Congratulations, Aunt Leanne, Uncle Adam,
and Zack – it’s a girl!
Welcome to the family, Brianna!
Brianna Christine Carrington was born this
morning at nine-oh-eight; came in at seven pounds, nine ounces; and there is no
doubt at all that she is her Mommy’s little girl. She’s also an extraordinary Magi talent; and
her birth pushed our wards fairly hard.
My adorable cousin was in quite a hurry to get through her
delivery. We got the call while having
breakfast after Tai Chi; Aunt Leanne was in a bed at the clinic by
seven-thirty; and Mom, Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and I were there by a quarter to
eight so that Mom and I could help out with the wards. That was fairly interesting to deal with
because we also had a lot of people in the med center; so we had to deal with
that while also working around both Magi and non-Magi family, friends, and
neighbors. Mom was in the room with Aunt
Leanne, her doctors, and nurse; but that was mostly because Uncle Adam was a
bit busy to give Aunt Leanne the attention she needed and deserved.
While I wasn’t in the room too, I was
linked with Mom, Uncle Adam, Aunt Leanne, and everyone else in the link with
us; so I got to be in on the best parts of the birth. I’m sure that you can guess that the news
about Brianna’s name was a highlight for Mom – even though we couldn’t explain
to anyone not in the know that her first niece was named after her. That was fairly awesome for me too, but my
personal highlight came when Brianna very enthusiastically bonded with me – as she
quickly did with Ethan and Ehlana. She
was already bonded with Mom and her parents, and it wasn’t the same as it is
between the twins and me; but it was amazing and special.
I love you, Brianna! Thanks for making this one of those best-ever
kind of days!
That crazy, amazing start to the day
completely changed up our plans for the day, and while we spent half the
morning at the clinic; we went home once it was time to give Aunt Leanne and
Brianna some time to rest up for the rest of the day. Mom brought Zack home with us, but had Ethan
and Ehlana keep him entertained until lunchtime so that I could work on the
family business and help out with some chores and a lunch that included extras
to take over to the med center. Grandma
and Grandpa helped out with that too; but Dad went into work after leaving the
med center so that he could help Claire there – and try to still work in most
of the appointments for the day that he’d missed while waiting for Brianna’s
arrival.
Work was the name of the game for the rest
of the day for me. Whether that was on
the family business, cooking, cleaning, or helping out at Aunt Leanne’s house
ahead of her arrival home with Brianna by dinnertime; I was on the go pretty
much all day. Michael was working
anyway; but we still had some fun during his breaks – including his
introduction to Brianna during his afternoon break; and some hang-out time at
our house that included some play time with Ethan and Zack once he was finished
work for the night. We have Zack with us
tonight because he picked staying with us over staying home for Brianna’s first
night in the house; and he’s already lost interest in his new baby sister. She can’t do anything fun; and yelled too
loudly at him the few times he tried to play with her.
The weird part of that is the fact that
Zack did all of that intentionally as part of his ‘normal kid’ act; and Brianna
was not amused to get bonked with a ball or toy for no other reason than
because it amused Zack to do it.
All of the work today might not seem to go
with a best-ever kind of day; but it was strictly the family and friends fun,
and all of the time I got to spend with Brianna that made my day. She really is amazing; and I won’t even try
to put into words the joy a lot of us are feeling tonight.
Getting back to the story, I should add
that Aunt Leanne is doing great; Mom and I helped her with the Magi healing
once that was possible, and though going home so soon after Brianna’s birth
wasn’t the norm; nobody was surprised about it since she does have a doctor at
home to take care of her if there were any problems. It didn’t matter that most people around here
would have no idea that she was already recovered from the labor and more;
though she’ll have to play normal with that for a while – especially around the
doctors in Uncle Mark’s family while they’re still here.
Before I move on to the news from dinner
and the rest of our evening; Brianna also has the distinction of being the
first baby born at the new med center!
The jokes are already flying about Uncle Adam making sure that it opened
in time so that his daughter could come into the world in style; but I can also
tell you that the Moms in town are all going to be very happy with the new
neo-natal capabilities we now have available here. There would need to be a very serious complication
before it would be necessary to send a mother and child to a hospital; and I’m
hoping that we’d be able to catch any issues before it was too late and help
out with our Magi healing instead.
There were other members of my family
needing to make changes to their day too, and the most obvious was likely Uncle
Mark and Aunt Grace. He needed to run
the clinic on his own for the doctoring side of the job; though Uncle Adam did
help him with catching up a bit on the appointments while Aunt Leanne and
Brianna had naps both late in the morning and after lunch. Since he was busy, Aunt Grace took most of
the day off from the lab too so that she could be with her in-law family – and help
entertain the kids on a wet, rainy day that kept them indoors most of the day.
Our co-ed ball players would have skipped
their practice tonight if it hadn’t been rained out; but that worked out for us
tonight too. A lot of the cooking for
dinner started at our house; but we moved the show over to Uncle Adam and Aunt
Leanne’s house after the rain ended by around four o’clock; and Mom and Grandma
had lots of help there for both the kitchen work and helping out around the
house so that Aunt Leanne wouldn’t have anything to do tonight other than take
care of Brianna and enjoy the family and friends fun. Grandma made sure that the dinner guest list
was limited – as were the number of family and friends visits tonight. Even with doing that, there was still a lot
of crazy-busy action going on – especially once Uncle Adam and Aunt Deborah brought
Aunt Leanne and Brianna home.
There’s no way for me to cover all of that
action here, and there will be lots of other journal entries to look at for the
entire story from the various perspectives; so I’ll just go with my personal
highlights. I got to hold Brianna
through about a quarter of our dinner time; so that was number one on my
list. Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa all
got to have turns with her during the meal too; though that was mostly so that
Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam could both relax and enjoy their first sit-down meal
of the day that wasn’t either on the fly or from the comfort of a hospital
bed. The meet and greet after-dinner
action was awesome; with the best part of that being Naomi’s ‘escape’ across
the back yards so that she could meet Brianna and spend a bit of time with
Ehlana and Ethan.
While we’d gotten to be there for the
pre-dinner work, Brianna’s arrival, dinner, the clean-up, and some of the
early-evening visits; Mom and Dad both had work to do tonight and we all headed
home at nine o’clock – not long after Michael came over from the Inn and got to
have a minute or two of baby time with Brianna before coming home with us. As I’ve mentioned, we had Zack with us too,
and while Mom and Dad went to work in the office; Michael and I took Ethan,
Ehlana, and Zack up to the lounge for some play time until Zack ran out of
steam. That took more than an hour and a
half of video gaming, running around, and toy time to accomplish; and Ethan was
worn out and ready to go to bed too when we tucked Zack into the extra bed in
Ethan’s room. That helped out with
getting Zack off to sleep too; Ehlana joined us in Ethan’s room for the bedtime
story that Michael told to us; and then Mom and Dad took a break to share some
goodnight kisses with the three kids before going back to work while Ehlana went
to bed with plans to do a bit of reading on her iPad until she was ready to
sleep too.
That left Michael and I with an opportunity
for a bit of alone time, and we came up to the lounge to take full advantage of
the chance; but we also didn’t have a lot of time to play – which is why I was
happy to make all of the time we needed! :^)
There is actually a reason why Michael
couldn’t stay late tonight – and it’s partly because of the changes in work
plans for Uncle Mark. Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I already had plans for a visit to Quarry Lake tomorrow afternoon –
for Elliott’s fifteenth birthday party.
We’ll now be there for more of the day; and I’ll be helping out with
Uncle Mark’s nieces and nephews – and Zack, Caleb, Leah, and Sebastian. The new plan is to get the family out of the
way so that Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne can focus exclusively on Brianna – and have
fewer visitors and distractions. I’m all
for helping out with that; and don’t mind the sacrifice of an extra four or
five hours of play time at Quarry Lake. Michael
might be able to go with us for the extra time too; but that’ll depend on the
work at the Inn since he was already going to be finished early for Elliott’s
party.
Either way, we’re going to have another
amazing day that will hopefully be filled with sun, fun, and adventure. That might not be quite as hot as the
time-phased fun that Michael and I wrapped up our day with tonight; but I’m
sure we’ll manage to have another really great day!
I’ll need to get some sleep to be ready for
that, though; so let’s wrap this up now.
Michael went home at midnight; Mom and Dad called it a night then too;
and we all came up to bed after I saw Michael on his way home with a front
porch hug and several kisses. Since I’d
worked on the family business earlier today, I didn’t have anything that needed
to be done tonight; and my email and computer checks didn’t take long. That covers the news for today; so there’s
just one thing I want to add – and end this update with.
Thanks, Aunt Leanne and Uncle Adam. It means as much to me as Mom that you chose
to name your daughter after her aunt. I
also think that it’s a very good choice; because Brianna Christine Carrington
is going to be just as amazing as her namesake.
I’m not going to give you any hints; but your little girl is really,
seriously going to make a difference in the world; so be proud of her – and of
yourselves for bringing such a miracle into the world!
I love you!
Okay, I’m done now; so, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
