Thursday 9 June 2011

Flowers in the window

Round 31: November 2033 (Spring)
last update/next update

Trent Kirby is 63, Megan is 61, Jacob and Claudia are both 32 and Daphne is 2.
(Liam is 70 and Tatiana is 50)

Narrated by Jacob Kirby

As soon as Daphne was born, I was ready to have another kid. Claudia likes to tell people I brought it up on the way home from the hospital but that's not true. She was at least a few weeks old.


That's still insane, I know. It's just that as soon as I saw her, I felt like doing it all over again.

Of course, we didn't start trying for another one until about a year ago and I'm actually glad about that. It's meant that we've been able to give Daphne our undivided attention.

The first thing a lot of people say when they see her is how much she looks like Claudia. Even Dad can't see much resemblance between me and Daphne. She does mostly look like her mother but her temperament all comes from me.

She's only two and a half but already, she's tearing around the house as best she can.

We have to watch her closely or she gets into things she shouldn't.

It's a good thing Sadie is such a gentle dog because at the moment, Daphne isn't very gentle at all.

Tatiana and Jonas bought her this little spinner thing for her birthday in February. Nine months later and it's still Daphne's favourite toy.

And she likes to go fast! She's such a fun little kid.

As much as I miss Daphne and Claudia while I'm at work, I really do love my job.

Lately, it hasn't been incredibly busy around here. There have been plenty of days and nights where I haven't left the fire station at all.

Even then though, there's usually something going on. We have a lot of school groups come in to visit, including my sister's Grade 1 and 2 class.

The kids love it; they get a real kick of seeing the fire trucks.

One of the kids thought it was pretty cool that we get to sleep at the station sometimes and asked if he could too!

I've spent many a night sleeping at the station though and I'd much rather be at home.

Claudia is with Daphne pretty much 24/7, since she decided not to go back to work once her maternity leave is up. I was worried Claudia would get bored at home, without knowing she had a job to go to but she hasn't found that at all.

She loves being at home with Daphne and they go out and do all sorts of things together during the day.

She really feels like this is what she's supposed to be doing at the moment.

Claudia is still planning on taking over the market one day but she just doesn't think she'll ever get another traditional 9-5 job. She says they're not for her.

I love that Claudia is at home now anyway. It's so much easier to find time to ourselves when we don't have to try to work around our schedules. I work night shifts a lot, so they're not always in sync.

We haven't been on a ton of dates since Daphne came along but we really appreciate it when we get a chance.

Claudia is convinced that it was on one of our dates that she got pregnant. In a photo booth, of all places.

I guess it seems like kind of an immature thing to do at 32 but no one was around, so we just went for it.

Anyway, we've been trying for about a year so we're both ecstatic with the news.

We were going to wait until the 12 week mark before we told anyone but Claudia's morning sickness has been so bad that we figured we'd better at least tell Trent and Megan before they guessed.

Megan claimed that she "knew it" and she loves being right, so she was happy. She's also been at us about giving Daphne a brother or sister for a while now, so she's excited it's finally happening.

It was a huge surprise to Trent. Neither of them had any idea we were trying and Trent was actually starting to worry about Claudia's constant nausea. It never occurred to him that she might be pregnant!

Not long after we made our announcement, Megan came down with the flu. It's been going around for a while now. We tried to keep Daphne away from her but that kid loves her grandma.

We just had to try to keep her occupied with other things. We didn't want to deal with a sick toddler as well.

Claudia was extremely worried about her mother and went in to check on her several times during the day. Each time, Megan would insist she was fine.

It turns out, Megan was right. She really wasn't sick for very long at all and was up and about again in no time at all.

It's been really nice for Claudia to have Megan there to take over with Daphne when Trent and I are at work. Megan only works three days a week, so she's usually around.

On top of the morning sickness, she's been sort of run down so any break is welcome.

Megan's near constant presence has been a blessing and a curse. Claudia told me she's already started the unsolicited pregnancy advice. I think she's sharing all of her "surefire" ways to cure morning sickness recently.

Hopefully, Megan won't keep this up for the whole nine months. Claudia can usually handle her mother pretty well but dealing with Megan on top of feeling crappy is really wearing on her.

Claudia is doing her best not to let her mother get to her too much.

We've got Daphne to look after, as well as this baby to look forward to and we're both trying to focus on that.

We've had such a wonderful experience with Daphne and we're looking forward to doing it all over again in nine months time!

Spam:
I took some extras of Daphne but didn't have a place to put them in the update.
Daphne really does adore Megan. She follows her all around the house!

Notes:
  • Title is from Flowers in the Window by Travis.
  • The fire station Jacob is at is American Avenue 10 by larsson1970. It was decorated pretty well already but I will probably do a more extensive makeover, with less Maxis stuff. I'll probably make some posters too and I'll share them if I'm happy with them. I actually quit out of the Kirby house to place it and redecorate it, when I decided to do some "Jacob at work" shots. I always like doing those.
  • Poor Claudia! Of the three Kirby girls, she actually does get along with Megan the best normally but Megan was really getting on her nerves this session!
  • Baby Kirby is due in August 2034. :)
  • Oh, and I was dumb and forget to mention that Megan's flu was part of this round's flu epidemic ROS. I think that's 3 down, 7 to go?

21 comments:

  1. Another baby, that's exciting...oh, it actually could be twins, I keep forgetting that she and Victoria are twins. Love the shot at work with Jacob and then Claudia and Daphne at the park, so cute. They're a cute little family.

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  2. It's a good thing that Megan and Claudia usually get along because having 'Mom' around all the time would drive most women nuts LOL! Daphne is dynamite, isn't she?

    I love the shot of Claudia on the couch looking like she's about to pass out while Megan provides all that helpful advice. It is really a great shot!

    I was wondering about the fountain shot. How did you manage to get a toddler there?

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  3. Apple Valley, true, it could be twins! ;) I won't say until the first pregnancy update.

    The shots for this update were so much fun for me to do, so I'm glad you liked them. :)

    Thanks for reading!

    S.B., Megan is a challenging woman! All three of her daughters have developed their own strategies of dealing with her but Claudia has always been the one who is the least bothered by her.

    I often want to get Sims to react like Claudia did during that conversation with Megan but I could have them sitting there all day sometimes and they never do it! But Megan tends to inspire that reaction quite often. ;)

    I bring toddlers (and babies!) to community lots with InSim. There's a very handy feature where you can click on an empty bit of ground or floor and choose "Restore Family" (I think it might be under "Other" or something like that) and all members of the family you're playing will appear on the lot. So I just took Claudia down to the park, restored the family and then deleted everyone except her and Daphne. I use that option all the time.

    Thanks for reading!

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  4. Mothers with their advice, their only trying to help but sometimes it's just too much!

    Daphne seems to get constant attention from all the family. It's cute how she loves Megan so much.

    I love the way the house is decorated, from what I can see from the shots anyway.

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  5. First of all as I'm hungry, that cake Megan is carrying around looks so dang awesome. Second of all oh dear with all the advice, poor girl really looks like she would rather enjoy some peace and quiet. Glad they usually get along well, otherwise sparks would fly.
    That fire station looks nice, I like the pictures of all the kids having a look around. As I don't have sims 2 anymore I can't remember, is that a place they can visit as part of the game, or did you set it up for them to go and have a look around?

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  6. So that's what 'Restore Family' does! I've seen that option for years and never knew what it did, and didn't want to risk 'restoring' something strange. Thank you!!

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  7. Daphne is going to be one spoiled child lol. It will be interesting to see how she behaves once she has a little sibling getting attention too :). I loved the shots of Jacob at work, I need to do more of those with my sims. What's the point of fixing up a work place if you don't use it lol. And it's always a pleasure to see Megan "helping" her girls out :)

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  8. Absolutely LOVE Jacob showing the firehouse to the kids!! Totally going to play with that if you don't mind! Cause that'd be so fun to do with Benjamin, and all the littles. I'm excited they are having another one, they are so opposite of Victoria, I really like that diversity in this family. It seems fitting now for Trent and Megan to be elders, with Daphne here and another on the way.

    I think Jacob is pretty awesome to handle living with Megan, it's one thing to like someone, and another to live with them. I like that Claudia stays at home, and one day she can do the market, that job isn't going anywhere. Did you have career plans/ambitions for her? She did political before right? I'd like a sim to stay at home, but so far I only have Leah and it's not quite a straight stay at home situation, as I have her quite occupied with the school, and the Northern Moose if I need her.

    I didn't know you could click on empty ground to do the restore family, I've only used it on Insim with the teleporter. That would be nice if it doesn't load up all the characters, using the teleporter in a big hood can cause my game to crash, I try to avoid those memory hogs. Thanks for sharing that!

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  9. I love all the kids going on a field trip to the firehouse. We did that when I was little too. :) Jacob is so cute talking to all the kids. I was hoping they would have another baby soon! Claudia looks so happy being a mom.

    I can imagine Megan is especially hard to deal with when you're pregnant, lol! ;)

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  10. Driftwood Valley, with mothers like Megan, who always know best, yes, I'm sure it gets to be too much fast!

    Daphne kills me. Everyone in this house is totally enchanted by her and who could blame them?

    Thank you! This house had been decorated pretty much the same way since Tate and Trent were babies and it needed a makeover. I used Claudia and Jacob's wedding as an excuse to do all the downstairs rooms and was very happy with the results.

    Thanks for reading!

    Speechless, I have no idea what baked alaska really is but it sure does look delicious in game! I've gathered that it involves ice cream, which is good enough for me. ;)

    And yes, Claudia would rather be napping than listening to her mother's crap but when Megan has something to say, she just says it. ;) Neither of Claudia's sisters would be game to try living with her!

    As for the fire station, no, there's no fire station in the game. That's a lot I downloaded from MTS.

    Thanks for reading!

    S.B., that's what it does! I didn't know what it did either before I tried it but I'm kind of reckless that way. ;) I just figure "eh, I've got a back-up!"

    Mizzgin03, being spoiled is a big possibility, I think, with the attention of four doting adults so it's a good idea to give Daphne a sibling while she's still little!

    My own career lots have a tendency to sit abandoned sometimes too, so I try to work them in whenever I can. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

    LOL, I'm sure Megan's girls could do without her help a lot of the time but she thinks she's being helpful. ;)

    Thanks for reading!

    Maisie, of course I don't mind! I'd love to see the Millwood kids visit Benjamin at the fire station! I remember going when I was about that age and I loved it. I had big plans for a demonstration but I wasn't able to set it up in the end. Maybe next time.

    Megan really loves Jacob, so he hasn't been on the receiving end of any of her less pleasant qualities so far. He's hearing about them all second-hand from Claudia right now though!

    I didn't have any career plans for Claudia. Her LTW didn't give me any clues and I really just threw her into Politics for no real reason! And she kept rolling the want to stay home from work and to quit, so I just let her. Stay-at-home motherhood seems to work quite well for her. I like your set-up with Leah too. Do you consider her a volunteer story-wise, even though she gets paid in game?

    "Restore family" causes a little bit of lag on my computer if I'm trying to restore a larger family. But it's only a few seconds (and I've never had it crash) and the convenience is well worth it. I don't know how else I'd get babies and toddlers to community lots and that's something I really love doing.

    Thanks for reading!

    Shana, us too! We visited a whole bunch of local businesses and services, including Dominos, lol! The fire station was my favourite though.

    Claudia has found a sort of purpose in motherhood that she didn't really have with her job. It's what she was made to do. I hope she's not too lost once all the kids leave the house though!

    Thanks for reading!

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  11. I'm glad they will be having another baby! Daphne is such a cutie, I'm looking forward to the next one!
    As I said on N99, I'm totally in love with those pictures of the field trip!! You've given me yet another idea for my game!
    Megan wouldn't be Megan if she didn't give advice, wether its wanted or not, but Claudia handles it pretty well :)

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  12. Tanja, Daphne really is such a cutie. I can't wait to meet her little brother or sister.

    I'd love to see the SimsVille kids take a field trip somewhere, so I'm glad to give you an idea.

    Claudia copes best with her mother, though I'm sure it doesn't feel like it at the moment. If it was Victoria or Rebecca in her position, there may have been an all-out brawl by now. ;) Claudia is a bit more easygoing with Megan.

    Thanks for reading!

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  13. Awww, what an adorable update! Daphne is incredibly cute!!! I love her little flowers dress, she's such a darling! The picture with Sadie is just.... aaaaaww!!! She's totally my kind of dog. I laughed at the eating in dog's plate!! I had forgotten about it!

    I loved the visit of the kids in the fire station, what a bright idea!!! I'll have to borrow you this (though I haven't any fire station in Sandy Valley, I'm afraid it would call meteorit on the town! I'm such a coward! *giggle*)

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  14. I already gushed over the pic at N99 but I just love that pic of Jacob, Liam and Daphne where she's looking into the camera. I guess it's because she just looks like a miniature Claudia in Liam's arms. I really love Claudia's dress which reminds me that I'm going to have to start looking for more toddler clothes soon.

    I'm so happy that these 2 are going to have another! Another baby in Sullivan lol! I really hope it's a boy who looks exactly like Jacob. LOL at Claudia and Megan talking on the couch. Dealing with Megan while you're nauseous and tired is not ideal. Dealing with her while you aren't nauseous an tired isn't ideal ;). But at least she means well.

    And I've already said at N99 that I loved the fire station shots. Lots of great shots all around. Very clever idea to do. I have lots of field trip ideas but I have exactly zero of the lots built. I just googled pics baked alaska and mmm mm mmm!! I want some!

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  15. Sandy, Daphne might be one of my very favourite toddlers ever! I wasn't sure what Claudia's kids would look like but I love Daphne. And Daphne loves the dog, as you can see!

    I'm looking forward to seeing all of you guys do field trips! Even with no fire station (is that seriously what brings meteors to town? I didn't know that!), there are tons of other places kids could visit.

    Thanks for reading!

    Danielle, Daphne looks so much like Claudia - with Jacob's mouth, lol. I just love that picture because I'm a sucker for generations and there's three in one pic right there.

    I can't remember where I got Daphne's dress but you should check out the Sims 2 Graveyard for toddler clothes. I forget which site the dresses originally came from but I remember downloading a TON of toddler dresses there quite a while back. I'll check in game, if I remember!

    I almost didn't let them try again so soon but they both had the want and I couldn't resist! And also, I've already established that Jacob wants to have his kids fairly close together, to give his kids that close sibling relationship that he never really had.

    Megan is a trial at the best of the times and worse when you're not feeling well. Poor Claudia. Lucky she's in the habit of taking Daphne out of the house quite frequently, so she'll have a good excuse to "escape" when she starts feeling a little better (which Sims normally do, when they're into the second trimester - everyone except poor Asha!)

    I'd love to see what kind of field trip ideas you come up with! You'd think I'd have tons, as a teacher. But most of the field trips I've been on for work have been to "lots" that I really don't have the desire to replicate in game!

    Thanks for reading!

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  16. I understand why Daphne can be one of your favorites! *swoon* I think she's one of mine as well. Such a lovely little girl!

    For the fire station in TS3, I'm not absolutely positive, but I think if you have one, and have a firefighter, well, you have to keep him/her busy, so there will be fires and maybe meteors (some have firestations and no meteors, though). I haven't have a single big fire nor a meteor since Ambitions was released.
    Was it your town or your sister's one that was pelt with meteors because of an outdated mod?

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  17. Sandy, I'm a little bit sad she'll be a child next round! I'm going to maximise my Daphne time by having her round to play with her cousin Keira, when I play her family.

    Ugh, yes, that was my town! If my sister had the problem, it was probably because she's often too lazy to download the mods herself and just steals my folder. ;) I lost count of how meteors I got and how often. Such a weird conflict. But anyway, I always put fire stations in my TS3 hoods and I haven't actually had a meteor since I got rid of that outdated mod. I think they're quite rare, though I can understand being a bit paranoid about it! I'm still nervous to let my TS2 Sims stargaze on the ground, because I'm worried about satellites dropping on them!

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  18. Aww, Daphne is such a cutie. It feels like watching a mini-Claudia. And they're having another baby, yay! I wonder if they'll tell the kid when he/she gets older that he/she was conceived in a photo booth, lol.

    I don't think I could live under the same roof with Megan and her know-it-all attitude. I'm glad she's ok though. My heart skips a beat everytime one of your elders get sick.

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  19. Sari, I adore Daphne so much. She really does look so much like Claudia. I'm excited to see this second baby.

    LOL, I don't know! If my parents conceived me in a photo booth, I wouldn't want to hear about it but there would definitely be some parents who'd probably share that info anyway!

    Megan would drive me nuts too. She's kind of like my paternal grandmother, with the know-it-all-ism and she definitely drives me nuts!

    Thanks for reading!

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  20. How sweet that Daphne loves Megan so much!

    I'm glad that Claudia and Jacob are pregnant again. I know they really wanted another child, and it will be interesting to see how this next one compares with Daphne. :)

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  21. Rachel, it's pretty sweet. Megan drives her daughters insane but her grandchildren all adore her, Daphne included.

    I'm glad Jacob and Claudia are having #2 as well. They're such a nice couple. I'm glad I made them wait so long to get married, because they seem so settled now.

    Thanks for reading!

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