The first week of the Rileys after uni is here.
We have spent a week here only a few months ago, and are back already. Whom for?
Not for Meike and Stephen Riley, as we've moved beyond the letter R on my list.
Just to remind you; Meike is well on her way towards reaching her lifetime want of becoming The Law, and her relative Stephen is not far behind, working his way up in the Adventurer career with the goal of being a Space Pirate.
Before I have time to show you who we are here for, Meike enters labour on this Monday morning.
Her son Alan is born at 5:40 am. His father is Shane Cho; Meike and Shane are not an item, but I did not want to have the Riley name become extinct in my game, as it is my real surname. In real life, Alan Riley was my father-in-law - or would have been, if he had lived long enough; he died many years before I married his son Stephen.
We are actually here because of Wilma Williamson. She is Stephen's fiancée and will have their baby soon. Here, she is giving little Alan his bottle while Meike is asleep.
Stephen and Wilma are very much looking forward to their son or daughter, but there is something they need to do before Wilma gives birth.
Stephen tenderly puts a ring on Wilma's finger - three cheers for the new Mrs. Riley! There simply wasn't time to throw a big party or get married at St. Simius, or, rather, I did not want to risk for the baby to be born before his or her parents were married, so that it would not have been a Riley by name.
Monday is truly an eventful day! After she gave birth early this morning, Meike slept a few hours and then went to work. On returning home, she has been promoted to The Law and is now on permanent platinum.
I am still going to control her, as I do not want little Alan to grow up with anything than the best care he can get.
"Are you still going to try for an Alien abduction, Steve?" she asks over dinner that evening. Well, yes; no harm in having another Riley in the neighbourhood, is there!
It is Tuesday morning 4:16 when Wilma...
...gives birth to a little girl with very large eyes, Mary.
Stephen was asleep when it happened, now he comes running to welcome his newborn daughter.
Wilma can go back to work today, as Stephen has the day off. She comes home with a promotion to Top Secret Researcher.
To complete Tuesday, let me show you this funny graphics bug - the Mystery of the Floating Baby! :-D
On Wednesday morning, Meike bottle-feeds her "niece" (or whatever else the members of this household are to each other) Mary.
She and Stephen have the day off. While Wilma is at work, Meike invites their relative Charlie Cho and his wife Tina over. Tina's mother Trisha unexpectedly died last week, and Meike wants to do something good for her half-brother/cousin/uncle/whatever's wife. She also asks Shane over, who is a long lost "relative" of Charlie's and happens to be the father of her son Alan. So far, Shane has not yet seen Alan, and although Meike does not think of setting up a live-together family with Shane, she wants father and son to know each other.
Over dinner, Stephen tells Charlie how happy he is that they both have found true love and are happily married. Their own parents' marriages were stormy, to say the least, and the two men appreciate a stable home life.
Out of the blue (for me!), Charlie and Shane start a fight. I really don't know why they do not like each other or what triggered that fight. Everyone comes running to watch. It feels like being back at uni, watching a llama-cow-fight!
Shane loses to his older "cousin", and Meike wisely says good-bye to him soon afterwards.
Thursday sees three main events: First thing in the morning, Alan grows up into a toddler. Actually, he was supposed to grow up on Wednesday at 6:00 pm, but every time someone took him out of his crib to "Help with Birthday", the action turned into "Hold Youngster" moments later, and nothing happened. I have had this occur often in my game and usually buy a cake, have an adult bring the baby to the cake and grow it up that way. With the visitors always somehow demanding attention on Wednesday, it just didn't fit in.
Later the same day, Mary also turns into a toddler, looking at the world with her incredibly large brown eyes.
Stephen returns from work as a Space Pirate - he has fulfilled his LTW 18 days from Elderhood. Now only Wilma needs to take that last step up the career ladder, and all three adults will be on Permanent Platinum.
At least for as long as there are toddlers in the house, though, I will keep controlling them.
Ah - you all know what it means when I show you a picture of a telescope with no Sim looking through :-)
Yes, Stephen has been "invited" by the Aliens aboard their space ship! I was hoping for that but did not provoke it.
He returns a few hours later, welcomed home by Wilma.
The ladies leave for work, and Stephen is alone with two toddlers...
...and a souvenir in his belly.
He is very tired and really needs to sleep, so a Nanny is engaged for the day. At first, she is very helpful and cleans up all the empty bottles. But then, she insists on giving Mary a bottle three times, even though the little girl is not hungry anymore after the first one. Other than that, she is constantly in the way (the Nanny, not Mary), and so Meike dismisses her as soon as she and Wilma are home from work and can look after their children themselves.
By Saturday morning, Stephen knows for sure he is pregnant.
I wonder whether it'll be twins - he is VERY hungry and VERY tired all the time!
The food level in the fridge is down to 70, and I send Meike to the Here or Else Grocery store.
She meets Matthew Cho, one of the brothers/cousins of her son's father Shane Cho.
Nellie Newson appears on the community lot, and suffers aspiration failure.
Sunday morning starts with Stephen singing a nursery rhyme with little Mary...
...and Meike reading to Alan. He seems to love that part of the story most when the cat appears! (Have you ever watched the thought bubbles when our Sims read a story to a child? There are some fun things I've never seen before!)
Later, Wilma has to go to work, and so it is Meike who looks after the apple tree and the strawberry plant. The little garden plot was Wilma's wish, but she has little time for it.
Meike has been wanting a date ever since spring began. Yes, she is on Permanent Platinum and so I do not "have to" fulfill any of her wishes. But the real Meike was so lucky in real life with the modern type of matchmaker - I found both my late husband and my current partner on the internet :-) and so I have Meike ask the Matchmaker to arrange a blind date for her.
It is a 3-bolt-match... but it is also a townie with a non-playable surname: Amar Rauscher. The date is over quickly, as I am not yet sure what I want for Meike.
She also wants to throw a birthday party, and so 8 of her closest friends are invited.
Alan has had a nap and is now ready to blow out the candles on his birthday cake. His dad is also here. Charlie Cho was not invited, as I did not wish him and Shane to have another fight and spoil the party.
Alan turns into a hungry little boy who instantly grabs a large piece of cake :-)
Next is Mary, brought to her cake by her mom. The proud parents wait for the guests to gather again.
Like Alan, Mary can't wait to have a piece of that cake!
This is where the week at this busy household ends. Will they move to a place with a layout better suited to their set-up of two families?
Is Meike going to see Amar again, or will she try and see more of her son's father?
How much longer before Wilma reaches the top of her career, and thus her lifetime want?
Is Stephen going to have twins?
