Wednesday 3 February 2010

Suedehead

Round 24: Spring 2020
last update/next update

Arianna Weaver is 65, Liam is 57, Jonas Lachance is 42, Tatiana is 37, Dominic is 10, Audrey is 8 and Edward is 5.
(Jacob and Claudia are both 19)

Narrated by Jonas Lachance

Tatiana is now the principal of Sullivan Primary School, which the whole family is really proud of, no one more than Tatiana herself. Her grandmother was the principal of the high school, back when Tatiana and I were there, and I think it's always been a goal of hers to get to that level one day.


She decided that she didn't have enough on her plate though, with three children and a school to run and she started trying to talk me into trying for just one more baby.

For a long time, it was all she talked about because I took a little convincing.

It wasn't that I didn't want another baby. I'm just concerned that adding another kid into the mix might leave us a little overstretched, especially Tatiana.

Even now when she comes from work, she launches herself headlong into chores and helping Arianna with the farm.

By 9 o'clock, she's exhausted and I usually have to wake her up so she can go to bed. Having another baby is going to amplify that.

I agreed to start trying only if Tatiana would take it a little easier, so she had Arianna start having the kids help with the crops instead.

They're actually doing a pretty great job too. They're not quite to the point where they can work unsupervised but Arianna's not ready to completely hand over the reins to anyone yet anyway.

So everyone's happy now. Tatiana is relaxing a little more and we're trying for another baby.

Tatiana's brother Jacob came home from college to visit recently. Audrey was really excited to see him again.

She's been training the dogs and was keen to show Jacob their new tricks but she had trouble getting his attention.

Most of Jacob's attention was focused on Claudia, the girl he brought with him and is currently dating. Tatiana already kind of knew Claudia, from back when she started teaching but the rest of us had never met her before.

Tatiana dragged Jacob away as soon as she could to interrogate him. She's way more keen for Jacob to "settle down" than Liam or Arianna are and I think she heard wedding bells. Jacob's insisting it's not that serious though. They're just dating.

Liam and Arianna already adore her. Claudia was raised on a farm and is planning on going back to live there once she graduates, so that completely won Arianna over.

I'm not sure why Liam is so taken with her but he was very impressed with her and they chatted for a long time.

Maybe it was the fact that she helped out with the dishes. Parents seem to love that.

We agreed before we started trying that we weren't going to go for fertility treatments or anything like that and that if it didn't happen naturally for us this time, it wouldn't happen at all. Tatiana is starting to feel like this might be it and it's not going to happen. I've been trying to simultaneously console her and prepare her for the fact that it might not happen.

It really wouldn't be so bad if we had to stop at 3. Dominic is getting so big and I can't wait to see him start high school and watch where life takes him. He's great with Audrey and Edward and he'd be great with a new baby too, but there'd be such a big gap. We might not see the same closeness that we see with our three now.

Audrey has decided she wants to be a dog trainer when she grows up. We'll see if she still feels the same in a few years but right now, she's very insistent. She just adores our dogs - she's just like her mother.

Tatiana and I were both a bit worried about Edward when he started school - all our kids are on the shy side, like us, but Edward is definitely the most reserved. We were really hoping he wouldn't have trouble making friends.

Thank goodness but we didn't need to worry at all. He's made a whole bunch of friends at school, so the house is usually overrun with kids every afternoon.

We're still going to keep trying but I'm not really holding out much hope. We've got a great family already, so it won't be the end of the world if Edward ends up being our last.

Notes:
  • Title is from Suedehead by Morrissey.
  • Tatiana has a very persistent baby want (I even unlocked it and it stayed put) and Jonas doesn't mind either way. So I'm letting them try but I'm not going to any extreme measures. I would be pretty surprised if Tatiana got pregnant at this point - she'll be 39 next time I play her - but you never know. Never would have thought Araminta would get pregnant at 51 and the game sure showed me! Personally, I'd like to see another baby from them but I'm secretly relieved she's not pregnant too - the house is still quite crowded!
  • Liam rolled the Meet someone new ROS this round and the "someone new" was Claudia. That ROS could really be fulfilled by having the Sim go out to a community lot and meeting a random townie but I try to make them a little more meaningful than that, seeing that's the whole point. So I checked Liam's relationship panel to see if he knew either Patience or Claudia yet and he hadn't met Claudia. If he hadn't met Patience, Jacob may well be dating her right now! But anyway, I had Jacob bring Claudia home to meet the family to fulfill Liam's ROS. I'm imagining they started dating sometime between Autumn 2020 and now, off camera. I don't know if this will be a permanent thing but I'm hoping they'll stay together for at least a little while, just to give me a break from the Jacob drama for a round or so! It's not over, I'm pretty sure of that!

13 comments:

  1. Looking at your journals, I think I might just begin using the stretch skeleton feature, at least for my kids. I'll wait to see if I like it enough to try out on my teens and grownups. Good update!

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  2. Wow, so they're dating now. Wow...I'm a little sad that the family has jumped head over heels for her especially if he doesn't actually settle down.

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  3. The picture of Tatiana asleep with her head on Jonas' shoulder and his hand cradling her is so good! They have a beautiful family.

    I love it when they have persistent wants. I hope if Tatiana conceives she's able to carry the baby with no problem with her heavy schedule. Its really neat how you had the kids start being responsible for some of the gardening.

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  4. I hope that Tatiana and Jonas get another baby, their kids are so cute!

    The pic of the kids playing catch in the greenhouse is hilarious! I bet that's not the way grandma Arianna wants them to help.

    That was a real bombshell about Jacob and Claudia. They make a nice couple but he really shouldn't bring her hopes up if he's not ready to settle down.

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  5. Another one who adores the picture of Tatiana resting her head on his shoulder.

    I agree, they should have another one. The kids are so sweet, and I think Tatiana would enjoy a "baby" to well, baby, as her kids all grow up and leave within a few years of one another. I'm always one for a baby later in life.

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  6. AND! I hope things work out for Jacob and Claudia or end peacefully. I'd hate Claudia to have her heart broke, meeting the parents is a big step, that probably means more to her than it does to fickle Jacob.

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  7. Thanks for your comments, everyone!

    LaToya, thank you. StretchSkeleton is awesome. I started out doing it near the end of one of my years with my kids but I liked it so much that I did it on everyone once the end of my year rolled around!

    Apple Valley, heh, well, if Jacob and Claudia break up, Liam and Arianna will hopefully survive! They wouldn't be the first parents to fall in love with their son's girlfriend, only for them to break up.

    Francesca, thank you, I love that picture too. All this time and they're still one of my favourite couples. They're so adorable and their kids are absolutely gorgeous.

    "Some" of the gardening was an illusion. "All" of the gardening is more accurate and "slave labour" is probably the most accurate of all. All along, I've been having only one person in the family responsible for the garden but it works so much better to get a whole bunch in there. I feed the kids breakfast by 7am and then they're out in the greenhouse and they finish the whole job by 8:30 and then they jump on the school bus! Works great!

    Cissie, I'm kind of hoping for another baby, kind of not. It'll be very crowded in there but they somehow coped when Jacob was at home, so they'll cope again, if it happens.

    The greenhouse is, for some reason, the go-to area on this lot for playing catch. Seeing Sim windows can't break, I'm fine with it because it was storming so much this session that I was worried someone was going to get hit by lightning!

    I think Claudia and Jacob were probably a surprise to his parents too, seeing he was with Maia last time he was at home and Arianna was suspicious of him and Patience even then.

    Maisie, right now, Tatiana babies Edward and it's probably not much longer before he won't have that any more, so she's definitely like another baby! But that baby will grow up too and what then?

    I don't think Jacob sees himself as fickle. He brought Claudia home because he's serious about her...now. So it meant as much to him as it did to her. It remains to be seen how long that will last.

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  8. I love Tatianna's new look. She so looks like a lovely principal.

    And Jacob and Claudia! I'm with Apple Valley. It's sad that the family's falling head over heels for her especially if he doesn't settle down with her.

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  9. Lunar, Tatiana had to go for something a bit more mature now that she's principal! It's hard to choose a hairstyle for her because her face is very thin but this one has always been the one she wears when she dresses up. Now it's permanent.

    I hope Jacob and Claudia stay together for a while, at least for Liam and Arianna's sake! Liam especially - he rolled up the want to be friends with Claudia as soon as they met!

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  10. LOL, Tatiana! These sims are so crazy with their baby wants sometimes.

    And hearing wedding bells. I think maybe she's got a bit too much baby on the brain ;) Though meeting the family is a really big step. I wonder if he realizes that? He probably never even gave it a though, lol!

    But Tatiana and Jonas are still just so adorable! They can have all the babies they want :)

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  11. Laura, Tatiana doesn't understand the concept of dating around. She and Jacob are both Family but because he has a secondary of Romance, they don't have much in common! Jacob's about as serious with Claudia as he can offer right now but that's still nowhere near marriage.

    I have to stop myself from filling the update with 6000 pictures of Jonas and Tatiana. I take so many pictures of them! They're still adorable, all these years later.

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  12. Jonas and tatiana are such a cute couple! But I know exactly what you mean when you said you want them to have another but the house is too crowded. Too true!

    Jacob is trouble, lol! But I like that you try to make the meet someones new ROS meaningful.

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  13. bbop, Tatiana and Jonas have always been one of my favourite couples, ever since they were teens, so I'm glad others like them so much.

    Jacob is a little confused right now but he's only 20 and he's allowed to be. ;)

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