The Journal of Penny Grant - May 30 - Oh my plumbob

"Hey there, little man. You're going to be a big brother soon. Our eldest child, not our only one."

Buddy just giggles in delight that his daddy is giving him attention.

"Now I want you to be the best big brother that ever was." Nick is just so happy about the new baby soon to arrive. It's rare to catch him in a bad mood since I really started showing the baby bump.

Nick takes care of Buddy a lot while he's at home. Taking care of bottles, nappies, and nap times whenever he can.

It's a good thing that he's willing to because this pregnancy has been a bit rough on me. I'm tired a lot and can barely move sometimes. Meditation seems to help so I'm doing quite a lot of that. Somewhere close to my men though.

One of their favorite activities is reading together. Nick and Buddy read a picture book every day.  Buddy's favourite is the book about colours. He just can't get enough of it. He's been read to from it, looked through it on his own, drooled on it, chewed on it, just about everything a toddler can do to one book.

Buddy is particularly fascinated by colors. When Nick is away, he looks at the book again, pointing at things and making sure he has the names right.

"Gween, Mama?"

"Yes, sweetie, green."

"Bwue?"

"That's the aqua, Buddy." I turn the page. "That's blue." Buddy clapped his hands.  "Can you tell me what colours are in the rainbow, Buddy?"

We turned to the rainbow at the very end of the book. "Wed, owange, yewoww, gween, bwue..." He paused at the last two.

"That's ok Buddy, the last two are tough. That's indigo and violet."

I've tried to get Buddy a decent colour set but there never seems to be one in town. I think he'll be amazing at art some day.

I took a rare moment of feeling better to try and permanently fix our perpetually leaky shower. It's amazing how incredibly irritating "drip, drip, drip" is when you are home too much. Nick would have scolded me if he'd been home, I was on my feet for a long time working on the shower.

Even feeling better, it took hours to get any where with the project.  I won't know for at least a few days if it's finally working better. Stupid plumbing, next up is the toilet that always blocks.

There is nothing to raise the spirits then having family and friends over for a small gathering. I needed something to take my mind off my ever expanding stomach.

"I see you're nearly ready to give me a new niece or nephew, Penny. You look so amazing when you're pregnant." Veronica smiled a lot at my baby bump.

"I wish I felt that way. I'm just exhausted, Veronica. I don't remember it being anything like this for Buddy." I sighed.

Veronica gave me a small hug. "I think women are programmed to forget the bad parts of pregnancy or there might not be enough babies to go around. You've been getting checkups?"

"Yes, I haven't run into you at the hospital yet but I've been getting the checkups. How's the job?"

"I'm still at the lower end of the medical career, but I'll fly someday." I'm sure my twin will. She has the brains of the family, that's been obvious for a long time.

It was nice to see that Ronnie is still pretty keen on her Eddie. I know that they still live together in a small house.

I still hope that they'll go further but her career demands so much of her time. I just don't know if it will ever happen.

It is a relief that Eddie is willing to fit in with the rest of the family. He actually danced with Mom for some time before she had to rest.

I'm glad Mom was feeling well enough to come. From what Daddy has been saying, she's been feeling poorly quite often lately.

I tried dancing for a while with Vincent.

Fortunately, Buddy gave me a good excuse to leave after a few minutes. He's not usually a fussy little fellow but the excitement of having so many people around wears him out quickly. I could tell he was starting to whine a bit and would work up to a full tantrum soon.

So I picked him up to put Buddy in the crib. I waited around for him to drop off to sleep.

"I hope you are nearly ready to come out little one. Because Mommy is so very tired of carrying you around all the time."

After everyone had finally gone home, Nick and I went to bed.

"Nick, do you still love me? Even when I look like this?"

"Of course I do, honey. You are stunning, I've always thought so." Nick nestled closer to me. "You need some proof?"

A little while later and Nick had certainly made his point. Well, I'm still not sure that I actually look acceptable for other people but you have to believe the ones that you love, don't you?

"Morning gorgeous. How are you feeling today?"

I cupped Nick's face in my hand. "Still tired but feeling a bit better."

"I want you to take it easy while I'm at work. Don't over stress yourself. You promise?"

"I'll try Nick, but things have to get done around the house." We are not nearly at a stage in life where we can afford a daily maid service.

As I told Nick, there are things that have to get done around the house. Even the simplest chore is getting so difficult now. It takes a long time to waddle to the front of the house to take out the trash.

I hope to heavens that this baby comes soon. Because if I get any bigger, they are going to have to air lift me to the hospital. Assuming that the helicopter can carry a whale like me around. I'll never ever fit in a normal taxi.

"Oh, Buddy, my little man. You know, you aren't so little any more."

Between the pregnancy and the rate Buddy is growing, daily cuddles will all too soon be a thing of the past. Sometimes I can barely lift him up.

I decided that Buddy needed something new to read. Instead of buying another book, we went over to the library.

We picked out a lovely colorful book about birds. Buddy was fascinated by the pictures, all those birds and all those colors. Some of them are from other countries, I could promise Buddy that someday he would see them. How could I resist taking him along to China or Egypt once he's old enough?

We had nearly looked at the entire book when the labor pains first started. The contractions were still fairly far apart, so I called a sitter and a taxi. While waiting for the taxi, I rang Nick at work and Daddy at home to let them know it was time.

First I took little Buddy home in the taxi, fortunately the sitter was waiting at the door when we arrived. Then I left for the hospital.

It was good to see that not only Daddy but Mom, Vincent and Miriam were all waiting at the hospital. It's good to know that you can count on your family for support.

I entered the hospital and fortunately Nick arrived not long after.

It turned out to be a longer stay then we first thought. I'd been very serious that I wanted no details about the baby pre-birth, I had thought maybe we were having twins though. I was wrong. We didn't have two babies. We have three new babies; Joey, Daisy and Ruby.

Poor Nick is stunned. He hasn't said a word since Daisy was born, I think he nearly fainted when Ruby joined the family.

---

Twallan is responsible for the mixed triplets. The first time around, there were three girls but the game crashed when I went to save and quit. I kind of wanted one boy anyway so on the second try, I MC the first to boy.

This time, the game is saved with our new triplets so all is stable here.

Phillip and Vanessa spent the entire time the triplets were being born flirting with each other. They may be elders but that fire burns brightly still.

Bonus pics

Rocio Grant - one of Penny's many cousins, this is the little sister of Jerod (Shrimp). Yet another pretty gen 4 girl, gen 4 seems to be kind of special.

Phillip, don't you think you should stop dancing and go home?

Seriously, Phillip, it's dawn now and you still haven't gone home. Go home.