Growing Older

As their oldest son, Peter, became a teenager, Jamie and Rich Rand weren't feeling so young themselves. They were moving slowly, but surely, towards middle age. As Jamie noticed her first wrinkles, and Rich noticed his first gray hairs, Peter was launching himself into a new hobby. Inventing.

They told him under no circumstances was he allowed to perform such dangerous experiments in the house, so the ingenious teen set up his workbench at the far end of their property, just within sight of the back door. He went to that workbench straight after school almost every day, and proceeded to hammer, weld and smash scrap metal into submission. Rich was dismayed to notice that he wasn't excelling in high school as much as he had in elementary school, and was quick to blame the new hobby. He had wanted so much to have a child follow him into a scientific career, but it seemed that his eldest was destined to the quirkier side of the sciences. Jamie didn't handle the change in her son as well as her husband had; she thought that it was only a matter of time until he seriously injured or killed himself. But, since his grades were still satisfactory, if not stellar, neither parent spoke to him about them.

What worried them more was the eclectic collection of junk that was beginning to spring up in the far reaches of their backyard, courtesy of Peter's salvaging efforts. They were also concerned that their younger son, Jason, was spending his evenings after he finished his homework watching his older brother, though for different reasons. Jamie was mostly concerned for his safety, because the tools and techniques employed by the tinkering teen weren't exactly up to code. Rich, on the other hand, was still worried that none of his children would consider a career in medicine or scientific research.

The twins, Roman and Erika, were growing up as well. No longer infants, they were beginning to reach into the wider world as toddlers. Rich was quick to point out that they were fraternal, rather than identical, twins, and that they had slightly different facial features, skintone, and hair color.Roman took mostly after his father, while Erika had many of her mother's features. They learned quickly, as toddlers do, and life began to settle into a steady rhythm, the most stable since the surprise double birth.

Soon, Jason was growing up as well. He knew his parents were too busy to throw a party, so he chose to just blow the candles out on a cake by himself. Peter was busy outside at his workbench - when wasn't he? - Jamie was with the twins, and Rich was on call at the hospital, so Jason was left alone in the house. As Jason was bending down to blow out the candles, Peter was outside, setting a blowtorch down on his workbench to examine his product. He turned it one way, then the other, absent-mindedly leaning towards his bench as he'd been prone to doing lately. Jason straightened up, candles extinguished, and heard a blood-curdling scream coming from the backyard.

A Surprise

While their parents raced to the hospital where Rich would deliver their new sibling, Jason and Peter were left to their own devices at home. They were old enough, by Sunset Valley law, to be left alone during the day without a babysitter now. They mostly spent the long afternoon playing chess, one of Peter's favorite activities. Jason didn't understand the game very well, and suspected that Peter might be letting him win, but he didn't say anything about it.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, the birth was going well. Jamie had just given birth to a healthy baby boy, who she named Roman. But the birth wasn't over yet! Roman also had a twin sister, who, after some thought, was named Erika. How could Rich have known enough medical science to know that she was going to have a boy, but not know she was going to have twins, Jamie wondered. The exhausted couple finally took a taxi back home, once it was clear that there weren't triplets on the way.


Jamie carried Roman, while Rich took charge of his sister, Erika. Peter and Jason were old enough to be fascinated by the twins, and promised to help take care of them and teach them when they were older. Exhausted, Jamie prepared for bed, while Rich got ready for his next day of work. It was going to be a long next few years.

Off to School

Rich was finally promoted to be a world-renowned surgeon at the hospital. While his work hours weren't cut by much - he still has to work 4 days each week - he is satisfied with his accomplishment. Most sims take almost their entire lives to achieve such a goal, and he was still relatively young. He was glad that he would be able to spend time with his sons, and future children, without having to worry about career advancement.


By this time, of course, Peter had started school. He was intelligent, with a certain knack for cobbling together unusual items, but neither of those skills applied themselves well to his homework. Rich used his newly found free time to tutor his son after class, and help him with the piles of homework that the teachers heaped upon him each day. After dinner, Rich would retire to his bedroom to study new research in the medical field, while Peter would play with his blocks set. It was his favorite toy by far; he even spent more time with it than Jason had with the xylophone. Some days, Peter would bring home friends from school. Most of them had heard of Rich, the doctor who had treated their parents or siblings, and were excited to be tutored in the basics of science and mathematics by such a logical parent.



Shortly before Jason was due to begin school, Jamie found out that she was pregnant again. The pregnancy went well, and as her due date approached she asked Rich to examine her and determine the sex of the baby. He found that the baby would be male, a determination that was met with some degree of sadness. Both of their previous children had been boys, and they had both been looking forward to the possibility of having a girl this time. But as the pregnancy progressed, the sadness was swallowed up by the excitement of having another child to love, whatever the gender. As the first pangs of labor hit, Rich hailed a taxi and escorted his wife to the hospital, leaving their two sons to take care of each other at home.

A New Addition

Soon, Jamie became pregnant again. It was hard to take care of Peter while under the stress of pregnancy, and even harder once his little brother Jason was born, but she did her best while Rich was hard at work all day. He was rising up the ranks of his career very quickly, gaining a promotion almost every day, but the catch was that he had almost no personal time to himself. He even dreamed about work!


It didn't help that, even on his days off, he couldn't get away from work. He was at the library one day, trying to relax, and a woman began to feel ill. Of course, with his advanced medical training, all he had to do was whip out some sort of device(what exactly it was we probably don't want to know) and he diagnosed her on the spot.


Even though they were once again starting to consider having more children, Jamie and Rich knew that having a third right now would be more than they could handle. They decided to put off having their third child until their youngest was nearing school age. At first, this sounded distant, but Jason was growing up quickly. He soon grew up from an infant into a toddler, and began to exhibit his own personality. Rich was somewhat disappointed that he didn't seem as intellectual as his brother, but Jamie was delighted by his musical tendencies - he loved to bang on the xylophone. Now that Peter and his brother could both amuse themselves, Rich found the time to complete his study of logic. Jamie, on the other hand, got some well-earned rest.

Meet the Rands!

Meet Rich and Jamie Rand! This young married couple recently purchased their first house in Twinbrook, but due to the unforgiving atmosphere of the town(read: it wouldn't stop crashing on me), they uprooted and moved to Sunset Valley. Rich is a friendly genius who loves to read, while Jamie is a neat natural cook who hates the outdoors. Both are family oriented, and have a slight kleptomaniac streak, as evidenced by when Rich accidentally brings home very odd objects from work.
Rich wants to reach the top of the medical career, while Jamie wants to stay at home and raise 5 children to become teenagers. They got started on their family very quickly; within a few days of moving to Sunset Valley, Jamie was already pregnant.

She soon gave birth to an adorable baby boy, who they decided to name Peter. He had his mother's hair, but took after his father in his eyes and superior intellect. While Jamie stayed at home, working on developing her skills and raising her new baby, Rich was hard at work at the hospital. A recent promotion had given him new responsibilities in the field of medical research, and he stayed awake well into the night reading reports and journals at the kitchen table.