A population boom in Beach Valley

The Sim neighborhood that I've been playing is one that I created, called Beach Valley. Unlike the pre-fab neighborhoods that you start the game with, I built Beach Valley from the grass up--it had no pre-existing homes or characters. There are now streets and streets full of Sim homes and families in the town.

Beach Valley seems to be having quite the population boom these days, caused primarily by the high incidence of twins in recent months. I've read ways to increase the chance of twins, but can't use them because I don't have the particular add-on that provides the item needed. What I've discovered on my own is that Sims having woohoo while already pregnant will tend to have a higher incidence of birthing twins. Here are some of Beach Valley's notable babies:



This is Pablo and Tabitha Picasso. They were both single parents with children who married and joined families, then later decided to have their own baby together. Surprise, surprise! It was not just one baby, it was twins. Here, Tabitha has the first twin, and then hands it to Pablo so that she can have the second twin. I just love the happy beam on Pablo's face here.


The Picasso twins.


This is Alon and Marylena O'Reilly with their twin boys, Alonzo and Marlen. The O'Reillys are one of the two biggest families in Beach Valley--or rather, they were, when Alon's parents and most of his siblings were still alive. Alon is one of 10 children; his parents had 5 biological children and then adopted 5 more. Alon is one of the adopted five. One of Alon's few remaining siblings, Peter Lillard, lives with Alon and his family. Marylena is a "built-in"--i.e., a character who comes already built in to the game so that your Sims have someone to befriend.

This is the Heffinger family. Otto was a well-to-do single dad who moved to Beach Valley with his rebellious teenage daughter, Hortense, his twin toddlers, Jonah and Esther, and a rather intense nanny/cook, Frau Maura. While Jonah and Esther were both adorable toddlers, things were very different as they grew up. Jonah grew up unusually handsome, while Esther became frightfully ugly. Hortense grew up to marry Marisa Bendet, another built-in, and they adopted two children.

This is Peter Lillard Beechwood as a baby. Due to a glitch in the game, his parents were unable to feed him or otherwise care for him and he became one of the few of my Sim children ever taken away from their families by Social Services. I was especially sad about this because Patrice, his mother, had waited until late to marry, and Peter was her first-born.

Across town, as noted above, the O'Reillys were adopting five children in a row. As usual, the adopted children were all named with short names like Alon and Alec...until one day, when the Social Worker arrived with a new adoptee, and I noticed that his name was Peter Lillard! Of course, it makes sense that babies taken away from one family will be adopted out to another, but it had just never happened before in all the years I'd been playing the game.

It became my goal to find a way to introduce Peter to his biological family as he grew up. It was like playing the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, trying to figure out who in the family knows someone who knows the Beechwoods. Eventually, I was able to get Peter to befriend his biological sister--the child that Patrice had after Peter was taken away--and, via her, his biological parents. Peter remained with the O'Reillys his entire life.