The Sims 4: Delgato Family - Week 1

The Delgato family are new in my game. They came with the pets expansion pack and live in Brindleton Bay. Here is their beautiful house:

And here are the Delgatos - sorry for the dark picture, but it was Monday morning (just after midnight) when I opened the lot. 
Supriya works as an Illustrator and wants to be Friend of the Animals. Her husband Justin is Regional Manager (of what, I wonder) and has the aspiration of Renaissance Sim. They are both young adults. Their children are Pierce, an aspiring Social Butterfly, and toddler Evie. Two pets are also part of the family: the dog Blue and the cat Bartholomew. The large house indicates a relatively wealthy household; at 46,426 Simoleons, there are no financial worries.

A full house - and I as a new TS4 player have my hands full with this set-up!

First of all, both pets are sick. Unfortunately, they have to be taken to the vet's one by one, and so Supriya sees to that while Justin makes sure the children are also looked after.
Here is the animal clinic:

Other Sims and their pets are already wating. Supriya registers Blue and then waits to be called in.

The vet examins Blue and can help him instantly.

Supriya is glad, and so is Blue!

Before going home with Blue and to pick up Bartholomew, Supriya meets and greets Dillon Martin. As far as I know, he is a townie, but seeing as his surname is that of a playable TS2-family (Andrew and Jacob Martin, do you remember them? They started out living in the Viejo-Goldstein house), he could well become a permanent resident in TS4.

It is Bart's turn to be examined, and just like with the dog, the cat is also quickly cured and sent home.

Back home, I must admit the first two or three days are difficult for me and not much fun to play. I still have a lot to learn about how to handle my Sims' needs and wants in TS4, and of course I want to discover all the great new things in the game.
Here, Justin was making breakfast - and as soon as he put the serving platter on the counter, Bart jumped up and started to eat.

Eventually, everyone managed to have some food before it was time for Justin and Pierce to go to work and school. Supriya had already quit her job during the night - I don't know how it would have been possible otherwise to look after little Evie and the pets.

Speaking of Evie, she was hard to keep happy. Every time someone was with her, she was fine, but as soon as she was left on her own in her room or was tired or hungry, she became sad or angry.

Her parents did what they could to make sure she was not left alone more than necessary. Supriya taught her to walk and talk.

Bartholomew asleep on the dining table (which was not used once for a meal!).

Sometimes, what with taking care of Evie and making sure the pets weren't running away for sheer neglect, all Supriya managed to grab for herself was a mug of coffee.

And sometimes Pierce would take his sandwich outdoors after school to wait for his Dad coming home from work.

On top of the hours spent away from home, Justin was expected to fill in reports in the evenings. Sometimes he was so tired that he did not manage to finish them all before he had to go to bed, and there was not one minute to himself. His fun level dropped so low that the best thing I could do was sending him to bed for woohoo with his wife before they both fell asleep.

On Wednesday morning, Pierce played with the dolls house. I discovered that he was able to name the dolls (just a family name, not individuals).

And he had a monster under his bed! The monster was visible sometimes (sorry, no picture), and he tried to talk to it, but the game told me that "it seems like the monster does not want to communicate right now".

Evie looked at a picture book for a while. One good thing about her was that she was able to climb into her bed (and out of it) on her own, and use the potty.

Here her Mum is doing her best to cheer her up.

Thursday finally saw the family sitting down for breakfast together, at least for a little while. Most of the time, everyone would just eat their food standing about in the kitchen.

Bartholomew and Supriya.

Today was the first day Supriya managed to get out of the house and discover their large garden, with a path leading down to the beach. Here she is harvesting catnip. There is also a pear tree nearer the house, which she harvested, too.

Justin had coffee while Pierce was doing his homework at the dining table - with Bart sleeping in the middle.

That afternoon, Evie chose to nap on her armchair instead of her bed.

Friday morning, Pierce cleaned up the breakfast things, with a little "help" from Blue.

On Saturday, Supriya was woken up by Evie coming into the room and demanding attention.

Here is another view of the doll house. I like it!

Blue resting on the settee.

There is another sitting area in the house (it really is rather large, and I mostly like how EA have furnished and decorated it), where finally Justin can relax with a book - for the first time this week, he is actually doing something HE wants. Supriya is keeping her husband company.

Pierce has been asked on a playdate at the Spencer-Kim-Lewis house (another playable family).

Ophelia has invited him over, and the two of them spend the afternoon playing together and eating cake before Pierce goes home.

In the evening, he plays chess with his Dad...

...while his Mum has a dip in the pool with Blue.

Evie is not neglected, either.

On Sunday, I send Supriya out to greet Brant Hecking (another playable neighbour) with his dog Rosie. She becomes friends with Rosie almost instantly, and later with a stray dog named Lily.

Phew! I must say it took me a while to get into this family. I like them all, but they were hard work. Most of it was due to me being an inexperienced TS4 player.

Supriya managed to fulfill some of her wishes regarding becoming friends with animals, training out unwanted behaviour and so on. 
Justin managed to read three books over the weekend, but most of his time was dedicated to work, and when he was home, he often cooked the meals.
Pierce was the easiest to keep happy - he did his homework quickly, helped with household chores without having to be asked and mostly provided his own entertainment.
Evie was hard work! As I said, she was often sad or angry, although their parents really made an effort and looked after her well. She will grow up early on next round.
The pets were good after their initial sicknesses. At one point, Bartholomew was about to run away because nobody had given him any attention for a while. I made sure Supriya spent time with him before that happened.

One other thing that made playing this week really long was that the game crashed many, many times. Thankfully, it loads a lot quicker than TS2, but still it meant that I had to replay a lot. I now have gotten into saving paranoia, every few minutes or every time a Sim has done or achieved something. My computer is about 11 years old, which might have something to do with it.