Charlie realised he hadn't seen his parents in almost an hour and decided to go investigate like mommy did.
He stood from where he had been playing with his trains in the living room and thought through what he'd learned from his mother.
To investigate, a detective, that's what mommy was, needed evidence. Charlie pondered that. Evidence meant clues. And he had a clue as to where mommy and daddy were, they had gone upstairs with paint. Well, daddy had paint, mommy had the babies, but Charlie figured that was enough to carry.
The four year old quickly made his way over to the stairs before carefully making his way up, always holding on, like daddy had told him. Once he was at the top he rushed over to the room next to his, the babies' room.
"Mommy!" Charlie cried happily when he noticed his mother.
"Hey baby." Kate smiled gently. "What you doing kiddo?"
"Was playing." He told her, coming over to poke the went paint in the tray on the floor where daddy was painting edges. "Then came to find you." He finished, smearing the paint on his finger across the wall. Well, it was gonna be painted anyway.
Kate smiled gently at her son and cupped the back of his head, stroking her thumb against his hair, before turning back to the wall she was painting.
Because they didn't know the sexes of their triplets, and because they could have both boys and girls in the mix, they had decided to paint the wall a gender-neutral colour.
They had settled on a very light teal for the wall with the door and the one opposite with white walls for the other two. All their furniture- the three cribs, two changing tables, the rocking chair, the sofa and chair to put in the corner of the room so the family could sit comfortably, the book case and the storage unit-was all white washed pine with even the doors of the in-built wardrobe painted to match. They were currently just painting the final, outside, wall teal before they could start with the more intricate decorating.
Some of the decorating would have to wait until their babies were born. Kate wanted their names painted above their individual cribs and wanted to have a unique mural for each of them next to it. She had been an only child, but she'd had friends who had struggled to find their individuality amongst their siblings, she wanted to give their children the best chance of not having that problem.
But some of it they were doing as they went.
The letters Rick and Kate had spent hours painstakingly cutting out of card with a Stanley blade to make stencils, were piled in the corner where the second changing table would go, waiting for the final base coat to dry before they could start to paint them on.
Rick's words were obviously a big part of both of their worlds, and Charlie's too given that Rick would constantly make up stories for the boy, and Kate wanted to bring that into their newborns' lives. They had decided that the wall on which the cribs would sit, one of the white ones with the book case, built-in wardrobe and seating area opposite, would be coated from top to bottom in individual letters of every colour of the rainbow. The rest of the walls would have the odd letter, but the main feature was going to be that wall.
"Momma?" Charlie asked as he wandered around the room.
"Yes baby?" Kate replied, even as she continued to paint.
"When will the babies be here?"
Kate chuckled, setting down her roller in the tray Rick had put on the ladder he'd been using to paint the ceiling so Kate wouldn't have to bend, before turning to her son. "We have a few more months yet baby. Hopefully, if they can hang on that long, and mommy's tummy can stretch that far, the babies won't be born for at least another ten weeks."
Charlie's jaw dropped as he held up both hands, his fingers spread wide. "This many weeks? But that's a really long time."
Rick chuckled from behind them. "They've been growing for twenty five weeks already bud."
If at all possible, Charlie's mouth widened. "But that's, that's like two times as many weeks."
Kate chuckled gently ruffling his hair. "That's right Charlie. But we have to let them get as big and as strong as we can so they can be healthy."
Charlie nodded solemnly. "Can we name them yet?"
Rick laughed, ignoring the scowl his fiancé shot at him. He'd been asking the same question for weeks.
"I want to wait until we see them, baby. But we have lots to choose from so it's okay. We have everything under control."
Charlie nodded, gently prodding just under his mother's belly button, giggling when one of his siblings kicked his finger. "Which one was that?"
Kate smiled. "I think that was baby A, so that would be Icing."
Charlie leaned closer and kissed the spot his baby brother or sister had kicked. "Hi Icing." He murmured to the bump. Kate smiled tenderly, cupping the back of his head. "I'm Charlie. I'm your big brother. Momma says you gotta stay in and get big but hurry 'kay? I wanna meet you." Charlie gently poked the left side of Kate's bump. "You too Sugar. I wanna meet you too. And..." he hovered his finger around the bump in circles until Kate gently captured his hand and directed him to high on her right side. "And MC. I wanna meet you too. So hurry up and grow 'kay?" He kissed Kate's bump again before leaning back and beaming at his mom.
"Good job baby." She husked, fighting overwhelmed happy tears. "You're such a good big brother."
The four year old's smile broadened before he went over to his dad to see if he could help, while Kate wiped her eyes and cleared her throat.
She couldn't wait to see her first born interact with the triplets.
She had a feeling he would be the greatest big brother.