Welcome back to my legacy, friends! It is I, Cardamom Spice, supermom! Well, I will be a supermom someday. Right now I’m just a cat mom.

Stephan and I had moved to a new neighborhood named The Spice Rack, along with our womrat, Lord Snugglebottom, and our little kitten, Kitty Pryde. Right after we moved, she grew up into Grumpy Cat, which never fails to amuse me.

We tried to cheer her up, but grumpy cats gonna grump, I guess. Kitty Pryde saw a lot of love in those days from both Stephan and me, since we were both wanting kids but having trouble having them.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying. As two family sims, starting our family was the number one thing on our minds, but it just wasn’t happening.

I felt confident that it would happen when the time was right, so we just kept busy in the meantime. We studied up on skills. Stephan needed a few more than I did. Despite being so busy during college, I had nearly maxed cooking, mechanical, and cleaning (since I knew those would help me be a better parent) and creativity since I had spent so much time painting and throwing pottery, but I had not done much else. Stephan also got a job in the education track. He had to slog off to school each day in the middle of winter.

One day Stephan came home to a quiet house. I had not been feeling well all day, and after throwing up several times, I had gone to bed early. Luckily, he was just the kind of guy to clean it all up without saying a word to me later.

The next day we found out the reason for my sickness – which seems obvious in retrospect now – when I experienced the first pop in my pregnancy! We were both delighted that we were going to be parents at last! I had to change clothes because the old ones had gotten too restrictive around my bump, and without my friends around in this new neighborhood to coach me, I just threw on a collection of possibly mismatched pieces. At least they were comfortable!

“Well, Kitty Pryde, are you ready to be a big sister? You know you’ll have to be responsible now!”“I don’t think she understands you, honey.”“Oh, she understands me just fine. She’s just giving me sass.”“Okay, dear . . .”

Stephan and I were so excited to be parents. It seemed like the time to meet our baby couldn’t come soon enough, but we would have to wait. Meanwhile, we congratulated each other on finally getting me knocked up.

We were still living in our little two room house. Stephan needed some friends to move up in his career, so I greeted everyone that walked by and then called them later from the phone in the bathroom. We kept it there so it wouldn’t ring when we were sleeping. Three guesses as to my favorite topic of conversation, and the first two don’t count!

“Hey there, Lord Snugglebottom. How ya doin’, pal? Oh, what’s that you say? Cardamom should take prenatal vitamins and go to all her doctor’s visits? Aren’t you a helpful little womrat. Don’t worry, though. We’ve got it covered.”

Another day, another pop. I was going to be a mommy at last!

It seemed like that last day was the hardest one to wait through. We were both just so excited. I was glad I had chosen Stephan out of all the guys in Three Lakes, because he was definitely the most like me. He was ecstatic about becoming a father and couldn’t leave my belly alone. When I did get some time to myself, I spent it painting because I was already pretty tired most of the time, so I didn’t have energy to throw pottery.

Finally the day had come! Or night, as it happened to be. We were both sound asleep and Stephan was woken up by my howls of pain.

I had a beautiful little daughter who we decided to call Rosemary. Since Stephan and I both have brown hair and he has dominant blue eyes, the only genetics question left was whether the baby would have my S3 skin or his S4. As it happened, Rosemary looked more like Stephan as a baby! All of our kids – and yes, we definitely planned on more – would end up looking a lot alike, at least from a coloring standpoint.

To celebrate Rosemary’s birth, we took the money we had been saving from my artwork and Stephan’s job, and built a little cabin to live in. I let Stephan design it since I was still pretty tired, and unsurprsingly, it had a strong mountain influence.

This overhead picture was actually taken much later, so don’t mind the multiple beds, cribs, and toddler blankets. For the most part, the layout was the same from the beginning. There was a nursery, a bedroom for Stephan and me, a tiny bathroom, and a large main room that served as kitchen, dining, living, and study areas. Later we added the kids’ room in the top left of the picture.

Sometimes I love being a sim. One moment we were celebrating the birth of our daughter in a two room shack. We then walked outside, I closed my eyes for a second, and when I opened them again we had a beautiful house to raise Rosemary in. Stephan and I stepped back inside and got to know our little daughter.

*All the kids will be named after spices, as their last name suggests, but I’m taking a liberal approach to what qualifies as a spice. So technically, the kids will be named after spices, flavorings, seasonings, and herbs, but Spice made a better last name than Spice-Flavoring-Seasoning-Herb.

We spoiled Rosemary from the beginning. She was our first little baby, so she got all our attention. We hoped that soon she would have a little brother or sister to play with when she was old enough. That day was coming sooner than I wanted to admit.

Stephan finally got enough cooking skill to make us pancakes, but I couldn’t even enjoy them because I couldn’t keep them down. I wondered whether this meant I would soon be holding another little baby in my arms.

While we waited to find out, Stephan and I spent time with Rosemary, then tried to keep ourselves busy while she was napping. I kept painting and Stephan tried out pottery, but he didn’t have the aptitude or patience for it that I had, so I don’t think he ever even finished his first piece.

The long-awaited moment of truth came when I felt that first definite sign of pregnancy. Rosemary would soon have a sibling!

First though, it was time for Rosemary to have a birthday. I couldn’t believe time was passing so quickly!

Rosemary looked a lot like her dad. Of course, I love Stephan so I thought that was great, but I did hope she might have some of my features. Her personality was a good mix of both of ours, though she was quite shy like me. She was neat, somewhat active, a little serious, and very nice.* I was delighted to get to know more about my daughter.

*7/1/6/4/8

Kitty Pryde took an early interest in Rosemary. She was a pretty independent cat, but she really liked being cuddled by Rosemary and sought her out for it. Not that you could tell from the faces she pulled!

We were excited for the birth of our next child, but Stephan finally had to return to work. He had taken some time off after Rosemary’s birth and then had had a day off, so he hadn’t been in for a while. I had been popping during the day, so it seemed likely that I might give birth then too, and we were worried he might miss it.

It just so happened that that’s exactly what transpired. I was busy teaching Rosemary her skills when I went into labor. Of course she couldn’t help me – and was more than a little alarmed by the whole thing – so I went through it on my own.

To my delight, the birth revealed that I was carrying twins! Two more little girls who looked almost exactly alike as babies. As I knew they would, they had brown hair and dark blue eyes, but they also both had my skin color. I named the girls Saffron and Sage.

When he got home that evening, Stephan spent plenty of time with all three girls. When they were all down for the evening, we spent some alone time in our bedroom. We knew we wanted a big family, so we were trying for a baby again right away.

Still, things were a little crowded. We hadn’t built the children’s room in the back of the house yet at that point, so Rosemary slept in our room so she wouldn’t be wakened by the occasionally crying babies. I stayed home to take care of the girls, and Stephan kept working to earn money for us. Our finances were pretty tight in those days, but we weren’t going to let it stand in the way of having the family we desired.

When he got home from work, Stephan put in lots of good time as a father. I was also spending a lot of time with the girls, and Rosemary was learning more and more by the day.

I liked our mountain-style house, but where I really wanted to live was on the beach. There was a beautiful beach lot across the street from us, but we didn’t have enough money to purchase it and build a house there, so I simply dreamed of it for the time being – and apparently so did Kitty Pryde! Maybe we would earn enough one day – though it would be tough with the number of kids we planned to have – or maybe one of my children would be able to move us there when she (or maybe he, eventually) was in charge of the legacy.

Soon it was Rosemary’s birthday again. I couldn’t believe how fast my little girl was growing up. Now she would be going to school soon!

Rosemary grew up beautifully, in my opinion. She definitely favored Stephan over me in her looks.

Her first action as a child was the take out the trash. I had to laugh. For sure, I thought she would want to play or at least talk or something, but she just wanted to clean up, I guess!

The night of Rosemary’s birthday also happened to be Saffron and Sage’s birthday. Our kitchen was a bit small in those days, so Rosemary had to stand pretty far away in order to cheer her little sisters on.

Again, my daughters looked rather like their father, though Saffron did get my rounder nose. Saffron, on the left, was our first outgoing child, though she was just as lazy as me and as serious as her big sister. She was also quite nice and neat. Sage, on the right, was also neat and nice, but she was shy, active, and playful, unlike her twin.* I was glad I would be able to tell them apart in looks a little bit and personality a lot.

*Saffron: 7/7/2/4/6Sage: 7/3/6/8/6

The girls were very close from the beginning and spent all their time together happily, with no arguing or pushing. Not that they could argue much when this picture was taken, since neither of them could talk yet!

We added on the children’ room to the back of the house for Rosemary, Saffron, and Sage to sleep and play in together. They also learned a lot in that room. Before long the youngest girls were pottytrained and talking, and Rosemary had learned how to study effectively and was bringing home great grades.

Rosemary liked spending time by herself or with us – a typical firstborn child – but she also enjoyed playing with her sisters sometimes. As for them, they were inseparable.

While making best friends with Sage – who is just out of the picture here – I felt that familiar wave of nausea that signaled my morning sickness. Number four on the way!

“Yeah, it’ll definitely be me taking that vacation to pick out a spouse. I’m the firstborn, right? That’s how it should work.”“Honey, we’re a long way away from picking an heir, and we haven’t even finished having kids!”“What are you talking about? I already have two sisters! How many more do I need?”“Well . . .”

Stephan and I had a fairly even division of labor. He did most of the cleaning since I was tired from being pregnant, and I did most of the cooking since he kind of sucked at it.

It was while making lunch one day that I popped the first time in this pregnancy. Whether she was ready for it or not, Rosemary was going to have another sibling! I had earned enough lifetime experience points to increase my odds of twins, so I was hoping we’d see another two babies.

While I was in my third trimester, the twins’ birthday came up again. Rosemary celebrated with us, even though she wasn’t in the picture.

While the girls were getting changed for me to take their child pictures, I went to the bathroom, but soon realized I was going into labor. We all crowded around in the bathroom while I gave birth to my first son.

His name was Coriander and he was a brunet, blue-eyed, S3 baby like two of his older sisters. I thought he was just darling. Although I loved all of my kids equally, I was glad to finally have a boy to balance the family a bit.

*Cardamom had the lifetime perk to have twins, which in my experience has always been 100%, but she had a single baby this time anyway.

Now back to the twins. They wanted to dress alike and keep their hair the same, so I was glad they had different noses and picked different colors to wear so I could tell them apart! They were both such beautiful little girls, though, and they handled Coriander’s birth with aplomb. I was so proud of them.

Stephan and I tried for another baby right away again. I should probably let you in on a little secret. We knew it was a common family sim want to have 10 kids, but what we really wanted was 13.* It would take a lot of time and effort to get there, but the getting there was fun, so I thought we were up to the task. It helped that we were both family sims.

*Why 13? I wanted an extra challenge and 13 is a lucky number in my family.

Having three girls and one bathroom was not the easiest thing in the world. They all seemed to need it at the same time every morning and right after school. It was times like these that I longed for the soothing effects of snapdragons, but we would just have to deal with their needs the traditional way.

“Hey Sage! Done with the shower yet? I need to get ready for school!”“Yeah, it’s all yours, Saffron. I’m going to go play dolls.”“Wait! Why is the water spurting out like this?”“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Well, have a good shower!”“Grr.”

It didn’t help matters that Kitty Pryde was apparently quite shy, and didn’t like going to her litterbox when people were in the bathroom. She would wait and wait and wait until she really had to go rather than use it in the presence of someone else. Such a finicky cat!

Being a parent of this many children was difficult. Some days I had everything under control, with cakes baked for the birthdays, the baby fed on time, and myself dressed as nicely as possible.

Other days it was the middle of the night, I was in my underwear, Coriander was screaming, there was garbage on the floor and I was exhausted.

Then there were those days where all of the above happened, but Sage had also broken the shower again before bed and it had been spraying water for hours while we all slept. Since I was up anyway, I fixed it instead of waking Stephan up, also since I had more mechanical skill and he had to go to work tomorrow.

If it was a really bad day, I would get finished fixing the tub just to throw up in the toilet, my knees wet from the shower’s mess.

And then on the worst of days, my puking would back up the toilet and I’d be up in the middle of the night, in my underwear, sick to my stomach, standing in toilet water, plunging. Being a parent can be kind of not so fun at times.

With three children in school in those days, we spent a lot of time helping with homework. The girls were very good about studying when they were done with their homework. We wanted them all to get scholarships.

To ensure they had the best chance at success, we decided to try to get them enrolled in a private school. Mr. Ryan, the headmaster, came over for dinner and a tour. He and Stephan really hit it off, and we got an excellent schmooze score. It must be because they both work in education. Mr. Ryan was very pleased with the dinner, but not so impressed with our small, sparsely decorated house. The only room he really liked was the nursery, but I was not thrilled about him yelling and cheering while I was trying to put Coriander down.

The girls got into private school that night and left in their adorable uniforms bright and early the next day.

“Hi Mom! Good morning.”“Hurk . . . bleg . . . Good morning, Sage.”“I’m gonna break the shower again, okay?”“No, don’t you . . . gurg . . . bleh. . .”“Okay, mom! I’ll break it later!”“Ugh!”

After a really bad bout of morning sickness, I was compelled to change back into my ugly blue pjs when I popped again. Here comes number 5!

“You know what I really like, Stephan?”“I can take a guess.”“Babies. I like babies. And now we’re going to have more! Hopefully twins this time!”“I like babies too.”“I know. Being a family sim with this controller is so great. Babies, babies, babies!”

Although we all kind of ate on the run in the morning, we tried to have dinner together most nights as a family. We congratulated the girls on the great grades they were bringing home, and they cleaned up after dinner all on their own. I love having neat children!

Soon it was Coriander’s birthday. We got the whole family except for Lord Snugglebottom in the shot this time, since we had added a few counters onto the kitchen.

Finally, a kid that looked like me! In fact, except for having dark blue instead of green eyes, Coriander looked just like me! He even had my freckles. He was a very active and nice little guy, neat like his sisters, and slightly on the shy and serious side.*

*6/4/10/4/8

“Um, hello . . . children.”“Hi, Mr. Spice!”“Cardamom! Do we have more children than usual?”“They’re just visiting, dear.”“Oh, phew. We’ve got enough to worry about at the moment as it is. Carry on, girls.”“Okay, Mr. Spice!”

“He looks just like me!”“Not so much dear, but 1 out of 4 ain’t bad.”

The kids’ room was getting pretty full, but I definitely had another baby on the way! I was getting very excited to have another baby – each one made me blissfully happy, and then I rolled lots of wants for them, so I was pretty much happy all the time, which was good, as I had a lot of chores and symptoms of pregnancy to deal with.

I was home alone with Coriander one day when it was time to give birth. I had to stop our little learn-to-walk session. It was a lot like when Rosemary was the only witness to her twin sisters being born.

Also like that time, I had twins again! Yay! It would be really hard to get to 13 if I only had single births. The babies were a girl and a boy this time.

Our daughter, Salt, is on the left, while her twin brother Pepper is on the right. You will probably not be surprised to hear that they had brown hair and blue eyes.

Stephan was really moving up the ladder in education. He raced home every day to play with the babies, teach Coriander skills when I was too busy or tired, and hang out with the girls while they skilled. He needed to skill too since he was hoping to become Minister of Education.

“Hey, do you think they would even notice if we adopted ourselves into the family? They’ve got a pretty sweet game system here.”“Are you kidding? We just visit a few hours a day and you see how crazy it is. Can you imagine needing to use the bathroom around here?”“Good point. Speaking of which, I have to go home now.”

Time flew, and soon it was my oldest daughter’s birthday again. I couldn’t believe Rosemary was becoming a teenager. It actually made me sad and I had trouble cheering at the party because I knew she would be leaving for college soon. I kind of wished I could keep all my babies together forever, but I knew the nature of the legacy meant only one would be moving back in with me. I kicked the funk and did manage to celebrate eventually. I didn’t want to be a drag on Rosemary’s big day.

Rosemary grew up very beautifully, and she picked out another outfit of bright colors to wear. She declared that she was a knowledge sim with a secondary of grilled cheese, and that she wanted to be Chief of Staff at the local hospital. I was so proud of my little girl!

It was almost time for Rosemary to head off, but first she helped out by feeding Salt and Pepper, and then she got a little good advice from the ever-practical Lord Snugglebottom. I think he told her to study hard, not skip classes, and watch out for the food in the cafeteria.

The time to leave came and Rosemary called for her scholarships and then for the taxi. She was the first one to leave the nest, but she would not be the last by a long shot.

Rosemary sent us a picture from college to show she was doing well. She would wait there until her other siblings – some of whom hadn’t even been born yet – arrived. Time is such a strange thing in sim lives, but I don’t bother questioning it too much. I was just happy that my Rosemary was happy living at college.

I had finally gotten too old to have kids, but a few quick sips of elixir fixed that. Stephan was waiting for me. We had a free bed in the house, after all.

That’s the end of the chapter! Thanks for reading, and check back for more on my legacy in the next chapter. We’re on a race to 13 kids, and we’re nearly half way there! See you next time!