It's not fun when you don't get the skin tone you want... thinking about my own try about them when I had a blue rainbow man, tried for baby with him with seven ladies, and result was two rainboos and five normal. The Sims really isn't fair... or maybe it is fair for his normal-coloured one-night relationships 
It's probably one of those not-really-random random numbers things, like my game producing ghost babies all the time when my daughter (an avid Simmer) hasn't had a single one - or my total failure to get any sculpting gnomes when it's probably my favourite skill
. Still, Cassidy and Nick can always try again...
Celebrations and ConfusionLife, thought Nicholas Riverhawk, could get overwhelming sometimes. One minute you were WooHooing with your best-friend-turned-girlfriend; the next, she was looking even greener than usual and announcing that you were going to become a father. Then, just as you were starting to get over that shock, you came home from work one day and found you
were a father. Suddenly, there was a tiny pink bundle relying on you for, well,
everything. As if having just become a full adult and going through a midlife crisis wasn’t stressful enough already.
Come on, Nick. Calm. You can do it. One step at a time. So, step one:
Sophia and Sam had set a good example, he thought. Fortunately, Cass wasn’t much for parties either, so they opted for the shortest possible engagement, left their housemates literally holding the baby, and escaped to Fairyfolk Park to exchange their vows.
The wedding night was briefly interrupted when the bride started sparkling…
…although the honeymoon was resumed before Nick had time to get seriously worried. But then it seemed that everyone was ageing and changing.
First Ivy had a birthday…
…then it became obvious that she was going to become a big sister. More responsibilities!
Then, mere minutes after Cassidy had stopped spinning, there were more sparkles.
Next, it was Adam’s turn. Being the heir, he had a proper birthday, with cake and stuff.
Of course, Adam having aged up meant that he needed tutoring again. Suddenly, you couldn’t go anywhere without falling over people and schoolbooks on the floor. Not to mention being asked if you’d mind your precious van being used for driving lessons.
Ivy had another birthday. How was he the father of a schoolgirl already?
Worst of all, a workplace prank went seriously wrong and Nick found himself outside the bistro starkers and stinky. Cue ‘Knickerless’ jokes all round.
He just had time for a shower and a quick nap before Cass was shaking him awake. Her contractions had started.
“Welcome to the madhouse, Lily.”
* * * * *
That same night, Deirdra’s promised help finally appeared, in the shape of a dusty old lamp. Adam gave it a bit of a polish.
He (but no-one else) was surprised when a genie appeared and granted his wish for more money.
Sophia had been trading at the consignment store, selling Nick’s garden produce and Jess’ fish. While he was still a child, Adam had started taking photos with Sam’s old camera and they were also proving popular with customers. With their new infusion of wealth, the household took to bargain-hunting with great enthusiasm. Finally, a better camera turned up in the store and Adam had a late birthday present.
With photography on top of school, homework, tutoring and driving lessons, he had a busy schedule but he somehow still made time to help look after Lily – although holding a baby securely turned out to be rather trickier than he’d expected.
Ivy had yet another birthday.
Adam was puzzled. How come she seemed to be catching him up? His mother explained (rather smugly, he thought) that girls grew up faster than boys. He still wasn’t convinced, though.
Meanwhile, another girl was doing her best to grow up quickly – with some help from him.
Next chapter
I made quite a few mistakes at about this point. I should have cashed in Emmaline’s LTW points at once for a genie lamp and wished for fortune as many times as necessary to get the nice camera. It would also have helped if I’d realised how often you can buy out the consignment store. For some reason, I had it in my head that you could only do that once per Sim day. No idea why. It was only during this game that I realised it regenerates immediately. Even so, it was annoying that it took something like a dozen buy-outs for the camera to appear. Of course, since then there always seems to have been one in stock
.
Also, I shouldn’t have let Adam start learning photography until he was close to young adulthood, to maximise the scope for opportunities: a lesson I’d already learned in generation two of the DecaDynasty but had somehow decided didn’t apply this time around. This challenge may be on a faster speed but their lives aren’t
that short. Oh well.
With the left-over genie money, they bought more property. It irritates me slightly that all of the Hidden Springs rabbitholes have two names. There are the standard Sunset Valley-type names, which are the most obvious, but in Edit Town and sometimes in-game, different ones appear. Oddly, the spa, which is a unique building, also has two names. Anyway, this time around, I’m renaming all of the buildings to their Hidden Springs names as they’re purchased – so now they own The Enchanted Grill, Tuatha de Books and Alvetta’s Fresh Produce.
