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“Hewo,” Jamie said, waving his small hand at Tristan.
“Ready to go?” Ria asked.
“Work is piling up, and?—”
“Okay, see you by the door in five.” Ria grinned and disappeared before Tristan could protest.
He sighed, but he closed his laptop and got up. It seemed there was no getting out of this trip. Once Ria set her mind on something, she was clearly used to getting it.
Tristan emerged into the entryway just as Ria was helping the triplets put their shoes on.
“Bwue shoe,” Jasmine was saying, kicking her left foot. “Bwue shoe.”
“Honey, you have a red shoe on your right foot,” Ria explained. She was sitting on the floor in front of the triplets, who were perched in a line on the hallway bench. The boys already had both shoes on. “So, you should also have a red shoe on your left foot.”
“Pwease.” Jasmine made a puppy-dog face. “Wed shoe, bwue shoe.” Her eyes lit up. “One shoe, two shoe, wed shoe, bwue shoe!”
“All right, if you can quote Dr. Seuss so nicely, you can have two different-colored shoes.” Ria winked at the little girl, who beamed. “After all, I suppose they’re the exact same shoe, just in different colors…” She helped Jasmine slide a blue shoe onto her left foot. Then, one by one, she lifted each of the triplets off the bench and set them on their feet. When she turned to get their jackets, she spotted Tristan by the door, and her green eyes sparkled.
“Tristan, you’re just in time.”
“I suppose I am.” Tristan went to get his own shoes as Ria laid three small jackets on the ground. He watched, impressed, as the triplets put their arms in the jacket sleeves and put them on all by themselves. “How long have they been able to do that?”
“We started working on it when I got here. Being able to get dressed by themselves is a great way for toddlers to learn independence and self-confidence.” Ria turned to the kids. “Great job, guys. Oh, Jamie, let me help you with that sleeve…”
A few minutes later, everyone’s clothes were straightened out and they headed outside. Tristan braced himself for the kids to dash off in different directions, but they all followed along the sidewalk like a brood of ducklings. After a block or so, Jamie wanted to stop and admire a pile of stones beside the sidewalk, so their procession halted.
“Where’s the park?” Tristan asked.
“It’s close; a few blocks that way.” Ria pointed. “But it might take us a while to get there.”
“Skuls at da park?” Jasmine asked. Tristan blinked. Her language skills seemed to be growing by leaps and bounds.
“Probably,” Ria said. “We saw a few squirrels last time, remember?”
Jamie’s eyes lit up and he hurried back to the group, the stones forgotten. “Skuls?” He fell into conversation with his brother and sister in their special half-English, half-babble language. The walk continued.
“Isn’t it cool that they can talk to each other like that?” Ria asked.
“It’s cool, but a little disconcerting. Do you think they’ll always have a special language?”
“They’ll probably grow out of it, but I imagine they’ll always have a close bond. It’s clear that they love each other very much.”
“Yeah. I tried to put them all in separate bedrooms when they arrived — or at least have the boys in one and Jasmine in another. But they wouldn’t hear of it. They would just sneak back into each other’s rooms in the night or cry and cry.”
“That’s sweet.” Ria smiled at the kids, who had now squatted down to examine a blade of grass growing through a crack in the sidewalk. “Do multiples run in your family?”
“No, not that I know of. I’d never met triplets, or even twins, before I met them.”
“Me neither.” Ria gently urged the kids to keep walking. “It’s cool to watch them, though, isn’t it?”
“It is.” And Tristan meant it. Even once they arrived at the park, it was nowhere near the chaotic mayhem he’d expected the outing to be. The triplets ran around on a small playground built for kids their age. Jamie soon collected a gaggle of other young kids to play in the sandpit with him. Jasmine joined in, while Jacob played with a series of moving animal pictures on the side of the play structure. Ria and Tristan sat on a bench where they could keep an eye on all the kids.
“Jamie is quite a little leader, isn’t he?” Tristan asked. At the moment, little Jamie appeared to be solving a dispute between two little girls over one of the sand toys.
“He is. You can see Jasmine and Jacob listen to him. And Jacob is definitely the most introspective of the three.”
“It seems strange to call a toddler introspective, but I think you’re right. And Jasmine is very chatty.”