Jordan Datlow Adopts Orphans
I told myself I wasn't going to bother taking pictures of Jordan going to college because I usually only ended up taking one or two anyway because I played in the same way every time. I just wanted to get the torch holders through college and back to the main house! This time though Jordan had a bit of an adventure. I had him fall in love with the rival mascot Selena Charming but when I heard she had a horrible personality I had them break up in a huge spat in the middle of the dorm, then I had him fall in love with a dormie, Flora Orchard, whom he brought home with him and married. I also had him change aspiration, he is now a Family Sim. He wants to reach his Golden Anniversary while Flora wants to have six of her children get married. I was looking for something new and exciting in this challenge and it looks like I got it!
Instead of having six children naturally, I decided to have them adopt the first four. The day after they were married Jordan adopted a little boy named Rinaldo. This poor child looks so unfortunate, I swear he has the same face template as The Ugly Maid, Cleve.
He, like so many children before him, seems addicted to the piano. Flora didn't think his playing was too hot though. Unlike the other children he hasn't had the chance to get some practice in on the toddler toy.
He also likes to sleep in the upstairs bed. *twitch* Which Flora approves of, for whatever reason.
The second child that was adopted the next day was another little boy named Gawain. Yes, I decided to keep Jamal around for just a little longer. Flora and Jordan both had jobs in the Natural Science career (getting the job from the newspaper seems to work well for this family) and kids were self sufficient enough that, as long as Jamal didn't get himself killed, I wouldn't need to hire a nanny.
Ah well, that's what the fire fighter is for. Puts the stove out of commission until Jordan gets home from work though. I hate that about fires.
Flora liked the upstairs bed as well, though Rinaldo tended to not like to share it. I bet they wouldn't like it so much if I bought a cheap bed. Just makes it harder to conceive when it's baby making time.
The third child adopted was a little boy named Nathaniel. He and Gawain seem to get on smashingly. Rinaldo, I sense, is far shyer then his brothers as he spends most of his time off somewhere alone doing his own thing then out with the family.
Of course, even with five other Sims in the house the kitchen still never seems to quite get cleaned, unless Jordan does it.
Ditto with serving meals. I'm back into the schedule of serving three meals a day just to try and keep everyone fed. (Three meals, fancy that!) Not every meal is eaten, but it usually turns out that I don't regret it.
It was with great relief that I realized that, although Jamal has inherited his grandmother Drizella's romance skill, he hadn't inherited her autonomous amorous ways. This made me feel much better about having Jamal stick around as permanent baby sitter. Though the poor guy seems to spend an awful lot of time with his mop lover.
Gawain and Nathaniel were adopted on the weekend so, due to the spacing, I didn't have to worry about all three boys doing homework on the same night, yet. By my calculations I should only have to do that on three occasions before they become teenagers and it becomes less of an issue.
Of course, Rinaldo passed out as soon as he got home, though he wasn't out for long with all the noise in the house. The stereo is usually constantly on and Jamal tends to preform on the piano from when he gets up until he goes back to sleep with short breaks for going potty and eating food, when he remembers.
All three kids, still on weekend schedule, went straight to bed as soon as they got home, and the two townies they brought home, Sebastian Cayly and Faline Skye, were left to their own devices. Big suprise there.
I finally got up the nerve to adopt a fourth child, a little girl named Lainey. I also had gone ahead and converted the bedroom into having three bunkbeds and selling the upstairs bed until it was time to conceive fifth generation. This way everyone fits comfortably enough.
Because of the way the kids are spaced every kid dosen't have to their homework every night to maintain an A. Which really is a relief. The kids usually played the piano once homework was done, but the pianos got such a workout (I had four by the end, they were so in demand) that half of them seemed to always be broken. If that happened the nearest fun thing to do was "Watch" someone else play the piano, which was irritating to say the least.
What was Rinaldo doing when he was off by himself? Well when he wasn't trying to get on one of the non-broken pianos he was off cleaning something. He is the first Sim in this challenge to have little bubbles follow him wherever he goes when he cleans. When his homework is done you can usually find him in the bathroom scrubbing toilets. What an odd child.
Between working on Flora's skills, helping the kids with homework, serving meals, and influencing Jamal to get up and go clean something Jordan was pretty worn out all the time, so I wasn't too suprised to see Flora get to the top of the career before he did. Family Sims can put themselves in Platinum pretty easily. I actually found it quite demoralizing whenever I looked up to see that Flora was in Platinum and Jordan was not. Here Jamal stops cleaning when Flora trys to shoo him out of the bathroom, he dosen't take the hint entirely though and stops to try and chat her up. Hmmm, I wonder why?
The other annoying thing about autonomous Sims is that, even if a perfectly good meal has been served, they will often cook and eat their own thing. Not that food isn't wasted anyway, you have to accept that it will be by the plate load in this challenge, it just dosen't make any sense to cook yourself an expensive meal when a perfectly good one is already sitting out!
It was with relief that I saw Rinaldo grow up. I had him get himself some new clothes (shop at home) and then plan his outfits and change his appearance. Pretty much the only things to do upstairs is either paint or admire how sexy you look. Guess which one Rinaldo chooses to do.
Don't worry he decided to go paint immediately afterwards, and subsequently maxed his creativity.
The only thing I don't like about the Trianon bunkbeds is that, unless you want the beds to face opposite directions and not line up correctly, you have to deal with the fact that if both Sims in the bunkbed get up at the same time one will complain and "go back to sleep" for a bit before trying to get up again. Better then having the animations clash, I suppose. You can't have everything.
I have to say that I love mornings in the Datlow household now. Nearly everyone gets up at six and they usually spend the hours before school socializing in the bedroom (especially on mornings when Jordan is too slow making breakfast, so they never make it to the kitchen). This also reminds me of the whole pranking thing, which happens a lot whenever two or more Datlows are in a room together. Most of the kids enjoy panking each other, the only two in the whole house that don't are Flora and Rinaldo, they both tend to cry. This really dosen't seem to be the right household for either of them.
Flora does enjoy interacting with her children. She became best friends with all of them very quickly and it's her number one way to boost her aspiration.
Of course any sign of favoritism from Flora never goes down well in this household. And, it's about to get worse. With the children on the cusp of teenhood, or already there, I feel that it will soon be time to send them to college (via their single command chance) and have the two blood heirs be born. I am definitely not taking any chances with this generation, no one will be orphaned this time!
Posted by Bitsy at 12:00 AM Comments
How neat! All the kids seem to have very defined personalities. Just one question. If the other sims are autonomous, then how do they reach the tops of their career. I know about teaching the sims for skill points, but how do they earn friends. That's just something I've never thought about.
You're doing great, Bitsy! I can't wait to see the heirs!
Posted by: Jessica on January 6, 2006 12:32 AM
Friends for work are determined by how many friends the household as a whole has. I usually have the heir meet and at least have a decent relationship with 12 people, friendship can come later, which is what is needed for the Natural Science career.
It is very difficult for a non-controlled Datlow to make a friend on their own. They prank and pick on people too much. Flora seemed to do alright though. I loved the fact that she came with friends, when she got a phone call right after complaining of low social she could sit there and improve her relationship and social all by herself. She lost most of her friends though over time. Even if I invited them over (only worked if Jordan knew them) Flora would either ignore them or choose right then to go to bed. It's all on the heir really, to get (and keep) those work friends.
Thanks for the nice comment, I love it when you drop by. :)
Posted by: Bitsy on January 6, 2006 12:50 AM
I'm so impressed that you manage to get them to the top of their career without directly controlling them. I only rarely get my *regular ol' Sims* to the top. Maybe I'm *too much* of a control freak, ha!
But Rinaldo... Oh, that poor hideous child.
Posted by: Annette on January 6, 2006 11:23 AM
Actually I feel like I can take no credit for Flora reaching the top of her career. Aside from the skills and the friends, she was the one that got herself in Platinum on the few occasions it took to get her the needed promotions. I'm guessing her personality isn't as off-the-wall as a professor's as she seems to be much more skilled at taking care of herself autonomously then any Sim I have seen previously. She repairs things, she doesn't hog the piano, she recycles newspapers, Flora is just an amazing Sim. I think those hours of socializing in the morning helped the most though. She would often fulfill several wants just hugging, kissing, playing with and talking to her children before her kids went off to school and she disappeared off to work, usually in Platinum. Insta-promotion!
Posted by: Bitsy on January 6, 2006 02:46 PM
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