The Patel Family: Week 1

Meet Ana and Ramir Patel, one of the pre-made families that come with a few Maxis-made pictures and a little background story. In this picture, we are obviously witnessing Ramir proposing to Ana, and from her expression we can tell she is delighted.

The next picture shows a bunch of townies, along with Ana and Ramir (who sits in the back), listening to someone making a speech. 

According to Maxis, Ramir hopes for his heir to follow him into politics. We can therefore assume this to mean something like Ramir's induction into local politics by a senior politician, which ties in with his current job as a City Council Member. His bio reads: "Ramir has always been a leader and hopes to be a great father, too. He loves his job and wants to insure the financial well being of his family." 

About Ana, Maxis say that she "is focused on getting ready for her first baby. She appreciates that her husband is such a good provider because she wants to have many more." A typical Family Sim, she dreams of having six grandchildren eventually. Here she can be seen cooking, maybe in preparation for her work at a restaurant - her current job is that of Hostess.

Next, we see Ana talking to her husband in what could be the room they have prepared for their baby. Her mention of money could mean that she is of the opinion that they certainly have enough money for them to live comfortably without her having to keep her job at the restaurant. 

In any case, the last of the Maxis-made pictures shows the Patels happily awaiting their baby. 

According to their family bio, "They say women glow when they're pregnant and Ana is no exception. She can't wait for her new baby to arrive and is already dreaming about having more of them. Ramir hopes his heir will want to follow him into politics." Funnily enough, Ramir's lifetime want does not match what Maxis have intended for him: He wishes to become a Celebrity Chef - nothing to do with politics, but still fitting his Popularity aspiration. Maybe Ana can help him into the culinary career, seeing as she already works at a restaurant.

In my game, I have moved the Patels into the rented flat on the right-hand corner of Ocean View Apartments in Belladonna Cove. Let's have a look inside. 

The flat spans two floors. On the ground floor, the front door opens into an open-plan kitchen/dining/lounge area. A small bathroom is tucked in the corner behind the spiral staircase, and next to the kitchen is a tiny private court yard.

Upstairs we find the master bedroom, a bathroom, a study that also contains workout equipment and an empty room which is going to be Baby Patel's room. The flat comes fully furnished, but much of it is a bit on the cheap side. With almost 26,000 Simoleons in the bank, Ana and Ramir can afford to make some improvements right away. 

Ana makes use of the much improved kitchen to make vegetable soup. Healthy eating matters to her now more than ever. By the way, she has indeed managed to arrange for Ramir to have her job - he will start as a Host at the restaurant on Wednesday, now that her leaving the work force has freed up the position. 

They will be so happy here! 

Samantha Cordial, a friend of the Patels, invites them to Rodney's Hideout. This is a community lot I have not played often.

Ramir gets talking to the restaurant staff in order to learn a few things for his new position, and discovers that the bar tender's surname is Kim. Of course he will befriend Alec Kim and try to make him a permanent resident of the Cove.

Samantha has brought a bunch of other friends along: Armand DeBateau can be seen in the back, then there are Vivian Cho, Carlos Contender, Gabriel Green and Connor Weir.

The restaurant is so full they can't all get a table, and so Ana and Ramir head home for a quiet romantic meal under the starry sky in their little private garden.

A couple of hours before sunrise on Tuesday morning, Ramir wakes up because Ana is so restless next to him.

At around 5:30 that morning, a healthy little girl is born, named Priya after Ramir's paternal grandmother. Her parents are over the moon!

Once the baby is asleep and Ana has a well deserved rest, Ramir makes use of the chess table outside their block of flats. He wants to have a head start in his new career which will start tomorrow.

"Asking you to marry me was the best thing I ever did," he says over dinner that evening, again in their private little court. 

He is a very much hands-on Dad and doesn't mind feeding his baby daughter or changing her nappy. 

Ramir's first day as a Host at the restaurant is so successful that he is promoted to Waiter right away. (Not sure that really IS an improvement... I would think the job of a Host carries more prestige than that of a Waiter.)

Ana feels that she is the happiest woman alive - her second baby is well on the way, and while her firstborn is thriving under the loving care of herself and her husband. 

Speaking of Ramir, he is promoted to Prep Cook on this Thursday after he took the right decision with a chance card (but he had the necessary skills anyway).

Ana makes use of the baby being asleep and gets to know one of the other tenants over a game of chess. 

That evening, Ramir helps Priya with her birthday. Amidst a shower of confetti she turns into a toddler.

Mother and daughter enjoy a tickling session on Friday morning. 

Only a few hours later, Priya's little sister arrives! She is named Taline after Ana's maternal grandmother.

More good news for the Patels arrive when Ramir returns from work with yet another promotion, this time to Sous Chef. He now needs to brush up on his creativity and logic in order to further advance in his career. 

But his family matters more, and he does not even change out of his cooking uniform before giving his new baby daughter her first bottle.

Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest times at the restaurant, and Ramir is picked up for work at 1:00 pm, not returning until 9:00. He makes sure to spend the morning with his little girls, at the same time giving Ana a chance to breathe.

A light dusting of snow covers the ground outside as Ana takes the trash out on Sunday morning.

She invites her acquaintance Jessica Peterson over for a chat, and the two women become friends.

Later, she helps Taline into toddlerhood. 

Now the two sisters can play together at the activity table set up in the study - the computer desk and workout equipment have made room for it, since neither Ramir nor Ana had time to use either. 

This was a busy but good week for the Patels. 

Maybe Ana will stop at two children; they are enough to make her dream of having six grandchildren come true easier than with just one child. But three would make it even easier... I haven't decided on that just yet, and it will be a long time before we shall visit this family again. 

Ramir has done well with his change of careers, but less good on his friendships. Alec Kim, whom he wanted to befriend so that he'd be able to move to the Cove for good, has needed many phone calls to become friends and is not yet at best friend status. 

The apartment lot is hopefully not yet bugged - at one point, it took a LONG time to save the game, but then things seemed to go very smoothly again. Next to be played is Jessica Peterson, who has just become friends with Ana.

The Ottomas Family: Week 1

"Large families have a lot of love to share, but also require a lot of work - especially with more children on the way! Will grandma's help be enough to keep this family strong?" This is how Maxis introduce the Ottomas family to us. They are indeed a large family, and will become even larger very soon, with another baby on the way. What house is big enough to accomodate them all? 

Maybe this one is... just about. It stands in Desiderata Valley, at 1042 East Dreaming Drive. The family budget is limited, and so they have to remain within these limits for now. After having purchased the house, 18,705 Simoleons are left to furnish it. 

And it really does need furnishing! There is not much on the ground floor apart from a small dining table with two chairs, a book shelf and the cheapest kitchen appliances. A small bathroom tucked away in the corner does not even contain a toilet. 

Upstairs is hardly any better, although there are at least a toilet and shower in the bathroom. A cheap double bed occupies what is meant to be the master bedroom, and there is one other bedroom here - hardly enough for a family of six, expecting more! But let's first have a closer look at the family members. 

In the foreground, we see Dora Ottomas, an elderly lady. She is a Family Sim who'd love to become Head of SCIA, but currently works as a Substitute Teacher. I am not sure whether she can continue her job outside the house with a lot of work to do at home. According to Maxis, she "is at her happiest when caring for others and is very grateful to have so many wonderful children and grandchildren - with more on the way!"

In the background is her son, Peter, who "loves sports - playing them, watching them, writing about them. Will he get to see his dream of having a child being a star athelete [sic] or will they all choose different paths?" He is a Romance Sim who dreams of being City Planner and currently works as a Sports Columnist, as befits his Maxis-written bio.

 

The pregnant lady holding the toddler is Peter's wife Samantha. Maxis say about her: "It's been a challenge to take care of so many children and Samantha is very grateful to have such a caring mother-in-law. Even with Dora's help, will Samantha be able to handle two more?" Like her mother-in-law, she is a Family Sim. She has the totally unfitting lifetime want of having 20 lovers, and is on maternity leave from her job as Elementary School Teacher. 

On her arm is toddler Tommy. According to Maxis, "right now, being the littlest Ottomas, Tommy gets all the attention. How will he handle it when the twins are born?"

David is their oldest child and can be seen talking to his Dad. His aspiration is Popularity, but his dream of celebrating his Golden Anniversary better fits a Family Sim. He has an after-school job as Record Store Clerk. I make an exception and let him keep the job in order to help with the tight finances.

Sharla is the little girl in the front, dancing with her grandma. She has the advantage of being pratically [sic] invisible right now. Will she grow tired of the lack of attention by the time she reaches her "terrible teens"?

On this Monday, David and Sharla are immediately off to school, and Samantha goes to work in spite of her being in the last trimester of her pregnancy. That leaves Peter and Dora at home with only little Tommy to look after, before they, too, will have to go to work. Dora prepares a big batch of vegetable soup while Peter starts teaching his youngest to walk. 

Natasha Una, Trent Traveller and Sanjay Ramaswami visit to welcome the new family in the neighbourhood, but they are pretty much left to their own devices, as their hosts are rather busy. 

David has returned from school at 1:00 pm and left to work after a brief rest. He comes back at the same time as his grandma, and they are both happy to add a little money to the family funds - in fact, they are not too badly off. After I have emptied the house and cautiously chosen most of the furniture from IKEA, they could even afford a good fridge and stove for the kitchen, and still have about 15,000 in the bank. 

On Tuesday morning, Peter finds a job as a Cement Mixer - it may still be far from being a City Planner, but he's got to start somewhere.

Samantha has slept well and feels she can still go to work one more day.

David has the afternoon off, but it doesn't mean there is nothing to do for him. Raking leaves is not such a bad job in the golden autumn sun, though. 

Just as Sharla is dropped off by the school bus, her Dad returns from work - not only with colleague Opal Contrary in tow, but also with a promotion (and a bonus!) to Bricklayer.

It is Wednesday early morning when Samantha has a sudden craving for pancakes. Just as she starts mixing the batter, labour sets in.

Meet Oliver Ottomas... 

...and his twin sister Olivia! (I know I have used these names for the Ottomas twins before, but they just fit so well. This time around, I want to use names from the family tree for newborn babies, but there aren't any ancestors in the Ottomas family tree.) 

Good job both Dora and her son have today off. That way, they can make sure the twins are well looked after, not forgetting young Tommy, while Samantha is at work and David and Sharla at school.

They know how to do their homework by now, and don't need help from any of the adults. 

After work, Samantha checks on the twins but then sits down with Tommy and reads him a bedtime story. 

On Thursday morning, her nearly constant state of exhaustion causes Samantha to accidentally burn the omelettes she was making for breakfast. That's it now: She quits her job in order to have more time for her family while also having a chance to get enough sleep. 

In spite of having started off with burnt omelettes, the day turns out to be a good one for the Ottomas family: David brings home his first A+... 

... Peter is promoted to Foreman... 

...and little Tommy is suddenly not quite so little anymore! But where is he going to sleep? 

The computer desk is moved to another corner of the open space living/dining/kitchen area, and a proper bed is put in its place. To give the boys at least some sort of privacy, the book shelf is moved at Tommy's foot end and the big sofa serves to separate the boys' corner from the rest of the room.

Peter is promoted yet again on Friday: He now is Head of the Construction Company he's been working for first as a cement mixer, then a brick layer and as foreman.

Big brother David has just helped his baby brother Oliver to grow up into a toddler. The familiar bags under his eyes don't make little Oliver a beauty, but the Ottomas family do have weird genetics - and it doesn't take away from them being a lovable bunch!

Sharla is happy to have someone to play with, now that Tommy is as big as her!

A father-son talk is had over hamburgers. David knows all there is to know about babies... also how they come to be :-) 

Saturday means Peter does not have to go to work, but of course he won't be idle. First things first, the upstairs bath tub needs fixing. 

Almost unnoticed by everyone, baby Olivia grows up into a toddler. I can't tell you how many times her big brother David got up during the night, trying to help her along; the same was true for her mother and grandmother, but it was only after the umpteenth attempt that she finally had her birthday, nearly two full days after her twin brother Oliver! 

Sharla is now a teenager. My dice has fallen on the Knowledge aspiration for her, and as her goal in life she wants to be Hand of Poseidon. 

Sadly, today also means good-bye to Dora. She was great - her son and daughter-in-law couldn't have managed without her help, financially but even more so with the children. Her last help comes in the shape of money - the various sums she has left to her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren boost the family account to almost 27,000 Simoleons. 

Dora's death hits the entire family hard, and for the rest of Saturday and all Sunday morning everyone keeps interrupting what they've been doing and stops for a good cry. Eventually, though, especially the younger kids seem to get back to normal, and Tommy amuses himself jumping on his parents' big bed while they are busy downstairs with the twins.

In the evening, Peter asks David to accompany him to the cemetery. He feels this important step is right for his firstborn, while Samantha and Sharla stay home with the little ones. 

Dora is put to rest under a silver birch tree, and flowers will be planted around her headstone. 

The busiest household of all the premade ones, I think! It was quite exhausting at times, but still fun, to spend a week with the Ottomas family. 

Now that they are better off money-wise, it may be time for them to move to a bigger house. Dora is not here anymore, so that Sharla could share the room with her little sister Olivia, but space is still very limited in their current house. 

David is most likely not going to go to uni; he has not rolled the wish and does not need it for his lifetime want. 

Peter is slowly but steadily advancing in the career of his dreams, while Samantha is probably not going to act on her lifetime want - it just does not suit her at all.