Since last time we saw Gabriel Raptor (only child of Gina Raptor and her very good if mysterious student friend Dawson Day), he's had an ordinary uneventful toddlerhood.
Learning to talk
And to walk, and to go potty, and becoming best friends with his Mom, and all that usual stuff.
Building skills: darn blocks!
"Why won't this peg go in that hole?"
"Wait, this peg fits into that hole!"
These should really be a fancy rollover animation or something, eh?
"Now I get it!"
Gabriel discovers physics.
Gina very much enjoyed the process, even if she did get a little tired now and then.
Just a little afternoon pick-me up
But eventually toddlerhood came to an end.
Foof!
"You blow, Mom; I'll stay up here where it's safe."
Quite the little man
Next thing you know he'll be asking hard questions about the lady and the snake and all.
He immediately began encouraging my plans to make him Popularity aspiration, by wanting to make friends with various of Gina's very good friends.
"That's a good one, Ms. Hogan!"
"And aren't you cold? I'm sure my Mom could like lend you some clothes."
He also played host when the inevitable Headmaster of the inevitable local private school came by.
"Hey, your hair's almost the same color as my Dad's!
Only greyer!"
You can just see Gina inside, serving the salmon in her formal dress. Headmasters don't seem to actually care about formal dress, but I often dress my Sims up for Headmaster visits just for fun.
Not only did Gabriel get into private school easily, but Gina kept up the relationship.
In case of future need?
Not that she's planning to have any more kids. But there's always grandkids to think about.
Or maybe just for fun.
He's not such a bad guy, really, once you get to know him.
Gina also kept up the relationship with Gabriel's Dad, the mysterious (or at least previously mysterious) Dawson Day.
A heartwarming family scene.
Gina got pretty good at entertaining other lovers while Gabriel was asleep, but it was nice to have one lover the kid actively approved of.
A father-son discussion in the bathroom.
"You think someday I might be as tall as you?"
When her busy schedule as a Hall of Famer (tossing out the first chicken, kissing sports-babies, and so on) conflicted with Gabriel's school time, she hired a nanny service. This worked out fine for awhile.
"Are there any fish big enough to eat a whole elephant at once?"
But eventually something went wrong.
"Mom, you're finally home!"
"The nanny didn't come, and that was okay because I was talking to whatsername here, but then this voice in the sky said that it wasn't a good idea for me to be home without you. I don't like the voice!"
Since Gabriel would soon be old enough to be home alone anyway, Gina took some vacation and cancelled the Nanny service. Or at least she tried to.
But the nannies kept coming.
I swear, the only reason the "Talk to someone through the bear" action exists is so that visitors and NPCs can do it autonomously and creep me out.
Sometimes in groups.
Gina even tried seducing one once, just for variety, but didn't have much success.
Sometimes late at night.
One showed up consistently right around midnight for quite awhile.
Eventually Gina and Gabriel just learned to ignore the nannies, sometimes dismissing them, sometimes enjoying the random food they made, and generally getting on with life.
Random cute picture I
The first time I loaded Gina's lot after installing the University Patch, she was standing next to the backtub in the nude. She looked down at herself in amused surprise, and changed into her normal clothes.
Random cute picture II
Gabriel the Super-Cleaner; see the sparkle!
Eventually even childhood came to an end; another birthday.
Happy birthday!
I forget the little girl's name. Chloe Ganzaga, maybe?
Gabriel's father was home at the time, but he seemed uncomfortable. He just sat at the empty chessboard in the next room, doing nothing.
"A teenage son?"
"I may be an International Man of Mystery, but I'm still just a freshman in college. And my son's going to be a teenager? What's up with that?"
Once the Big Event had occurred, though,
Whoa, muscles!
Sorry little girl, he's beyond you now. Unless we start using cheats to grow up the townie kids.
Dawson relaxed a bit and joined in the conversation.
Oh, I've got ninety thousand pounds in my pajamas...
If I hadn't told them to do other things, all four of them would have stood around talking about money for the rest of the day.
So here's Gabriel Raptor, a proud newly-minted teenager.
"This does not look especially cool."
The Raptors (and maybe everybody else) tend to get that eyebrows-quirked look on their faces for obscure reasons.
He's become best friends with Jen Danvers.
They both want to be Captain Hero some day.
Him for Popularity reasons, her for Family ones. (They've actually become somewhat more than best friends, but that story will have to wait a little longer.)
And he's developed relationships both with his mother's friends
Just an air-kiss.
Don't worry, Meadow, he's not ignoring you.
And with his peers in the neighborhood.
Mmmm...
Meadow Thayer does the ingénue look so well; it'd be sad to let her grow up.
So life is good, and if a few nannies continue to haunt the place, what's the harm?
Although it's sometimes a little creepy.
I eventually had to moveObjects delete this one; she came over as someone's guest, I think, and soaked in the hot tub, but then she made some dessert, complained about being unable to get to something, and then stood in one spot in Gabriel's room ignoring all interaction attempts until she began to wave her arms around and complain about being exhausted. Didn't want a dead nanny cluttering up the place. Now that Gabriel's a teenager, the nanny that shows up at midnight just says "There are no children here" and leaves again, which is nice.
For Gina's part, she is of course still perpetually happy and perpetually young. Recently she's become obsessed with Katelyn Goss, a student at SSU.
"Gosh, Mom and Katelyn are such good friends!"
Unlike the usual Romance Sim behavior of wanting to call up lots of different lovers one at a time, or wanting to woohoo without regard to who it is, Gina's recently been spinning up wants to call Katelyn over, followed by wants to flirt with her, kiss her, make out with her, and so on. Katelyn's also autonomously made out with Gina, something that doesn't happen very often. Pretty strong chemistry there, it seems! We'll have to see how this develops.
They've been having a good time together.
Mostly while Gabriel is at school
Since like all Sims children, he thinks that his Mom should only get affectionate with his Dad.
But of course Gina is still Gina.
Love in the Hall of Fame
He brought her home from work once and they ended up making out on the lawn; then she brought him home, and they fell in love on the sidewalk. Romance Sims in pairs genreate significant sparks.
So that's the story from Gina's place; not quite up to date, but pretty close.