From The Ground Up:A Towering Legacy

Chapter Twelve:My Sweet Cheesecake

Welcome back to From The Ground Up!

Last time, Poppy and Samuel starting bringing in their family, aiming for six kids. Three were born in the last update, the twins Leela and Johnny, and their younger sister, Tina.

Let’s get on with this update! :D

We join the family to find Jim teaching Tina how to talk. That said, she doesn’t look very keen on learning.

“Come on, Tina, say Grandpa!”

“NO!”

Upstairs, Leela is learning how to paint. Hooray, everyone is learning skills!

All of the kids this generation have lots of creativity skills. No idea why!

“Who are you?”

“Cooking Guy. Did I mention your wife is smokin’ hot?”

“Get out!”

“Alright. See you at the cooking club.”

“No.”

Johnny is so many creativity points that he can successfully play the piano whilst wearing mittens.

That’s quite impressive, if you ask me.

This would probably explain why the kids have so many creativity points.

Plus they’re cute as a button at this stage.

That evening, Poppy started showing another pregnancy. This is exciting!

“Look what I made!”

Thinking caps and snapdragons can achieve wonderful things, right?

At this point, you may be wondering if I’m crazy, trying to induce twins, but you see, twins would make us one step closer to the goal of six kids.

Bring on the cheesecake twins!

“Look how GOOD I’m getting, John!”

“Great. Shush. TV.”

“You love TV more than me!”

“Only sometimes…”

Please be two babies, please be two babies…

I mean, look at that bump, how can it NOT be two babies?

“Leela, honey, you know Mummy was asleep, right?”

“Yeah, but this is more important, Mum! I got an A!”

“You ran past your grandparents to get up here…why didn’t you tell them first?”

I told you in the last update that the family end up kind of addicted to television. But it’s great for bonding right?

“I really feel like I get to know my grandchildren by watching movies in silence with them.”

“Hey, Leela! Check out this cool thing I learned! HANG LOOSE!”

NO. This is the first time I’ve seen it this generation. I thought we were going to be rid of it!

“Hang loose! Am I doing it right, Johnny?”

“Hmm. Could use a little more work.”

Instead of practising how to hang loose constantly – thank heavens – Leela went upstairs to practise how to be a musician.

Seriously, this family is so musical. I love it.

Later that evening, Poppy went into labour – are you ready for this?

Will the kid have the bug-eyes?

He did! This is Steve, named after the awkward teenage son from American Dad.

He’s the fourth baby, and has no twin. Apparently cheesecake won’t work when the house is at full capacity, despite my larger households hack. But I didn’t work that out until later. MUCH later.

Ugh.

Uninterested in the birth of their brother, Leela and Johnny discovered the video games system.

“Leela! Turn! Turn! You’re going off the road! You’re terrible at racing games!”

“Shut up, I can drive!”

Seeing as that’s the same system that their great-grandfather Dorian played on, I like to think that it’s wildly out of date. Old games can be the best, right?

“Oh. I forgot we had a sister.”

“It’s her birthday, Leela. We can play with her properly after that!”

Poor Tina. She was so quiet and well-behaved she got overlooked. Oops.

“Is everyone ready?”

“Grandpa, there’s free cake, of course we’re all ready!”

Tina is adorable! I’m like 90% sure she’s identical to Leela, but even so! The two of them are rather different-looking.

Might be Leela’s purple hair!

“Thank plumbbob you actually want to play instead of just watch, like Johnny.”

“Quiet, sis, it’s hard to talk and beat you at the same time.”

“I’m not losing!”

Steve also grew up at some point. I think he takes entirely after Poppy, which means Johnny is the only one with mixed genetics at this point!

He has a personality of 7/3/10/8/6

Wasting little time, Poppy and Samuel got straight onto making baby number #5.

I’ve given up on cheesecake and will just have to have the last two naturally.

“Dad’s fighting! Quick, run!”

“Which direction?”

“ALL of them!”

At this point, I don’t even remember who he was fighting. Probably should have taken a better picture.

“Why are you eating cheesecake when there’s almost a whole sponge cake right in front of you?”

“I’M DONE WITH PREGNANCY.”

It’s not going to work, presumably, but I tried anyway.

“Does that mean I can eat that whole cake, Poppy?”

It’s quite funny watching the kids drag themselves out of bed in the mornings. They’re like little zombies – Johnny especially.

Leela, Johnny & Tina all currently share the bedroom on the 4th floor.

“Johnny, why do you get to pick what’s on TV?”

“Because I watch it the most, so I know what’s good!”

“This isn’t fair. Tina, back me up!”

“No, I’m staying out of this.”

“More toddler training, gorgeous?”

“Yep. Only you’ll be doing it. I have work.”

“What? It’s not my turn!”

“Oh yes it is.”

“Rock, paper, scissors, best two out of three.”

“No.”

Upstairs, Leela had dragged her twin into what looks like a heart-to-heart.

“Can’t you have discussions about your feelings with Tina? I’m missing TV.”

“You’re silly. You’re my twin, so I have to talk to you!”

“You’re soppy. But I like you.”

“Ugh. Please be twins!”

That’s what I was hoping for.

“Why did you choose that guy? He’s the slowest!”

“He has the best moves!”

“Really?”

Now that Tina is a child, I often see her with Leela. More than I see Leela with Johnny, anyway.

Here’s your obligatory shot of Steve playing the xylophone.

Do you ever spell a word right but don’t think it looks right, so you change it and THEN it’s wrong? I just did that with xylophone.

I think Tina takes music more seriously than her siblings – she’s always got the furious-music face going on.

“You’re still here? Weren’t you here in the last update?”

“This is my home now.”

“Sure it is. Now move, it’s my turn.”

This was a fun surprise – Tina the tub-pirate!

I’m not very good at remembering personalities, so I guess I’m always surprised.

I was definitely surprised by Johnny. Son of the slob, but he makes the beds every morning on his own.

Explain that one, genetics!

“Oh look, I’m pregnant again! Who knew?!”

And in the corner you can just make out Johnny, who is no doubt watching TV again!

This is why I love spiral staircases – Let’s ALL go down stairs at the same time! No queues and delays!

Well. Minor delays.

I don’t envy the kids having to do this EVERY day. I live on the third floor with no lift now and it’s bad enough.

“Look, Tina! I did really well!”

“Johnny, we rode the same bus home. I know.”

“Did our TV get bigger?”

I found an old date gift in Poppy’s inventory! The family’s not poor, I just don’t buy big TVs very often.

“Hey, yooOOooou! Why is my granddaughter doing all the heavy lifting while pregnant? WoooOOoo!”

“I’m sorry, Mr Dorian Ghost, sir! I’ll change my behaviour right away!”

That took far less ghosts than it did for Mr Scrooge, though I guess in this case it didn’t really change anything. Jazz and Jim took over childcare. Again.

Though nobody’s perfect. This is cute, but he shouldn’t be out there in the snow!

Also maybe it’s just the boys this generation who like to sleep in the doghouse?

“My bump’s so big! It could be twins!”

Don’t celebrate just yet.

“Guess who practised enough to Hang Loose properly!”

NO. I thought it was going to die this time, I really did.

“So then, like, the mime gets really lonely-”

“Guys.”

“-and so he gets a bunch of cats and-”

“Guys. Do you wanna hang loose?”

“-everything works out fine, except…”

“Mum, Mum, look! I got a A!”

“You kids really need to learn when to wake me up and when not to.”

It seems like a good idea for Poppy to get up anyway – her babies are turning into teens!

Well. Just the oldest two. But still!

Transitioning worked out perfectly for Johnny, for Leela, not so much.

Leela rolled Pleasure, like both of her parents, and Johnny rolled Popularity.

Post-makeover and Leela’s got her purple hair back. Don’t they both look so pleased to be sat down for a picture?

There was also one more birthday to get through that night – Steve’s.

I feel like he’s been a toddler forever.

He DEFINITELY takes after Poppy, don’t you think?

He promptly takes up the family tradition of gaming. I expect he’ll be one to pull fun faces, but no sign of them yet.

Later that evening, it was time for another child – or possibly children – to join the family.

Samuel looks like he’s jogged the entire height of the tower just to be there for his wife. How sweet!

It’s a girl!

This is DeeDee, named after the big sister from Dexter’s Laboratory.

Naturally, she doesn’t have a twin. It was at this point I realised cheesecake wouldn’t work, when I only had one pregnancy left to go.

I feel cheated.

Oh and Steve proved my point that he’d make some great faces. It’s the bug-eyes, it has to be.

“Guys, guys, look out. I’m about to do something amazing!”

Steve then rolled backwards and forwards for the amusement of his grandpa.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of a roly-poly?

He may be older, but he hasn’t changed – TV is still number one in Johnny’s life.

That said, spring came and I forced him outside. We need more vegetables if we want more sparkly food!

Johnny didn’t seem to mind the outdoors too much.

Leela didn’t appreciate it quite as much.

“Isn’t it great out here, sis?”

“No. I broke three nails and I keep finding slugs. I hate it.”

I thought the hula was going to die out, too. But apparently not.

At least the kids haven’t picked it up yet.

Yet.

And I’ll finish with this – toddler DeeDee! I have no idea if there’s any of Samuel in her. We’ll find out soon enough, I guess!

See you next time!