can't see any couples for the rest of the year getting knocked up, though I'm slightly concerned about Ethan and Maia, seeing neither are allowed BC. Eek! But it might slow down for a bit now. ;) Until the next sim year, anyway!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. Lovely read! I love those poses with toddlers and babies that aren't normally possible in the game, such as the last picture.

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    1. Most of the baby/toddler boxes are ones I've only just added to my game and I'm having a lot of fun with them. You can get some very sweet pictures from them. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. It's such an exciting time for all these sims, having babies and young ones about, and dreaming about their futures. It is so cool that they are growing up together, Oscar, Stella, and Zoe, and Cary will probably get to go to school with Rebecca's twins. It seems like there's a lot of twins right now; I remember a little while back you mentioned you upped your twin chance?

    It's all well and fine for Dominic to want more kids right away after having twins, but I agree with Leslie, that with the chance of having twins, and having twins already, some spacing is needed, for sanity and health! But it's very happy, after his wait, that she fell pregnant so quickly. I love that picture of them in their room, they are so happy.

    Is Dominic's business still on hold? Just curious how that's coming along.

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    1. I love this stage, when sims are just starting out their families. Yes, I upped my twins' chance but I actually changed my system again, so that hasn't affected Leslie and Dominic. Most couples are still on the Maxis odds but sims who are twins, have parents who are twins, have had fertility treatment or are over 35 will have an increased chance of multiples. Seeing the first time I did the roll, Rebecca and Nathan ended up with twins, I think I'll have more than enough to satisfy me this way!

      Dominic is a bit of a nutter. ;) He's Family primary, while Leslie is Knowledge primary, and I always find the Family primary sims are just that little bit more baby crazy. Luckily for Leslie, he was perfectly willing to wait!

      Ah, yes, Dominic's business! That is still in the pipelines and technically, they could buy a small lot now and start something. I'm going to wait a little bit longer though, as I think I'd like Leslie to do her Master's first, and that's going to take a little chunk out of their savings. She'll probably start that next semester.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  4. I'm so excited that they are having another baby, the twins are super adorable! I can't wait to see their child birthdays too, and how sweet that Cary will have a classmate eventually too. I really like when friends' lives coincide in the game. Their timing is really good too with the twins heading off to school shortly. And Rebecca and Nathan, I got real excited when I saw that huge baby bump, but looks like I still have some time to wait!

    I like all the parents you have living with kids, I'm trying to push more of my elders into living with kids for the next round. It really just gets out of hand, and I'm using use for my example.

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    1. Well, I'm going to do Connor and Lila's wedding this weekend, so hopefully I can keep the forward momentum going and get to Oscar and Stella's birthday and later on the new baby, in a more timely fashion. It's all very exciting.

      Actually, Cary won't have a true classmate! He's the only baby I've had born this year and there are none due to arrive before the end of the year either, so he'll start school on his own. He'll be almost a year older than Dominic and Leslie's baby, though I'm sure they will end up interacting a fair bit anyway.

      Honestly, the elders moving in with their kids is as much for my convenience as anything else! Less households to worry about. ;) I'm seriously considering turning Miles and Matilda, as well as Sam and Julia into playable NPCs again too. Really, they should never have become playable in the first place and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with all the households I have to play now! We'd still see them a decent amount, because Matilda is so close to Adrienne and Julia to Hope. But I'll probably make that decision at the end of the round, once I start making the play schedule. I'll see how insane it looks by then!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. Have you ever had two sets of twins in one family? I don't think I ever have, but that would indeed be crazy. I can see why they worry about it. I haven't had any twins in TS4 yet and I just found out that one of my 2091 timeline pregnancies is going to be twins! Kind of insane who it happened to!

    Aww, that last photo with the posed toddlers is so cute! <3

    Besides moving elders in with their kids, have you ever tried doing a retirement community kind of thing? In TS2 I used to have a retirement village set up as communal apartments with a games room, garden, and pool. It was quite snazzy and some of my elders had some good times and a bit of drama there.

    Oh! Or a household of widowed/divorced girlfriends. You could do a Golden Girls setup! lol!

    Or, this movie I watched the other night (totally great, btw, called Wanderlust: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655460/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_10) makes me want to build a hippie commune founded by aged war veterans in Windenburg!

    Sorry I just vomited all of my ideas all over your blog, lmao!

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    1. Oh, yes, I've definitely had two sets of twins in one family! More than once. Evan Moretti is from a family with two sets of twins (he was in the second set) and has two sets of twins himself. I've had at least two more couples have two sets of twins as well. That fertility benefit lifetime reward is supposed to increase the chance of twins but it basically makes twins almost a sure thing. Way overpowered, to use a term from non-sims gaming! I don't let my sims have it any more, because it's too nuts.

      But argh, I'm dying to know who's having twins in your hood now!

      I did a retirement home way back at the beginning of Sullivan and found it really dull. It just compounded the boringness of elders for me! These days, even if I could make it interesting, I wouldn't do it, for the same reason I won't have 8 sims in one dorm any more (5 is my limit) - too many families to follow in the one update. I find the play session and update either get really overwhelming for me or I don't devote as much attention to each sim as I want to. :\

      I was just contemplating watching that movie the other night! I love Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. I'll have to give it a go now. :)

      LOL, vomit away! I always think discussing ideas is fun, whether I choose to implement them in my game or not.

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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    2. Definitely watch it! It was HILARIOUS! Very very crude though! I was sort of surprised, coming from those two. Don't watch it with anyone who doesn't like bad words or random penises... But I guess I am amused by bad words and random penises, lol!

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    3. Duly noted! I'll check if it's streaming anywhere here and add it to my "To Watch" list (which is about as long as my To Read list). :)

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