June 13th, 2003
Jing-Mei secured the girls bonnets as they stopped at a corner. John started to push the stroller across the street. She sighed.
"I'm tired." She said.
"You need to walk, Deb." John said, "We might as well walk to your mothers house." Jing-Mei rolled her eyes.
"We can go, but you know what we'll wind up doing. We'll wind up having a huge fight."
"Not in front of the babies." John stuck out his tongue. Jing-Mei snickered.
"We'll see how that goes." Just ahead Jing-Mei could see her mother's house. Anxiety started to set into her stomach. She always felt like this when she was here, but at least she wasn't pregnant anymore. Her mother at least did try to have a relationship with her. As they got up to the house, John rang the doorbell. Mrs. Chen opened the door.
"Jing-Mei…John, what are you doing here?" She asked.
"We wanted the triplets to see you." Jing-Mei said.
"I see." Mrs. Chen looked down at the stroller. Josephine giggled as she looked at her grandmother. A small smile spread across Mrs. Chen's face as it softened. She nodded, "Come in."
"Thank you." John smiled politely.
"I have been wondering when you five were going to come by." Mrs. Chen chuckled softly. Jing-Mei looked at her with wide eyes.
"Are you serious?" She asked.
"Of course." Mrs. Chen said, "I've been dying
to see my grandbabies." She bent down and picked Josslyn up. "Can you say Grandma?"
"Not yeah, Mother." Jing-Mei laughed. "They can't even crawl."
"In due time. You were really late at crawling too." She said.
"Was I?" Jing-Mei asked.
"Crawled at seven months and walked at thirteen months."
"I can't believe you remembered that stuff." She said.
"You're my daughter. Of course I remembered." Mrs. Chen smiled. They say there for the next two hours talking and yes laughing. It was a wonderful time to be hanging here and just being with Mrs. Chen when she wasn't criticizing them. But all good things did have to come to an end. Josie was starting to get fussy.
"I suppose she needs a nap." Mrs. Chen smiled handing the baby to her mother.
"Yeah they all do." Jing-Mei smiled. "Thank you for letting us stay."
"It was my pleasure really." She smiled at john. "Continue taking good care of my daughter, John." John smiled softly.
"You know I will." He said as he gave her a quick kiss. The Carter family was soon on their way home. "You survived."
"I knew she could be a loving grandmother." Jing-Mei beamed.
"She just needed time." John said. Jing-Mei couldn't express how much joy was shooting through her heart at that very moment. Her mother was so accepting now. The triplets had a grandmother.
June 28th, 2003
Josslyn slowly pulled her knees beneath her as she started to crawl for the first time. JT giggled wildly as he crawled over to Josephine. It was about time that Josslyn started crawling. Jing-Mei walked into the nursery.
"John! Come quick!" She clapped her hands; "They're crawling."
"It's not really crawling." John chuckled as he stood behind his wife, "More like scootching."
"Whatever it is, its wonderful." Jing-Mei grinned. "They're advancing." John chuckled.
"I told you they would eventually." John winked. Jing-Mei smiled softly kneeling down and picking Josslyn up.
"When do you think you would like to try to have more?" She asked. John laughed.
"With or without fertility drugs?" He asked.
"Without." She said. John thought for a moment.
"Well…The triplets are seven months old. Why don't we try when they're three and if that doesn't work, we can try fertility treatments when they're four." Jing-Mei grinned with a smile.
"That sounds perfect." She said.
"Really? I was just throwing stuff out." Jing-Mei nodded.
"Perfect." She said getting up, "Let's go feed them." John and Jing-Mei carried the triplets downstairs and into the dining room. Josslyn and JT yelled as their parents put them down. They were obviously hungry. April walked in with their lunch.
"Apple sauce and rice cereal for the babies and BLTs for the two of you." April said as she put the food on the dishes on the table.
"Man, it looks delicious." Jing-Mei grinned. April winked. Josie banged her hands against her highchair.
"All right." John said, "Open up, Josie." John started feeding Josie her applesauce. She giggled.
"I was thinking, we need to take a vacation." Jing-Mei said.
"Like where?"
"Jamaica, the Caribbean, I don't know." She shrugged.
"I think it'd be really hard to watch the triplets at a place like that." John said.
"Well, I was thinking this could be a vacation with out the kids."
"Oh really?" John grinned. Jing-Mei nodded.
"We need alone time, John. We've barely made love." She said.
"I could use some good home loving." John winked.
"Then we need this vacation." She said.
"I totally agree." He said, "Where do you want to go?"
"Somewhere sunny." She said, "Bikini weather."
"Mmmmm." John purred, "I'll book something later today."
"See?" Jing-Mei swallowed her sandwich; "This is going to be great."
"We'll need to find a babysitter." John said.
"Yeah. Do you think Susan or someone can watch them?"
"Susan?" John laughed gently. "I can't picture her with a baby."
"She did have her niece for awhile didn't she?" Jing-Mei asked.
"Well, yeah, but there wasn't three of them." He said.
"Just ask her okay. She can stay here and we have April here to help her and I'm sure my mother will want to stop by."
"I'll ask her but there's no guarantees." He said.
"I don't care. All I do is want you to ask." She said.
"I will." John was excited. Alone time with his wife would be amazing. They haven't had it in a very long time.
