There isn’t really anything particularly
exciting to report for this update; but we’ve still had one of those really
good days.
Tai Chi and breakfast helped to get the day
off to the usual good start; and we followed that up with a few hours of yard
work that was mostly dirty work in the gardens for me. While I’m thinking about gardens, I should
mention that I haven’t mentioned gardening at Grandma and Grandpa’s house while
they’re away because we’re not doing any of that work. They hired help for the yard work; and one of
the young neighbor mothers is trading free veggies for getting part of the crop
back in canned and frozen goods. Dad and
Aunt Leanne would have done the work if they’d asked, but let’s be honest –
none of us really wanted to add six weeks of that work to our already packed
schedules.
We wouldn’t have had nearly as much fun
today if there had been another few hours of work to do there too; so I’m
really glad that having a play afternoon and evening was an option – especially
when it also meant getting to spend some quality time with my aunts, uncles,
cousins, and a few friends. That started
with a barbeque lunch that Uncle Mark, Aunt Grace, Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and
Zack joined us for once we were all done our chores for the day. I’ll get to that part of the story in a
moment, but before I do that; this is a good place for a family pregnancy
update.
Since Aunt Grace was with us first today;
let’s begin with the latest with her – and it’s big news!
Her baby is a Magi!
That really is news for some of us, since
today was the first time that Mom, Ethan, Ehlana, and I could sense the Magi
aura growing within Aunt Grace. I won’t
tell you that it was a surprise to three of us, because it wasn’t – even if we
didn’t know the exact timing for when that would become physically – or empathically
– apparent to others. As with all
babies, nobody else could sense that yet too; and most Magi in town won’t be
able to do that at all right up until the baby is born – except for the few who
have been allowed to find out how to sense auras. I’m sure that Mom has talked with Dad about
it by now, but they’ll need to have a chat with Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and
probably at least a few members of the council before deciding how to handle
things with Uncle Mark and Aunt Grace.
The baby will be much better off if they can do some pre-natal
development, but that would mean adding two more non-Magi to the fairly
exclusive club of adults who know about us.
I don’t know for sure whether the council will balk at that – particularly
when one of those people aren’t even from a home-town family; but the twins and
I do know what is supposed to happen.
Stay tuned – I’ll keep you posted on that
story.
Aunt Deborah’s pregnancy is a bit ahead of
Aunt Grace’s; and she’s already working on her pre-natal development and the
empathic link. Mom’s still available if
needed; but Aunt Deborah knows what she’s doing now, and is even teaching some
Magi mothers the techniques since she’s in a good position to do that through
the clinic. Both babies and their
mothers are doing fine; though they’ll need to start taking it a bit easier for
the rest of the summer – especially on the hottest days.
We had really awesome weather for our play
time and barbeques. Lunch was simple,
with burgers, dogs, and cold salad sides.
Ethan, Ehlana, and I stayed with Zack and the parents today instead of
having a picnic on the dock like they preferred to do most of the time. I took a turn at keeping Zack entertained,
but left the feeding mess to Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam. Zack may be a very strong Magi, and his
education is humming right along; but he’s quite possibly one of the messiest
Magi babies of all time. If he’s just
making that part of his ‘normal baby’ act, he isn’t admitting it to anyone; but
does seem to enjoy making the messes and watching the reactions from everyone
around him. Today was not the first time
I’ve wondered whether he has just a few too many genes in common with Chris and
Martin; and that’s more than a little scary to think about him growing up to be
like them while having the kind of power he’ll have.
Let’s not go any farther down that thought
path and move along.
We played all afternoon, and that included
a canoe ride; games in the back yard; some playground time at the park; and one
or more swims. Michael joined us during
his afternoon break for one of the swims and the playground action; but then he
was back at work again and didn’t come back until his family joined us at the
campfire after closing the Inn for the day.
Our barbeque dinner was more substantial than lunch, and in addition to
having Uncle Nick, Aunt Deborah, and Leah with us; we also had quite a few
friends with us too – including the Emersons, Burroughs, Seagers, and Drapers.
Dinner was late to accommodate the working
parents, but I helped out with kid control as they were dropped off or came
over with at least one parent. Naomi and
Aiden had spent part of the afternoon with Ethan and Ehlana, but they were
easier to take care of than Leah, Zack, Eli, Hailey, and Rebekkah. I had some help with the kids from Rowen and
Tim when they came over with Patrick ahead of Rowen’s parents; and Tim did
pretty well with entertaining the boys – even if he pretends that it’s the
worst job in the world. Maybe I’ll pick
up a couple of blow-up footballs the next time I’m in the city and see if he’s
happier if he can play football with Zack and the other younger kids.
Our evening meal had ‘real’ food involved
compared to lunch, with chicken and steak options off of the grill; corn on the
cob; baked potatoes; and several side veggies and salads. The Drapers provided the Olde Bakery dessert
and buns; and everyone else contributed at least one dish or some of the meats –
even if that only meant dropping off something earlier than Mom, Dad, and their
volunteer crew cooked up. Tim, Rowen,
Patrick, and I were at a pair of kids’ tables; and this time, I did help out
with feeding the younger kids – including Zack.
We did not have a food fight, but you
wouldn’t have known that by the amount of food that was on both Zack and
me. I did not wait a half hour before
going into the river to clean off; and I took my adorable and messy cousin in
with me. Note to me – try putting my
hair up in a bun or something when feeding Zack. A ponytail was not enough to keep the food
out of my hair; and having Zack yank on it with sticky, dirty hands is really
gross. He thought that was hilarious;
but it took washing my hair twice tonight to get the last bits of baby food
mush out of my hair.
The rest of the evening included a lot of
game playing in the back yard, a couple of swims; and a campfire that started
at dusk. With our family, friends, and
neighbors all staying or coming over for the campfire fun, I wasn’t surprised
to get called on for some duet action with Michael within minutes of him
joining us there with his parents, Jake, Stephanie, and Rebecca. We actually did most of the music from that
point on because we also had one of the shortest campfires of the summer so far
– and started wrapping things up by eleven o’clock. That didn’t give Michael and I much cuddle
time, but we still had fun. We were on
the clean-up crew while most of the younger parents dealt with sleeping babies
or toddlers and all of our guests started heading home for the night. My goodnight kiss with Michael wasn’t exactly
memorable either; unless you count the whistles and teasing from Miranda and
Jake. Memo number two to me – try not to
let Jake have too much time without other friends around him. He has way too much fun teasing Michael when
he doesn’t have Dillon and Josiah around to keep him busy.
Okay, so the goodnight kiss wasn’t anything
to write home about – or here in my journal; but I did have an entertaining
pair of goodnight chats with Ethan and Ehlana on my way up to my room after
they were tucked in for the night. Then
it was time for some Jacuzzi action that included getting my hair thoroughly
clean. After a busy work and play day, I’m
sure that Mandy appreciated my efforts as much as I was happy to get rid of
those clumps of sticky that had been bugging me since dinnertime.
I’ve been doing a light version of my
nightly computing since then, and while there wasn’t much going on around the
family that I heard about through email tonight, I did have a bit of family
business work come up; so I spent a half hour or so dealing with that before
getting started on this update. That was
just some boring number crunching, so I won’t put you to sleep with that –
though it has helped me to be ready to doze off for the night.
Violet, Dillon, Christina, and Josiah will
be home again tomorrow, but other than that; we don’t have much going on
tomorrow. Dad will be working in the
office, and I’ll be helping out with the Sunday buffet again; but I don’t
expect to be doing much of anything else other than the usual Sunday morning
action. I do want to be able to keep up
with the work at the Inn tomorrow, though; so let’s wrap this up and call it a
night.
Until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of
the Light!
