I haven't seen anyone mention this yet:  I'd motherloded a family up to around $200k so I could move them into a house I'd built.  Sent mom into town to go shopping, clicked on the theater and there's an option to become a partner for $18k.  Apparently she gets a share of the profits and some other junk and also has the option to buy out the other partners for $40k now.  Kinda cool.

I saw some questions about the money tree seeds before.  Not sure if it's been answered but I got a money tree seed from an opportunity where I had to bring 10 very nice fruits/veggies to the restaurant in exchange for some stuff. 

She's not that bad when she's sitting still...her mouth is a little wonky though.

Hehe...toddlers can climb into the toy box to play.





This kid's dad autonomously taught her to walk too which is win.

Fair enough.  I have to admit that I was surprised in spite of knowing it would happen, when I switched families and then my first sim was an elder when the new family met her.  She'd been a day or 2 from her birthday when I left her.   That really comes down to the Story Progression issue though and whether it's broken, how it's meant to work and whether this really is the final copy of the game that we have.  I haven't paid enough attention to what other sims are doing in my game to even notice.  

Did you not notice the things I listed in the lines you quoted that are indeed in base TS3 that weren't in base TS2?  Not to mention a lot of stuff that never made it into TS2 even via an expansion.  You really just made my point for me.  

Click the fridge to put leftovers away.  Then click the fridge again and select "open".  You can grab whatever you have in there and drop it in your inventory.  Don't do it too far in advance of when you're doing whatever you're doing with it because it will spoil, even something like cookies.  Unlike the 5406978650987 assorted fruits, vegetables and fish my sim currently has stuffed in her pocketses. >.<

Lol durr...I should have realized that because I noticed that I had a plant option on harvested veggies in her inventory. 

- The only thing that's really annoyed me so far is how long it takes to sleep/work.  In TS2 a sim went to sleep/work, 3x speed comes on and you blink and it's morning.  On the other hand I started with a single sim so when they were sleeping/working I was twiddling my thumbs.  If I was playing a larger household I'm sure that wouldn't have been as much of an issue for me.  
- Jobs (the ones I've done, anyway) seem a little more trouble than they're worth.  They don't leave much time for anything else.  
- I'm not too keen on the look of the textures but I don't doubt the community will address that in the coming months.
- I have observed that a really really really lot of the complaints that I'm seeing about "this or that is a step backwards because it was in TS2" are referring to things that were in xpacks and not the base game.  Cars, gardening, Lifetime Wants, saving leftovers, were all xpack stuff too and they're in the base TS3 game but that seems to get overlooked.  
- I think people are over-reacting to build mode a bit too.  It's needlessly "clever" but still simple enough IMO.
- I like the variety of paintings they can do.  Different sizes for one thing and also different styles apparently based on their traits once they learn to do still life.  I had an opportunity to bring $450 worth of paintings to a restaurant for money which is cool.  Sims can actually DO something with their craftables.
- Opportunities are cool though they could be a bit more clear on wtf you have to do for some of them.  
- This "enforced legacy play" kerfluffle is getting blown waaaaayyy out of proportion, IMO.  Wishes aren't wants.  Promising isn't locking. TS3 isn't TS2.  Don't promise something you don't have time to finish.  Granted I don't see much point to not saving them but that's a far cry from "amg they're forcing me to play legacy style".
- Gardening is cool but...is randomly picking up a seed off the ground the only way to get them?  If so it strikes me as a little goofy.  I'd rather be able to buy a pack of seeds at the store.  You can always keep the uncommon and rare seeds lying around for sims to find.  Otherwise I'm having a good time with it.  

I'm pretty pleased overall.  What annoyances there are aren't game breaking for me.