I’m writing this report from the lunchroom at the
clinic. Aunt Leanne went into labor
tonight, and I’ve been here since shortly after the teen dance ended; mostly so
I could take care of Ethan and Ehlana, and maintain the wards around the
building, so that Mom and Dad could concentrate on Aunt Leanne, Uncle Adam, and
the baby. Ethan and Ehlana are having a
nap on the sofa right now; so this seemed like a good time to write about
what’s been one of those best-ever sort of days – even though the best news of
the day may have to wait for the next update.
We had another cool morning for Tai Chi by the river, but I
was fully charged, fired up, and ready for a fun play day with my friends; and
that was a great way to start the day.
Mom decided to make a ‘real’ breakfast, so Michael went home to get
ready first; and then came back again to have breakfast with us – and brought
Rebecca with him after she accepted the invitation we’d sent along with him.
I’m going to take a side-trip while thinking about Rebecca,
because she was on the receiving end of a matchmaking set-up today courtesy of
her best friend, Jenny. That news was
quickly a top story for the girls in my class because that set-up was with
Marc’s older brother, Jason. To be honest,
I wouldn’t have thought of Jason – or J.J. as his buddies call him – as
boyfriend material for Rebecca; but since Jenny would think he was a perfect
choice, I wasn’t surprised either.
That isn’t meant to imply anything about Jason other than
that he definitely isn’t a match for Rebecca.
From Jenny’s perspective, though, he’s just turned fifteen, in Grade
Ten, good-looking, and on the football team with her boyfriend, Garth. The fact that he’s learning how to drive now,
and a bit less than a year away from transportation independence is a bonus too
– even if he can’t drive by himself until then.
Rebecca and I had a chance to talk a bit about her day at
the festival with Jason, Jenny, and Garth; and it sounds like they had
fun. She’s flattered that Jason is
interested in her, and seems to be ready to give the dating game another try;
but she is being careful too – she turned down the invitation to go to the
football game and watch Jason play tonight.
I’m sure that Jason will be happy to find out that even though she
didn’t want to go watch the game that Rebecca did take their first ‘date’
seriously enough that she didn’t accept the offers from any other guys while at
the teen dance with us tonight – though she did dance with Ethan once before he
and Ehlana went home with Mom and Dad for the night; and was out on the dance
floor with her friends – including Rowen and me – during a lot of the up-tempo
songs.
That’s really taken me off track, so let’s back up to the
start of the day again. After having
breakfast, Michael and I cleaned up while Mom and Dad were getting ready for
the day – and Rebecca helped Mom with getting Ethan and Ehlana ready for a
KidZone day at the fall festival. Rowen
met up with us just as we were finishing that work; and we headed over to the
school together. We had the usual home
room activities to deal with before the teachers got everyone organized and
started sending groups of kids and teens over to the park.
This wasn’t entirely a play day for us, since even the
youngest kids had little ‘assignments’ that mostly involved learning about our
local agriculture through the shows and displays in the pavilions. While most of our friends headed straight for
the rides and games; Michael, Rowen, and I managed to convince Tim that we
should get that work out of the way first so we didn’t need to interrupt our
fun later. We would have gone through
all of the pavilions anyway, and it really didn’t take all that long to get our
little assignment finished – especially since the pavilions weren’t crowded
while we were there.
It was much warmer by the time we were ready to hit the
rides too, so Rowen and I had more fun with that too; though it was spending
the day with Michael and Tim that we loved most this year. Some favorite rides were back again, like the
Fireball and Twin Flip; while about half of the rides were switched up and
either new to the festival or returning favorites. Our favorites from the new rides were the
Supershot and Vertigo.
As I’ve mentioned before, our school isn’t the only one in
the area that does a field trip to the festival, so there were lots of kids and
teens here for the school day; and many of them came back for the evening with
their families after being bussed back home at the end of the school day. Even with all of the extra people at the
park, Friday is still the quietest day of the festival; and the line-ups
weren’t long for even the best rides.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I made one pass through the midway, and hit a
few rides a second time on the way back through before stopping to have lunch
and play some games.
Mom was one of the volunteers helping out with the KidZone
field trip to the festival, and we got to spend some time with her, Ethan,
Ehlana, Naomi, and Aiden during our lunch and game break. We helped the four younger kids to win some
prizes, and wrapped up our play time with them by going through the Haunted
House walk and a Ghost Maze ride that was a re-worked funhouse ride that Mom
wouldn’t have been able to do with four toddlers by herself.
I should mention that Mom did have Liz as her volunteer
buddy, but she went to take care of nursing Eli while we were there to help out
for a while.
Aunt Leanne came to play at the park for a while too, and
had Grandma and Grandpa keeping an eye on her; but we only had a little visit
with them then. We did get to spend a
bit more time together when we had dinner, but I’ll get to that part of the
story in a minute.
We spent most of the afternoon going on rides except for one
break for snacks and drinks. We watched
one of the shows in the main pavilion while doing that; and then had time for
another blast through the midway before going back to school long enough to
confirm that we survived the day and could be released from teacher
custody. That’s mostly done for the
younger kids and the farm kids that needed to take their busses home; though
I’m sure that most of the tween and teen farm kids just stayed in town with
friends and went straight back to the park so they could keep playing.
Michael, Tim, Rowen, and I checked in with parents first
before meeting up again at the park; and that gave us another couple of hours
to play before Michael and I were to meet up with my family for dinner and a
games and rides night. Tim and Rowen had
other options, but decided to join us; mostly because their parents were busy
at the computer store and both the shop and the display Landry’s has at the
festival for both their farm equipment and cars and trucks.
The Olde Bakery was open tonight too, so Aiden had stayed
with Ethan and Ehlana; and Liz, Philip, Naomi, and Eli had dinner with us too;
though they didn’t stay with us when we went to play after that. While we didn’t know just how close Aunt
Leanne was to going into labor; Mom and I did know that she was down to a day
or two at most; and she only managed to get through dinner and about an hour of
game and ride time before needing to have Uncle Adam take her home again.
For the record, Aunt Leanne did not go on any extreme rides
to try and induce labor – though I’m sure there will be jokes about that
considering the timing of events tonight.
She did sit in one of the carousel carriages while we were taking the
younger kids on that ride; and went with Uncle Adam and Ehlana on the Ferris
Wheel; but those were the only rides her doctor would let her attempt. She didn’t argue about those orders even once
tonight, and it’s obvious now that she wasn’t going along with all of that
pampering just because she was tired.
Uncle Adam had taken her home an hour or so before the teen
dance started, and Grandma and Grandpa went home with them; but Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I stayed with Mom and Dad until the dance started. They went with us to the main pavilion before
going home too; and that’s when Ethan got to have his dance with Rebecca –
along with dances with me, Rowen, and Mom that were all during the first set of
slow dances. The dances with Rowen and
me were while he and Ehlana happily cut in on us after dancing with Mom and
Dad; and Ehlana danced with Michael and Tim while Rowen and I were busy with
Ethan.
I am never, ever going to live down cutting in on those
dances with Violet and Dillon; but there will be payback some day for Ethan and
Ehlana – no matter how cute they are when doing that to Michael and me.
We needed to take a little break for hugs and kisses when
Mom and Dad were ready to take Ethan and Ehlana home. Aiden had been picked up by his father by
then, so after saying goodnight to us; they were able to go straight home – and
then on to the clinic after getting the call advising them that Aunt Leanne had
gone into labor. I didn’t find out about
that until I got home after the dance because Mom decided that I didn’t need to
skip the rest of the teen dance when Aunt Leanne was just in the early stages
of labor.
I feel a little guilty about having fun all night while Aunt
Leanne has been having such a tough night; but there wasn’t anything I could
have done that Mom and Uncle Adam weren’t already doing for her – and Michael,
Tim, Rowen, and I really did have a blast tonight. We danced to almost every song except for one
break to go on some midway rides while cooling off; and then we left the dance
early enough to go on a few favorite rides one last time before walking home.
Michael and I did our good night kisses on his front porch
after Rowen and Tim continued on to her house, and we must have lost track of
time while we were doing that; since Rowen was already inside her house and Tim
was out of sight before I was ready to walk the rest of the way over to my
house. Dad had come home from the clinic
to meet me there and grab his computer so he could do some work while we were
all at the clinic. I got changed,
grabbed my computer and a few things to take along, and we put together a
snacks and drinks care package before hopping in the minivan and driving over
to the clinic.
It was nearly twelve-thirty by then, and while Mom and Uncle
Adam didn’t need my help with Aunt Leanne, they were happy to let me take over
the wards then so they could concentrate on their patient. Aunt Deborah had been there too at first, but
had gone home to take care of Leah and have a nap. Grandma and Grandpa were there, but Uncle
Adam had sent his parents home to have a nap too with a promise to call them
when Aunt Leanne was nearly ready to deliver their first grandchild.
I’ve been in for a couple of visits with Aunt Leanne, and
talked with Grandma, Grandpa, and Dad in the waiting room; but there hasn’t
been much else going on; and my cousin is taking his time joining us out here
in the real world. It’s a good thing
that I went to bed early last night, or it might have been a lot harder to keep
wards up around the clinic for however long I’ll need to keep doing that. As I mentioned, Ethan and Ehlana are napping
right now, but they’ve been awake off and on tonight – mostly waking up when
Aunt Leanne has a particularly strong contraction and they sense the stress
from her and the baby.
When I haven’t been busy with them or chatting with anyone;
I’ve been mostly playing on my computer.
Word is getting around the family, so I’ve had some online chats and
email; and I’m up-to-date on my usual nightly computer checks. I’m glad that we stayed at the fair instead
of going to the football game tonight like Tim wanted to do, and though it was
a good game for out team; they won fifty-to-zero, so the Ayton players didn’t
exactly give them a competitive match.
From what I read on the town intranet, our team only kicked field goals
during the second half to keep the score from being even more ridiculous.
I’ve enjoyed the break from Friday night football while our
team has been playing road games, but Rowen and I will be at the next two home
games with Michael and Tim unless we get lucky and it rains both nights to give
us an excuse to stay at home instead.
While our team is undefeated so far, their last three games are all
against division teams; and they’ll need to win at least two of those matches –
and maybe all three – to make it into the playoffs again this year. I know that anything can happen in football,
but I wouldn’t put any large bets against Kyle or our team this season – he
wants this championship a lot; and is honestly so much better than the other
players in our division that they probably feel like they’re up against a top
college player.
Well, if Kyle has it his way, he’ll be a top college player
next year.
Okay, how bored am I to write that much about football
tonight? Let’s move along.
News that is worth mentioning is that we already know that
we will have incoming family. Uncle Rick
and Aunt Melissa should be here before noon, and while Dawn and Jillian are
confirmed; we haven’t heard whether Chris and Martin have chosen to come along
for the fall festival action or opt for a parent-free night at home. Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison are coming with
the kids too; but I’m not sure how early they’ll be leaving. I haven’t heard whether the ‘grandparents’
are coming too; but expect that they probably will join the party. We’re going to have some inbound Johnson and
McEwan visitors too; but I haven’t heard specifics on that yet – Grandma
Christine is coordinating that; and she was already at home for her nap when I
got here.
As for my fall festival plans, Rowen and I didn’t have a lot
booked anyway. Michael will be working
his usual shifts at the Inn this weekend; so
we’ll only be hanging out with him and Tim during his afternoon breaks and
after he’s finished work Saturday night.
I’m sure that we’ll have family meals to juggle now too, and I’ll be
recruited to help with kid control; but it’ll be fun having my cousins here for
the festival – even if Mom and Dad will need a lot of help with the work too.
With Dawn and Jillian coming, I’ll invite Rowen for a
sleepover tomorrow night; and may end up with extra girls in the lounge if
Jaimie and Kaitlyn want to join us – though they may be staying with their Aunt
Grace and Uncle Mark instead of with us.
While I’m thinking about the other doctor in town, Uncle Mark and Aunt
Grace were here earlier too; but they went home to get some sleep in case Uncle
Adam needs help later – or there are other emergencies that Uncle Mark will
need to handle while Uncle Adam is busy.
That makes things easier for me because I don’t have to deal
with non-Magi while using my wards and shields.
It will be harder to juggle all of that if Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace are
here when my cousin is born; though Uncle Adam has needed to deal with that
situation for other Magi births – like for Naomi, Aiden, and every Magi child
with one or more non-Magi parents. At
least I won’t have an entire waiting room full of family to protect from the
telepathic cries – though I’d probably just narrow my wards to around Aunt
Leanne’s room instead.
I guess there isn’t anything else to report for now, so I’ll
wrap this up and find something else to do while we wait for the big
moment. Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
