Congratulations, Aunt Grace and Uncle Mark
– it’s a boy!
You may have only been half-joking about
going on the Moms’ Christmas shopping trip to help speed up the baby arrival,
Aunt Grace; but it’s obvious now that you didn’t need to do that – and it’s
probably a good thing that you didn’t try to spend three hours in the car and a
full day on your feet walking malls and toy stores!
Caleb Adam Everett was born at
eleven-fifteen – a few hours ago; and weighed in at eight pounds, two
ounces. There isn’t much hair on his
head to go by, but the consensus is that he’ll have blonde hair; and that could
mean he’ll inherit the Proctor family blue eyes too. He’s in perfect health – and so is Aunt
Grace; thanks to a little Magi-powered help from her co-doctor tonight. I’m sure that was as much fun for her as it
was for Uncle Adam; and a seriously cool bonus to go along with being brought
into the loop about her special family and newborn son. Having your cousin’s husband help deliver
your baby was probably a bit weird, but I’m sure that Aunt Grace got over that
about a second after she was completely healed too.
I wasn’t there for Caleb’s birth because I
was in Crystal Springs tonight instead; having fun doing what I’d expected
would be the top story of the day for this update.
Happy 15th Birthday, Rebecca!
Caleb’s definitely in good company for
sharing his big day, and while they aren’t related; Rebecca thought that it was
cool to end her special day with the news that we have a new addition to the
town – and my family.
The rest of Rebecca’s day has been amazing
too – starting with going to the breakfast buffet at the Inn with all of the
women who were going on the shopping trip today. She had some friends along for that too – like
Rowen, Jenny, and me; and Dad brought Ethan and Ehlana along to spend that time
with Mom before she headed out of town.
Quite a few of the men in town did that with their kids; so Jacob had a
busy morning at the Inn – though he was working one of his days off to help out
with the extra business both during breakfast and at lunch.
We ended up just skipping Tai Chi this morning. Michael went to the Inn early to help his
father and the rest of the crew before joining us for breakfast; and Mom was busy
getting ready for her shopping day. She
made up for that with all of the mall walking, but I should probably do an
extra round of forms tomorrow – especially after that major breakfast and our
dinner in Crystal Springs.
Just kidding – I’m just channeling Aunt
Grace for the fun of it; and my hyper-metabolism will deal with the bonus food
by morning. Speaking of jokes, I guess
that Aunt Grace will have to come up with new comedy lines now that she won’t
be able to use the pregnancy jokes anymore.
She was as self-conscious about that as Mom was with the twins; but had
some fun with it too – like during her last visit ‘home’ when she took Olde
Bakery treats to her trainer-friend in Granite Park and had fun complaining to
her about how fat she’d gotten since moving to Witch Falls and marrying Uncle
Mark.
Moving along, but not really; the next
pregnancy news comes from Aunt Leanne; and she was actually having a good
morning today. Maybe it was the day out
with the girls that had her fired up and ready to play, or some other reason;
but the bottom line for her was that there wasn’t any major morning sickness to
deal with; and she even seemed fairly lively when I saw her at the clinic
tonight – though she was ready to let Mom and Dad drop her off at home after I’d
had a chance to see Caleb for a few minutes.
In case you’re wondering, Zack’s spending
the night with Grandma and Grandpa Carrington – and they took custody of him as
soon as Uncle Adam was called in to the clinic for Aunt Grace shortly after
dinner.
Getting back to Rebecca’s birthday news,
she’s had a fairly exciting day. There
were gifts to open while at the breakfast buffet, including one from Mom, Dad,
Ethan, and Ehlana; she had a very entertaining day at school that included a
lunchtime birthday party with classmates, team mates, and friends in the
cafeteria; and topped off the school day fun by getting her learner’s permit
this afternoon and joining the ranks of junior drivers.
There are a lot of advantages to small-town
life, and one of them is being able to get help whenever you want it. In this case, I’m referring to Jacob
recruiting help for Rebecca’s birthday surprise. It wasn’t until after school that she found
out that there was a surprise birthday trip happening for her – and she found
that out from her basketball coach when she was told that she couldn’t stay for
practice because she needed to get home and ready for her birthday dinner. I wasn’t in on that part of the surprise, but
I did skip band practice to go home and get ready for a night out too – and I
did know what the surprise was going to be.
Jacob only had room for five in their
minivan, so Rebecca only had Lucas, Jenny, Michael, and me with her for the
trip to the city celebration; but she was good with that plan. Jenny was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t
time to have Lance join us from Maple Valley, but I’m not sure if he’d have
actually been interested in doing this with us and having all of that extra
drive time back and forth to his home on top of that on a school night. That did make for a bit of weirdness tonight;
but I’ll get to that in a minute. While
he was on his own, parentally-speaking, for the trip to Crystal Springs; Jacob
did have support for the rest of the evening from Miranda and the other women
in her return travel group. They’d done
a shuffle for that; so Rebecca had her Bassett grandmother and aunts along for
the party; and Lucas’ mom stayed for the dinner and a movie night too – though I’m
sure that wasn’t to chaperone her son for the night.
More likely, she wanted to help celebrate
her future daughter-in-law’s birthday. ;^)
I’m not suggesting that she’s booked the
church or talked with Miranda about having the reception at the Inn yet; but
Claire does really love Rebecca; so Lucas should seriously think about keeping
her.
The trip to the city seemed quick and
entertaining; and we met up with the rest of our birthday dinner guests at the
surf and turf restaurant that Miranda had picked out. Jacob, Lucas, and Michael were outnumbered
tonight, but they still had fun too as we enjoyed a decent meal; kept ourselves
entertained with everything from a minor roast of the birthday girl to sharing
shopping, school, and work recaps.
Rebecca opened gifts; had a birthday cake; and was mildly embarrassed
when we sang the birthday song for her and had quite a few nearby diners and
servers join in for that.
We had a bit of a time limit for dinner
because we didn’t want to end up going to the latest showing of the movie we
went to see; so Jacob and Miranda had us on the move again with a half-hour to
spare so we’d have time to drive to the theater and pick up drinks and
snacks. I’ll save you the trouble of
looking it up online, and just advise you that the number one teen girls’ movie
choice in theaters this week is ‘The Hunger Games – Mockingjay Part One’. If you’re a fan of the series, then you loved
it – or didn’t. While that is totally
ambiguous, it’s the way it is; and I won’t add my two cents’ worth of opinion
on the film and risk offending either camp.
Rebecca had an awesome night, though; and that’s all that is really
important to me.
As I mentioned, we were in-transit by the
time that Caleb was born, and Mom let us know via text message when we were
about half-way back so that I could be dropped off at the clinic on the way
home. Miranda was with us for the return
trip; mostly because Jenny decided that hanging out with the women in the other
minivan would be more fun that being the fifth wheel with Rebecca, Lucas,
Michael, and me while we enjoyed a little cuddle time with our respective
boyfriend or girlfriend. I can’t say
anything about that; since I probably would have done the same thing – and would
have had fun chatting with Michael’s Aunt Sylvia.
My involvement in Rebecca’s birthday
adventure ended with being dropped off at the clinic, and my goodnight hug and
kiss with Michael was very short – unless you include the kisses we shared here
and there while on the way home from the city.
He was ready for some nap time by then anyway, though; and I was looking
forward to meeting my new cousin. That
was an amazing, if short, family time moment, and the only thing that felt a
bit strange was having so few people at the clinic for that.
Uncle Mark’s family is in Seattle; Aunt
Grace’s parents, brother, and his family just went home to Granite Park; and my
grandparents are in Arizona. That just
left seven of us there to help with celebrating Caleb’s birth with his proud
parents; and made for a much more intimate scene. Aunt Grace’s labor was fairly short, but she
was also exhausted by then too, so Uncle Adam pretty much kicked us out of the
clinic after I’d gotten to cuddle with Caleb for a while. Aunt Leanne had complained about it when she
was included in that eviction; but wasn’t really upset about being sent home to
bed. Uncle Adam and Uncle Mark were
going to take turns helping Aunt Grace with Caleb, and though she was
well-enough already by then to go home; she needed to stay there to keep up
appearances.
That’s going to make for a very long day
for Uncle Adam, since he’ll be running the clinic on his own tomorrow – and for
the rest of the week too; but I’m fairly sure that this was one of his favorite
baby deliveries so far too. Let’s not
forget that he also got to help his best friend with delivering his first child
into the world in addition to being there for Aunt Leanne’s favorite cousin and
friend. I’d put that one right up there
with helping to deliver a baby brother and sister! ;^)
I’d like to report that my day was done
then, but the bedtime studying and family business work was still ahead of me
after getting home and helping out with getting Ethan and Ehlana tucked in for
the night. Mom skipped my Magi lesson;
but it was already heading toward one-thirty by then; and she was ready to
crash after a day of shopping and three hours of driving to go along with the
baby delivery – though she and Dad only helped out with the wards and shields
tonight. Even without the archive
assignment tonight, it’s still taken me until past-four to get my language
studies and work done; and I could just keep going all night if it wasn’t for
the fact that I’m seriously past-ready for some nap time.
Hopefully and early bedtime will be an
option tomorrow; but that might depend on how much help Aunt Grace and Uncle
Mark need once she’s home from the clinic.
While I might not be directly involved in that; babysitting could be
needed for Ethan, Ehlana, and my cousins.
We know that Grandma Mercy and Grandpa Duncan will be here sometime
tomorrow; but Uncle Blaine and Aunt Alison haven’t decided what they’re going
to do yet. They might end up waiting to
meet Caleb until Christmas instead of doing another flying trip with three kids
for a weekend. I have no idea what Uncle
Mark’s family will do. With all of those
doctors in the family; getting away on short notice just isn’t an option for
them. Grandma and Grandpa are going to
stay in Arizona; though they did think about doing another trip – or just
coming home early.
Michael and I would be happy to trade
places with them for a week or two if they change their minds about that; but
the parents would probably have an issue with us staying at their condo on our
own. Oh well, maybe next year!
There isn’t anything newsworthy to report
from my work, and the only news from my language studies is that I’m close to
being ready to call the current one learned and then I’ll take a break until
starting the next one in January. Some
of you probably think that’s too much, but there are reasons for why I need to
learn all of these languages, and even for a Magi Master; that takes years of
study to accomplish – especially when you’re only doing that for an hour or two
a day. There are a lot of human
languages in the world; so I’ll be continuing that part of my education for a
long time – just as I’ll do the same for my Magi gifts.
Okay, that’s it for now; with just one
thing left to take care of before wrapping this up.
While I’m thinking about new babies
tonight, let’s go with this song for our second installment of Christmas music
for your future journal reading enjoyment!
Merry Christmas; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
