Unexpected News

Once Renduil, Rion, Sidhion, and Ortherion's winter break finished, they all became very busy with school work and activities. We began to see each other less and less. That's when ada took on the role of being the one to make sure the entire family spent at least a little quality time together each day. He always had this role at home as well- even though he was the busiest out of everyone. It never mattered if all we did was sit down and talk for a couple minutes. It never mattered if ada was exhausted and stressed beyond compare. Naneth, Eloril, and I were his family, and he would not forget us for anything.

So now that ada's here and has very little to be stressed about, he's easily fallen back into that role. Some days we really only can do nothing other than sit down and talk for a couple minutes. Then there's the days where we have the almost the whole afternoon to do whatever we want. We tend to head to the small lake to skate on those particular kind of days. Though I never fall, I've been staying on shore lately just to be entirely sure that I don't do anything to hurt my baby.

I've found out that I'm having a boy again. It's a little disappointing that I'll remain the only female in the house for a while longer. However, when I see ada, Eloril, and all my sons enjoying themselves without any cares, the fact that they're male and I'm female becomes irrelevant. All I see is family.

Winter was coming to an end, but the end of the season brought Ortherion's next step in life's journey along with it. His birthday was celebrated enjoyably, and his resemblance to Leroi has become even more apparent. The biggest similarity is their voices. Ortherion is still so young, but his voice is already so deep. It's a stark contrast to Sidhion's much higher-pitched one.

Sidhion and Ortherion spend a lot of time outside. They get most of their fun from building a snowman, destroying it to pieces, and then building it up once more.

It's always a strange time for me when I reach that brief period where I have neither infant nor toddler to care for. The period is also a bit longer this time since I waited longer before trying to get pregnant again. I can only do so much writing before my days start to grow horribly boring. I'm even running out of things to talk to ada and Eloril about considering that they never go out and do anything. This is why I've suddenly found much more entertainment in cooking and cleaning. Mr. Santiago does a wonderful job of tidying the house, but some mess always appears after he  leaves. I jump on each opportunity to clean the messes my children make despite me knowing I should be teaching them to clean up after themselves.

My baby boy came just when I was really starting to get impatient. I told ada, Eloril, Renduil, Rion, Sidhion, and Ortherion months ago to all think up a name together. They needed all of that time to come to an agreement, but they did eventually pick out the name Isilmar.

Isilmar was born just before the boys got back home from school. Sidhion's birthday was also that day, and the plan had been to celebrate it as soon as school was done. We decided to hold it off for a couple hours so that I could get the rest I needed to participate.

However, I was much more exhausted than I thought. I closed my eyes, and the next thing I knew the sun had almost completely set. I rushed out of the room to find ada and Eloril tending to Isilmar while Sidhion and the rest of his brothers were playing video games. I apologized over and over. Sidhion reassured me every time that there was no need for me to feel horrible. I had spent most of the day in labor before giving birth. Pushing back his birthday till dinnertime was no big deal. I calmed down even though I continued to feel bad. We really did end up having Sidhion's birthday cake for dinner.

Then our fridge became full of leftover cake for Renduil and Rion's birthday was only a couple days later. It was one of those hard birthdays because it was time to say goodbye. I can't believe both sets of twins are now gone out of the house. Renduil joined the local branch of one of this country's largest businesses while Rion got a job at the school.

I knew to expect the house being much quieter with them leaving, but I kept looking around for them expecting them to be here. It's difficult to accept that now it's only Sidhion, Ortherion, and Isilmar that I have to look after.

When I finally did get used to the quiet, it was Isilmar's birthday that made me realize how long that adjustment took.

And I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. Dear Isilmar has all of my features, and even looks a lot like Londuil. I guess my wish for diversity is a hopeless one. It doesn't matter who I sleep with or how dominant their traits are supposed to be. My fate is apparently to have a plethora of fair-haired and green-eyed children.

Ortherion asked me if he could throw a slumber party, and I agreed. He invited his best friend, Scot Yang, and his nieces Pauline, Barbara, and Darlene, who are Lomaraniel's triplets. However, the three girls came down with strong fevers and had to stay home. That left only Scot. Despite it being just the two of them, they had great fun. Eloril hung out with them for a while when Ortherion was telling ghost stories. From what he told me, they're quite good.

Ortherion and Scot had four beds to choose from, but they refused to sleep anywhere other than their sleeping bags. I get that it's some sort of tradition to use them at sleepovers, but I personally can't understand why someone would give up a wonderfully comfortable bed to sleep on the floor.

I was absolutely thrilled when ada made some progress interacting with those around us. He agreed to go to the park with Eloril, Isilmar, and I despite him knowing a fair amount of humans would be there. He stuck close to me at first, not giving anyone the opportunity to approach him. Eloril, meanwhile, had a great time talking up most of the others there.

I don't have any clue as to how Eloril managed it, but he got ada to willingly introduce himself to a woman named Krissie Ilbert. Maybe ada simply didn't want to be rude after Eloril brought Ms. Ilbert over to him, but he even started a conversation with her. There was a minor hiccup though. Ada learned the human language millennium ago when it was spoken much differently. I've always taught my children how to read, write, and speak the elvish language so that's what we've been using at home. Ada's only used the human language once since he's been here, and that was when Leroi came over.

Ada's very old-fashioned manner of speaking confused Ms. Ilbert and made Eloril laugh. Ada became quite confused himself. Eloril helped smooth the whole situation over, and got ada and Ms. Ilbert talking with ease. Their conversation might have been casual and short, but overall it was very successful.

When they were done, Eloril took Isilmar to play on the playground while ada sat down next to me on a bench. I asked him how he felt. Fine, he said. Then he told me that despite what I must think given his behavior and words in the past, he doesn't instantly hate every human he lays eyes on. He knows most are kind-hearted, decent people who only wish to get along with him. It's not the individuals he really faults, but humans as a general collective that he can't stand. Maybe they have their hearts in the right place, but given their bloody history and the current fragile state of the world he can only see them as a race of destruction. Even with all their technological improvements and good intentions, the world is still dying at an alarming pace. There had never been such problems before humans were created by the Goddess.

I told him I understood where he was coming from. Then I said I wish we could have this conversation with one human in particular. Naturally, ada asked me who. Lar Smith, I answered. I started to tell him about how Lar and I met, but I had to stop. Such a strong look of recognition appeared on ada's face when I said Lar's name. It was very much surprising that ada would be familiar with him. Ada was reluctant to say anything when I asked him about it. However, I kept pressing. It took me a good long while, but he admitted that he knew the name because Lar had long ago submitted a request to visit the elvish side. Ada had refused the appeal, of course.

Just when I was about to ask him why he didn't want to mention such a simple matter, ada distracted me by asking how I knew Lar. That's when I was able to resume what I had started saying earlier. I told ada everything about mine and Lar's interactions, Lar's history that he had told me, and everything else I knew. I revealed how Lar cut himself off from me, how his pictures suddenly stopped appearing in his magazine, and how I had no reason why all of this happened. It's been hard to be shunned and have no explanation. But I know Lar is getting older by now, and that it won't do me any good to dwell on him.

Ada agreed.

Approximately two weeks after our trip, I met another of the interesting men I have a tendency of coming across. I learned his name to be Dewaine Harrigan. I only learned it after he caught me staring at him. I felt very embarrassed when he did, but I hadn't been able to help myself. I saw his silvery-white hair and thought him to be an older man. Then I saw he was younger, and was confused.

Thankfully, Mr. Harrigan didn't get upset or think me strange. He told me he's used to staring since he's had to deal with it ever since he was young. He had been born with a condition called albinism. Essentially, his body had been born without the correct data to give his hair and eyes the proper coloring they were supposed to have. He told me a bit more about it, and I was interested in what he sad to say. We kept talking when we finished that topic though, and I think by now you should have a pretty good idea of what happened next.

However, what I did not expect and what was completely out of routine was how fast my stomach began to grow. It was barely a few weeks later and I could feel the stretching already. Then things became much worse. The nausea I am supposed to have returned with a vengeance. It seemed determined to make up for all the time it lost. My body was also in so much pain that I could barely leave the bed. Ada stayed by me constantly, making sure to keep a bucket nearby for when I couldn't make it to the bathroom on time. Ada, Eloril, my sons, and myself as well were all incredibly worried about my condition.

We gave it a couple days to see if the worst would pass. It didn't. I did feel decent enough to make it to the hospital with ada and Eloril's help though. I took a bunch of tests that terrified me. Then I was given the news that terrified me in both a positive and negative way. I was told that I was carrying four children- quadruplets, they were called. I don't know if it was the shock or the pain catching up to me again, but I nearly passed out right there.

The doctor who came to reveal the news is one I've had a couple times before. He told me that I needed to be very careful. In order to strengthen the chances of survival for each of my four children, I had to do all that I could to keep them inside me as long as possible. I was to rest as much as I could, to not move around a lot, and to do no heavy-lifting at all. The doctor knew of my preference to bear my children at home, but he encouraged me to have my quadruplets there at the hospital. It was incredibly likely I would have to have a c-section.

I agreed with everything he said. I said I would go along with everything he told me to do. I remember how awful it was giving birth to Aravilui, Arluwen, and Amadrie at home. If I had known before-hand that I was going to have three children, I most definitely would have gone to the hospital then too. After getting some tips and mild medicine to help alleviate my pain, ada, Eloril, and I went home in shock. I couldn't wrap my mind around the reality that I'm carrying four babies at once. It feels like it shouldn't be possible.

Ada and Eloril took Isilmar so that I could rest. I was so exhausted and drained by everything that I went to sleep right away without even changing out of my day clothes......