Today I was playing and I sat gleefully watching one of my favorite animations- the cat playing with the bird toy. This made me wonder what little things in the game make other people smile like I do watching the cat. What are your "little joys" in the sims?

I like to see toddlers hugging on a pet or playing in a pile of leaves or trying to catch butterfly's.

A Sim teaching a toddler the nursery rhyme, and the toddlers response upon learning it.

Children running out to hug their parents when they come home from work.

ETA: I can see why some might find it annoying though.

I love the baby toy animations, toddlers hugging anything (pets, teddy bears, each other, older sims, you name it), and pretty much anything toddler-related. The kitties are cute when they play with their toys. I also love when sims ride the fridge door (doesn't happen very often, though). The nursery rhyme animations are adorable as well.

Peek-a-boo! Peek-a-boo is the best thing ever. I can watch a Sim playing it with a toddler for hours. Pretty much anything toddlers do is cute, really. (Too bad they aren't part of the game, for TS4!) Even sitting on the floor picking their nose. Or standing in their crib screaming to be let out, stamping their little feet. The pout on their face when they don't get let out and they stop screaming and sit down in their crib is cute, too. Come to think of it, I think the reason that TS3 Sims feel so lifeless is that their faces aren't as animated as TS2 Sims.

As for non-toddler things, I like it when Sims slide down banisters and have pillow fights and water balloon fights. I've had some epic water balloon battles in my game.

Oh, sliding down banisters, for sure! And thanks to having the UC, I just saw the full-on "I don't want to let you out of my arms, even though the carpool is honking outside" morning cuddle that people with AL have been talking about for so long...aww! Speaking of cuddles, cuddling on the couch is adorable, although with ACR...it often gets steamy fast. Also, toddlers hugging cats, kittens and puppies playing together, cats chasing off wolves, teenagers embarrassed by their elders kissing, someone falling for the "Dazzle" sales interaction...

This may get me some disapproval, but since I have InTeen, I'll say that I also love (guilty pleasure though it is) the way pregnant teens waddle. And, in certain contexts, the height difference between teens and adults/young adults can have cute results...

Oooh... I just find dogs and cats so incredibly cute when they are given love by a Sim. If only pets were this easy to take care of IRL!

The fist pump, and the evil rubbing hands together thing Sims do when you direct them to do something that they want to do.

Sims calling their babies "nooboo."

When Sims autonomously sit down with their toddler when the toddler is using a skilling toy.

The toddler squishing the guts out of the pet. That always makes me smile.

The child tormenting a sibling animation: "Nyah-nyah-you can't get me!"

When a sim plays with a baby and the baby grabs for their ears.

And of course the birth sequence, male or female. I mean the one that you get if you don't have the video clip turned on.

Today, my sim adopted a dog and I watched her play with the squeaky toy. I really liked seeing her teeth and tongue stick out of her mouth. It's cool, because the human sims don't have tongues and their teeth aren't very detailed. Haha.
I love the new cuddle in bed from one of the expansions.. I dunno which one.. I never saw it before, but it's so sweet and even more adorable than the regular one.
I love autonomous relationships. Sims 3 is so boring, because that never happens. Some sims fall in love on their own and others become enemies. I had inseeminator once, and my sim lived with her parents and boyfriend. After he got her pregnant, the dad suddenly started hating the son for some reason and attacked him without my guidance. I thought it was a very realistic touch. I will never forget that family.
My only complaint was creepy old men wolf whistling at my teen and teen sims randomly rolling wants to become pregnant. Haha.
I liked how babies wiggled their limbs, how they weren't perfectly still like in Sims 3. I liked the face the baby would make after finishing their bottle.

Simlish can be hilarious sometimes. The number of times my sims have shaken their heads and gone 'oh, woofum' when the dog or cat has done something bad. XD

"Nooboo" is wonderful. I've had the game sound turned off for so long, (I play in windowed mode so I can listen to spotify) I've forgotten some simlish.

I love pretty much everything babies do, especially with the danglemaster and when the parent plays with the dangle toys. It's just so cute! :~)

I love it when older teen siblings treat their younger siblings nicely. Like autonomously tucking them into bed, and hugging them. I finally saw a "Read to Sleep" in my game with Miranda Capp reading to Desdemona.

I like it when children autonomously carry the Teddy Bear.

Oh, and I only saw this once in my game, but after witnessing some adult sims starting to argue with each other, a child sim ran to the other room crying! Then his dad kneeled over to him and tried to make him feel better. Sweetest thing ever.

Thbe birth sequence when a male Sim gives birth to an Alien baby is awesome. Toddlers hugging each other is awesome. Shy Sims flirting, shoe boring into the ground. Active children running around everywhere. An elder male Sim standing up straight when a pretty young Sim lady passes by is perhaps my top favourite!

I really need to play with free will enabled at least once! Most of the things mentioned here, I have never experienced in my 8-9 years of playing Sims 2.

I love the animations of a cat playing with the mouse toy or two pets playing with each other.

Also something as simple as two sims hugging and cuddling while relaxing in a bed. I have never been a cuddler myself, but it does look very sweet when they do it.

The happy faces when two Sims play Red Hands.

When a teen forgets all about being sophisticated for the joy of playing with his radio-controlled toy car. Or gets really carried away playing SSX-3.

When a Virgo child is busily fussing round the house cleaning everything in sight -- and clearly enjoying it. If only there were real children like that!

And (this is probably a big joy) that unforgettable failed first kiss that I've only seen once, when Andrew first tried to kiss his best friend Julian. The kiss wasn't rejected. Their lips touched, but the enormity of what they were doing was clearly too much for the boys, and they couldn't quite finish it. It was obvious that they both wanted to do it. Maybe it was the shock of discovering that they were gay. Or Julian's sheer surprise that his best friend wanted to kiss him. And the embarrassment even though they were alone in the house. Minutes later Andrew tried again and they did kiss.

I enjoy the animations when sims decide to play in a bathtub.
I love to see them worrying about a friend or relative wo has passed out.
Greeting enemies.
Embarassment when a friend is gooseing somebody.
Faces the make during an alien abduction.
Aspiration failure.

My son in real life loves to clean. Anything unless it's his own room! Lol!

I like the feature they added in one of the later EPs where a sim couple will cuddle in bed for the last half hour or so before they need to get up

The few seconds of the "Romantic kiss" option before they kiss, when they're looking lovingly into each others eyes. I have a total soft-spot for it. :lovestruc
Same with the hug they do after a sim proposes "go steady" with the other sim. Infact the whole interaction with the hand-holding is adorable.
Toddlers cuddling with puppies/kittens. It's cute when they hug older pets too, but I love the way they just pick the poor little animal up and snuggle it up to their face.
When sims play with the wombat
The song children sing when they play "Mary Mack"

I also really love the little "oo is it a girl or a boy?" moment after the baby plops out of the Mother's plumbbob and you first see the baby's face.

Sliding down banisters? I have never witnessed that!

One of my favourite things is the Toddler playing on the xylophone. It's hilarious.

Kids playing together. Especially if they're cousins or some other relatives that don't live together. Aww!
I actually know the entire simlish mary mack song...

I think it came with M&G, at least that's when I first noticed it.


hehe so do I. When me and my older sister were 8 and 10 or so (when the game first came out), we use to play 'mary mack' sometimes and speak Simlish to each other to confuse the neighbours kids.

"Gooooooooooooo ... gerbits!"

That still amuses me, too.

I am still amused and regularly snigger when they pull some implausible item out of their ass.