Paige Spencer’s birth was the top news story around town today, and Ethan and Ehlana were particularly excited about the arrival of another future classmate and friend. The only direct impact of her arrival for our family was that her doctor was exhausted by the time he got to our house for dinner, and he fell asleep about five minutes after we started the movie part of our dinner and a movie night.
Before we got to that, Rowen and I had a busy school day, and then we got our homework out of the way before taking Ethan and Ehlana out for a walk and to play at the park. The nice weather had brought out the boys to play football, and a group of girls that included Rebecca and Jenny that had gathered to watch the often-unsuccessful attempts to impress them. We stayed away from that end of the park, and though there were boys goofing off at the playground too, one of the advantages of having Ethan and Ehlana with us was that Rowen and I were never pestered by the boys when they were around.
Rowen wasn’t doing dinner and movie with us this week, so after leaving the park, Ethan, Ehlana, and I walked with her to the computer store before going home. Grandma and Grandpa were already there, and took custody of the twins while I went upstairs to get cleaned up and changed. Aunt Leanne was home by the time I’d done that, but Uncle Adam was running late while helping the Spencers get ready to take their new baby home and dealing with the usual Friday afternoon walk-ins. Mom ended up needing to keep dinner warm until he could join us.
I’m as excited for Grandma and Grandpa as they are about their trip, but I’ll miss them a lot too. Our dinner conversation was both vocal and telepathic so that Ethan and Ehlana could talk with us more easily than they can with their still-developing voices. They wanted to know all about Paige Spencer from Uncle Adam first, but the rest of the conversation centered on Grandma and Grandpa’s trip. There wasn’t really anything that we didn’t already know about their travel plans, but they wanted to talk mostly with Mom and Aunt Leanne about the family business side of the trip; and Mom and I were both able to tell them a lot about the places they’d picked to visit on the days they had set aside for sightseeing.
As I mentioned above, Uncle Adam fell asleep shortly after we moved into the living room and started the movie; and he didn’t wake up when Dad got home from Crystal Springs. Aunt Leanne stayed cuddled with her sleeping husband, and Grandma and Grandpa had Ethan and Ehlana with them, so while we paused the movie; only Mom and I went outside to welcome Dad and help bring in his work cases and luggage. That didn’t take long, and when we went back to watching the movie; Mom and Dad had a sofa full of kids to cuddle with when Ethan, Ehlana, and I all joined them.
Grandma and Grandpa were going to be leaving for the airport fairly early in the morning, but they still stayed until it was time for Ethan and Ehlana’s midnight feeding; mostly so they could spend the extra time with Dad. I took advantage of that, and cuddled with one or both of them while they sat and talked with Mom, Dad, and Aunt Leanne. Uncle Adam got his wakeup call to go home to bed then too; and there was a long round of goodbye hugs and kisses before any of us were ready to say goodbye to the ones we wouldn’t see for the next month.
Dad was wiped out by then too; so Mom and I sent him to bed, and I helped her with Ethan and Ehlana. We had them asleep and in their cribs by one o’clock, and I’ve been sitting in bed and working on my computer since then; too fired up to sleep yet. I know we’ve got a long, busy Fall cleanup day just hours away, but I wanted to do a fairly thorough check of what the Hathornes were doing; and hopefully make sure that they wouldn’t be making any trouble for Grandma and Grandpa while they were away. I didn’t find anything to worry about; but there was some news about Gwyneth.
It wasn’t being publicized, but she now had a full-time tutor on the payroll, and the first report the woman had submitted advised Gawain and Kellie that their amazing daughter was an off-the-charts brilliant child prodigy. I wasn’t surprised about that, but it does make me wonder about what kind of public identity Gwyneth is going to have. There is no way that Ethan, Ehlana, or I would ever want the kind of attention that being a child prodigy would bring, and considering how well-known the Hathornes likely are among the Dark Magi; it could even be more dangerous for Gwyneth to do that than it would be for us.
There wasn’t anything else specific going on around Hathorne Industries; though Kellie and Gawain have both been making some changes. None of those changes have been for the good – they’re just doing some really bad things differently than Corwyn did. If my little gift for Gawain has had any effect on him at all, it is not showing up in how he runs the Centre or treats his people. Hopefully, that will change some day.
For now, I’ll just be grateful that the Hathornes are leaving us alone; and now that it’s past two – going on three! – it’s definitely time to get on with the few hours of nap time I have left tonight. I’ll need to help out more with the yard work today, but since I get to do the Halloween decorating too; it will still be a fun day.