Baby 50 and 51: Halfway there and then some

"Who is it?"  Destiny mouthed.

"Douglas."  I mouthed back.  Destiny looked confused.

I put my hand over the receiver.  "Douglas is the husband of Simon's ex-wife, Myra."  I'm not sure if that cleared it up for her but she nodded.

"Douglas?  Sorry, er, got distracted for a moment.  I'm calling for Simon.  DO you know where he is?"  I turned around.  I feel awkward.  Simon hadn't answered his home phone (and I didn't want to call his cell because I knew he would pick up and I really didn't want to be doing this, unknown to Destiny) so I was able to convince Destiny that there was a small chance Douglas or Myra might know.  Destiny suggested I call my sister but I made up the excuse that she probably wouldn't tell me the truth without knowing why I was calling and fortunately Destiny agreed.

Douglas replied, "Sorry Calista, last I heard he's on a business trip in New York."

WHAT?????  My face must have portrayed my confusion because Destiny looked at me suspiciously.

"What?" she mouthed.

I held my finger up.  "1 minute," I replied.  She gave me a thumbs up.

"When will he be back?" I said slowly back into the receiver.

"I'm not sure, he didn't exactly say and at the time Myra wasn't too happy about him calling me...."

"Well, can you give me an estimate?"  I said a little too snappy.

"I really can't but he did mention that he was packing a few bags so I'm thinking he's planning on staying for a... a few years.  Possibly.  I really don't know.  I wish I could tell you more."

"YEARS!?!"  I mimicked.

"I think so.  Have you tried his cell phone?"  Douglas asked meekly, trying to help.

I took a deep breath, that was another thing I hadn't wanted to do.  "Uh, no, I haven't.  I'll try that.  Thank you Douglas, say hi to Apollo and Ashley (baby 26 and his wife) for me."

"Will do.  Bye Calista.  I hope you can contact him."  I had a feeling he was glad that this conversation was over.

"Thanks, bye."

"So Simon's not here is he?"  Destiny asked.

"Apparently he's in New York and Douglas said that he'd be staying there for a while.  But no worries, I'm just going to call his cell.  I don't know why I didn't do that first."  Even though I did know.

"Okay, sounds good."

I dialed Simon's cell phone number and hit "call."  I was secretly begging that he wouldn't pick up and luckily after four rings he didn't.  I left a quick message, short and simple.  "Simon, can you call me back?"

"No answer, huh?"

"No, but I'm sure he'll call in a few days."  I said, nonchalantly while the butterflies whirled in my stomach.

"Let's hope."

Birthday time came around once again.

Levona didn't have much hair but I could tell that the hair she did have was a reddish color, just like her father, Luke.  She had mysterious grey eyes and beautiful pale skin.  Jason had my blue hair and his father's grey blue eyes.

Right after birthdays, my cell rang.  I took it out to look at the caller ID hoping it wasn't Simon.  It said "unknown," so I ignored it but was secretly happy that it wasn't him.

Matthew aged up into a curious child.  As he aged up I noticed he was going cross-eyed.  Right after he had become a child, I took him to the eyes doctor and got him checked.  They sent him home with glasses right away.  I thought they made him even cuter but he just rolled his eyes at me.  Besides having to get glasses, Matthew loved exploring outside and making up his own stories.  He had a very vivid imagination and did not like getting his picture taken.

If you're wondering where Mason is at, he had finally convinced me that he was mature enough for boarding school (I know, it's usually the other way around).  It would be a great way for him to meet some new friends also.  That night as I was fixing up dinner my phone rang again.

The caller was unknown so I ignored it thinking it was just those annoying marketers again.  I wished they weren't calling because every call made me freak every time.  I really didn't want to have to apologize to Simon even though I knew it was the right thing.

I went to check my mailbox and lo and behold, the sperm I had ordered was finally here.  I had gotten it at the sperm bank in Bridgeport.  These little cells were from a handsome guy named Andrew Miller.

He had a very interesting hair color, like a watermelon with red, green, white, and strands of black.  I really, really hoped that the babies would get his hair or at least his beautiful eyes!

This is just a random picture of the gnomes in my backyard.  The regular gnomes are all old but there's one baby!

Matthew loved the outdoors.  He would spend all day playing in the sand box, again, his imagination was endless.  I brought the toddlers out to play with Matthew.

"Maphew, Maphew!"  Jason shrieked as we approached the sandbox.  I let he and his sister into the soft sand (notice that my phone is ringing AGAIN!  Luckily not Simon).

I sat down next to the kids as Matthew started wrecking the 'sandman' he had made.

Jason joined in the fun but Levona wanted nothing to do with it.  She just occupied herself by sticking her sandy fingers right into her mouth.

"Mommy!  Yucky!" She complained as she stuck her fingers back into her mouth.

Then she crawled away.

Jason had gotten bored and started picking his nose.  I took that as a sign to go back inside for a bath.

Matthew stayed outside.  He pretended to be a bird, soaring through the air, a man on a trip to the moon, a lonely kid on a teeter totter, a pirate sailing the seven seas, and a fire-fighter getting called on duty.  Mason called, telling me that he'd be home soon.  I quickly planned to have a beach day on friday.

Meanwhile, I taught the little ones some skills before it was time for them to go to bed.

A little after 9, I called Matthew in to get ready for bed.  As I stood by the door I noticed some bugs crawling on the deck.

"Matt, what's that?"  I said, pointing to the big insects.

"Hmm, let's see...."  He took a closer look.  Once he saw what they were he started freaking out which I had not expected.  He never minded bugs when he was little.

"Ahh!  Get them off!!!  I don't want them crawling up me leg!!!"

I felt bad for scaring him like that, but I hadn't expected him to be so scared of the bugs.  I quickly called an exterminator to get rid of the bugs.

"Now, go take a shower."  I commanded him the next morning.

"Mom, I think there's a bug in the shower!"  He called for me to come.

"I don't see anything, the bus is going to come in a few minutes.  I'm going to take a shower, do you think you can walk out to the bus stop on your own?"

He just started snickering.  "Yeah, I can."

I gave him a puzzled look but he just ran out.

I took a quick shower and when I got out I jumped.  My hair was PINK!

I was about to shout for Matthew to come when I heard the bus honk.  That little stinker.  I guess I sort of deserved it for scaring him with the bugs.

My phone rang again.

Mason came home while Matthew was at school.  We took the tots to the beach.  They were so excited (I don't know if you notice anything different in this picture.  YES!  Levona's hair finally started growing in.  It was long, thick, and a beautiful shade of red brown!).

Our limo driver was Sheila Spangler.

Matthew spent the entire time playing in the sand.  The little ones "helped" a little bit but Levona lost interest and started picking her nose.  What was it with those toddlers and picking their noses?  At 7, we packed up and left.

Having Mason back home was great.  He was always helping around the house to assist me as much as possible.

My phone rang again while I was talking out the garbages.  I put it on silent.  If they really wanted to call me, they could call the home phone.

Mason came running in excitedly into his room as I was making the beds.  He had just come home from a school field trip.  His class had gone to visit the police station.

"...And we got to see real handcuffs and lay on those really uncomfy bunks in the jail cells.  It was awesome.  Then we...."  He told me what he did the entire day.  "... and the police chief gave everyone a real police badge.  Can we hang it up mom?"  He handed me the framed badge and I stuck it on a hook in the wall.
"Wow, that's really cool Matt, did you say thank you."

"Yes, of course I did, mom.  I can't wait to show Mason when he gets home from whatever he's doing."

"You mean football?"

"Yeah, whatever."  Mason said, absent-mindedly.

Mason did his daily chores after coming home from school.  Then, I allowed him to age up and move out.

I think he looks so cute in his "Geek is the new sexy" shirt and it's totally true!

After Mason moved out, the toddlers were occupying themselves in the toy room, and Matthew was playing on the computer, my phone rang AGAIN!  I checked the caller ID and I vaguely recognized the number, it was the same number that had been calling all these many times.

I was a bit annoyed.  Why couldn't these telemarketers (or this person) just leave me alone.

The due date was coming up.

"Jason, are you excited to get a new brother or sister?"

"I want a brother!"

"I'm sure you do."  I secretly wanted a girl since I had had so many more boys than girls in this challenge.

A few days later and the labor had started.  I focused on the mobile hanging in the nursery in order to cope with the pain.

Relief washed over me as baby 50, Crispin Apple was born.  Crispon is a type of apple that is golden in color and Crispin also means curly-hair.

Another baby was born, a boy I named Bartlett Pear.  Bartlett is a type of pear which can be light green to yellow in color.

Later, I checked the mailbox and found two interesting gifts that had been given to the boys by my mom (their grandmother).  I quickly shot her a thank-you email and set the dolls into the boys' cribs.

Eeek!  This is random but as I was tending the garden I noticed this gnome's grave.

The night of the twins' birth I heard a car door slam and I peeked out the window to investigate.  Who would be visiting this late at night?  I was shocked to see who it was.

"LUKE?!?  Erm, what are you doing here?  If you don't mind me asking."  I added.

"Well, I was packing up my stuff to go back to Porthaven when I had this sudden feeling.  Something told me I had some unfinished business to take care of."  He smiled and walked toward me.  "I tried to call you, multiple times actually, but you never picked up."

Oh.  I feel so STUPID!  All those times my phone kept saying unknown number was actually Luke trying to call me.  I made a mental note to un-block him.

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't know your number."

"Nah, that's alright."

"So, you were saying...."  I prompted.

"There was someone I just couldn't leave."

"Who?"  I said, my legs shaky, although I knew perfectly well what he was saying.

"Shhh..." he said.  He was already inches away.  I could feel his breath across my nose, his gaze soft and gentle.  Any thoughts of Simon I may have had were gone.

"You."  He whispered.

Then he tightly pulled me to him and kissed me right on the lips, even more passionately (if that's even possible) than he had back at his place those many months before.

"Does this mean...??"

"Yes I think it does."

"Wait, what about your job?  What about leaving for Porthaven?"

"Hey, I'm a multimillionaire, I think I can retire early or at least take a break.  If that's alright with you."

"It is."  I said quietly as we stood there embraced in each other's arms.

This could possibly work, I'm sure of it.

Luke helped me out with the family photo.  Jason and Levona were happy to have their father around and I was glad that these kids and hopefully the future kids would have a father-figure to look up to.  I just wasn't quite sure how this relationship was going to work with the challenge and all....

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NOTE

I don't know about you but I'm super excited to get this relationship (between Luke and Calista) started and I know this whole thing is so cliche but I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff!!!

Also, I'll try to post the family update on the next post.  I just wanted to get this post out quickly so I didn't have time.  Plus, I've almost exceeded the monthly bandwidth (10 GB) on Photobucket.

I really really hope I can get one more post out after this one before school starts!  After that, I probably won't be able to get my posts out as frequently but we'll see. :D

I just want to let you guys know, I've set up a poll on the right side of my blog.  Please let me know if you think Calista should go with Simon, Luke, someone else, or nobody!  I probably won't base my final decision fully on your opinions but I'm curious to know what you think.  It's quite a hard decision so choose wisely!


Comments are appreciated!