Copious Amounts of Crying: The Neverending Joys of Toddler Sims.

Emma: OMG Emchic, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
Me: Relax, Emms, it's been like one day since I last posted. I had a bunch of grading to get done. I've still got a bunch of grading to get done. And a dissertation to write.
Emma: But that is just to long for the world to go without me! Seriously, just chain yourself to the computer to play my file and blog about me.  Quit school and your jobs! You don't need them. AND DON'T CALL ME EMMS!!!
Me: Umm...yeah about that. No. Besides, I have to have some money to buy Generations when it comes out at the end of the month. And my jobs provide me with that all important income. And I only call you Emms because it bugs you. ;) Now I'm going to go work on my dissertation a bit, but I promise I'll blog some tonight. A lot of exciting things have happened.
Emma: And the world must know! Okay, I GUESS I'll let you go work on your dissertation. But you better be back on this blog by tonight. I promise.

A few hours later....
Emma: It has NOT been a few hours later. It's been TWO days. TWO WHOLE DAYS!
Me: Well Blogger went down that night and I was really busy watching episode after episode of Psych yesterday. Gus and Shawn FTW!
Emma: Start the chapter! Start the chapter now!

When we last left our intrepid heroine, she had just given birth to the lovely and adorable little Jo.  And it looks like there's another little one on the way.

I'm so excited! And I just can't hide it!

As you can tell by the picture, Emma is thrilled beyond belief. And even though she's pregnant with another little sim, she just loves taking care of Jo.

Emma loves it when Jo wakes her up!

Zhan loves taking care of Jo too. See?

They're the best parents EVER!

Emma is being unsually quiet here.
Emma: zzzzzz.....What? I'm awake! I'm totally awake!
Me: Then what did I just say?
Emma: You were talking about how awesome I am.
Me: Oh, yeah. Totally!

Emma breaks the news about the new baby to Zhan. You may recognize his response.

Zhan: ..........

But it doesn't take him as long to jump on board with baby #2.

Zhan: I'm still faking it.

Emma and Zhan ARE more enthusiastic with this pregnancy this time around. Zhan even rolls a want to massage Emma's poor aching back.

Zhan: I'm still faking it.

Emma: And he should. I'm carrying HIS child after all.
Me: It's your child too you know.
Emma: Then he should have to carry it.
Me: A valid point, Emms.
Emma: Seriously, DON'T CALL ME EMMS!
Me: Pregnancy hormones getting to you?
Emma: I'll have you know I make pregnancy look fabulous! See?

Emma: I'm too sexy

Oh, yeah. Emma makes pregnancy look great. She's just thrilled to be pregnant.

This is seriously my favorite picture of Emma.

Emma: Why, why, why do you show the readers these pictures? I was having a bad day. I am pregnant after all. Cut me some slack!
Me: Didn't you just get done saying how you made pregnancy look fabulous?
Emma: Um, well....

So nothing really happens, same old Sim pregnancy stuff, so on and so forth. And I get the house ready for the new arrival.

Yeah, I don't have anything clever to say here.

Conveniently,  Emma goes into labor EXACTLY when Jo starts to age up.

This is "excellent" timing

Jo: Pay attention to me!

And she immediately starts to cry.
Emma: <breathing heavily? Jo, honey, mommy has a little something else going on right now!
Jo: <continues to cry really really loudly>
And eventually she gets distracted and goes off, leaving Emma to give birth in peace.
Emma: Thank goodness!

Jo: You will bask in my cuteness! You will!

A boy!

And Emma brings into the world her second child, a son named Bloom Book. Bloom rolled the traits artistic and genius.
Emma: Bloom? What is it with you giving girls boy names and boys girl names?
Me: I'll have you know that Bloom is named after one Leopold Bloom, protagonist of James Joyce's novel Ulyssess.
Emma: That bloated incomprehensible piece of crap?
Me: Hey! Two chapters of my dissertation are on Ulysses!
Emma: Like we care.
Me: I do!
Emma: Yeah, you and like the five people who have managed to read the entire thing.

I didn't take any pictures because Bloom was crying and Jo was crying, Emma and Zhan were hungry and gripy, and it was really annoying and I was trying to get through all of it as quickly as possible. I felt bad and hired a babysitter so Zhan and Emma could sleep, and she really loves kids!

Well, maybe not ALL kids

Yes, Aracelli the babysitter (who, fyi, later grows up to become the town bike) only has love for little Bloom. She holds him, snuggles, him, feeds him, while Jo sits on the floor desperate to be put in her crib.

Emma: <whines> This isn't an indicator of how things are going to be is it? I'm soooo tired!
Me: Noooo, not all. (I'm totally lying)

Bloom and Jo don't have the grumpy trait, but they should. They cry A LOT, and their needs decay really quickly. And Jo is one cheery baby.

So cheery.

Emma gets so frustrated that she decides to knock herself unconscious to get away from it all.

Pow!

Emma: Please, please make the crying stop!

So there's lots of skilling and Jo is SO TOTALLY CUTE! Seriously, I took loads and loads of pictures, and I won't bore you with toddler pic spam (well not too much any way). And she is so smart. She builds skills like no toddler I've ever had.  And yes, I took skilling pictures and they were cute, but this picture is the cutest!

Jo: Look into my eyes! I will enslave you with my adorable cuteness!

 But she has the strangest profile. Her nose is really flat. And I have no idea where she got it from because Emma and Zhan do not have noses this flat. I love sim genetics! Even when they're confusing!

Flat nosed baby. But still adorable

And it was at this point that I saved my game and went to bed. And when I fired up the game the next day I was greeted by this.

And this

And this

Emma: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME? And my children? We are not children of the Grim Reaper! Change us back! Change us back now!

Seriously, I have no idea what happened. I tired reset sim on them, and nothing! I had to change their skin color in CAS.

All better

But I think her nose looks different. And her chin is less pointy.
Emma: My chin is not pointy! And..... I may have had a little work done while you weren't playing the game....
Me: And it turned your skin black?
Emma: That was an unexpected side effect.
Me: That spread to your children?

I'm moving on now. Time has passed and Emma aged up.

And she looks better than ever. Not tired and haggard at all.

Emma: My hair! Fix my hair! Fix it now!
Me: Okay, okay, I'll get into CAS right now.

The glasses complete the look, yes?

Emma: Thank goodness! Just because I'm older doesn't mean that I can't look fabulous.

And right after Emma ages up, so does Bloom!

Emma is super excited.

Emma: That book is really good! I couldn't wait to finish it.
Me: That book is more important than your son?
Emma: It's A REALLY GOOD BOOK
Me: <sighes>

The crossed eyes means it's birthday time!

I force Emma to stop reading and potty train Bloom.

Who doesn't really seem thrilled with the idea. So Emma tickles him instead and he's SO INCREDIBLY CUTE

Bloom: This is so much better than potty training!

You can see here that I temporarily forgot to put Bloom in black, and even though those little overalls are so darn adorable, I had to rectify the situation, which I forgot to take a picture of, so here's a picture of him in his pj's.

Tres cute!

Emma: Why does his tshirt say zombie snack?
Me: Because it's cute! And you just want him to wear Star Trek cc.
Emma: Of course! Now go search the internets for some Star Trek toddler cc!
And with that thought, I'll close the chapter.
Next time: More stuff! Can you stand the excitement?