The Ramirez Family: Week 2

[Note: This was played and written in 2009. At that time, the story exchange on the official Sims2 website wasn't working properly for several months, which led to me losing almost every household's first week in New Maximiliania. If I can recover the pictures from Week One , they will appear in an extra entry as the "Ramirez Family Album".]

You probably remember the Ramirez family? They came to our game with "Open for Business", and in New Maximiliania, they still live in the house originally assigned to them by Maxis, but moving to this neighbourhood meant that they lost their furniture shop. Not to worry - they are busy enough as it is. Checo Ramirez has left his wife and children to live with his three-bolt-love Kristen Singles, who he has a daughter with. He is still welcome at his old place, though, and maintains a good relationship with both his children and - believe it or not - his wife.

This is Lisa, the wife who has become a single parent when Checo moved out. She is a Knowledge Sim with the strange lifetime want (for a Knowledge Sim!) of having 20 simultaneous best friends. Here you can see her potty-training her little boy, Ramon. Ramon was born only a day or two before his father left Lisa to move in with Kristen; he has not seen him since he has grown up into a toddler.

And of course, there is Tessa. She is still a child, but not for long!

Before she turns into a teenager on the Monday evening of their second week in New Max, she spends the afternoon with Cedric Cooke, a class mate.

Enjoy this time of your life while you are still a child, Tessa! You'll be an adult for such a long time... :-)

"Have you been doing your maths homework, sweety?" Lisa asks her daughter over dinner later. She is making sure the children are not lacking anything, only because their father does not live here anymore, even if it means (with a toddler in the house...!) that she often goes without enough sleep and sometimes hardly manages to get a shower or something to eat herself.

- - - A strange incident: two stray wolves passing by at the same time, both of them by the name Alegra! I really think the game's programmers could have avoided having so many stray dogs by that name. - - -

Tessa grew up at some point during the evening (later than 6.00 pm), and I forgot to take a picture. However, here she is on Tuesday morning on her way to school, a young lady! The lot decided for her aspiration to be Family, and her lifetime want turned out to be Game Designer.

Lisa has no live-in husband, but she has plenty of money (when the game started, the family had over 70.000 Simoleons - with the furniture shop not belonging to them anymore, I suppose that value was added to the household account), and is one of the few Sims in New Maximiliania who enlists the help of a gardener and a maid. Seems only fair, since she has to raise her two children without any practical help from her husband.

Tessa does, of course, help as well, for instance by getting a bottle for her little brother, so that her mother can finally take a bath in peace.

Learning to talk is the last skill on little Ramon's list; now he is a "fully trained" toddler :-)

On Wednesday, Lisa gets her Bronze Sewing Badge after making 10 or 11 pot holders; she has 6 creativity points. (By Friday, she already has her Silver Sewing Badge, after only 2 wide curtains and 1 teddy bear!)

Thursday evening at 6.00 pm, Ramon turns into a child.

Now he gets his own room, not just a crib and changing table in his mother's bedroom anymore! Lisa has the former study redecorated and furnished for him; it is small, but he has it all to himself, and is very happy about it.

Now that he is not a toddler anymore, his sister plays with him more often. But, Tessa, shouldn't you be wearing a bit more in this kind of weather?!

And too right I warned her! She wakes up during the night with a flu.

On Saturday, Lisa invites Checo and Silvia over. She thinks it is about time Ramon meets his half-sister; Tessa has been over to the house where Checo and Kristen live with Silvia, but Ramon has never met her.

Soon, the three of them are engaged in a water balloon fight...

...and later Ramon and Silvia play on the swings; they become friends during that afternoon.

The three half-siblings gather around the dining table, and Ramon tells his half-sister Silvia that their big sister is soon going to pack her bags and move to college.

It looks as if Tessa and the Dad who left her do not get along that well. But this picture is giving the wrong impression - they actually have a 100 points relationship.

Ramon is happy to see his Dad!

On Sunday, his mother helps him setting up the lemonade stand that used to be Tessa's. I didn't know that passers-by can buy lemonade without being greeted first!

Tessa maximizes her music enthusiasm and is now in The Zone.

Later that evening, she applies for scholarships (she gets two; one for good grades and one for her high creativity skill) and moves to college - very early, because she is still 9 days from adulthood, but her father is already an elderly Sim, and his lifetime want is to see 3 children graduate from college.
Lisa, in the meantime, has been somewhat neglecting her lifetime want of 20 simultaneous best friends; she is now 5 days from elderhood and has 8 best friends. 

What is Ramon going to be like as a teenager? How is Tessa getting on at college? Will Lisa remain without a man to share her life forever? I don't know yet myself - but I am sure this was not the last we've seen of the Ramirez family :-)