July 28th, 2004

A year in the Carter family made for a lot of Changes. The biggest change was the triplets. They were now twenty months old. All three were walking, talking, and getting into things. They always tried to help the maids clean around the house. John and Jing-Mei's marriage was wonderful too. Despite running twenty-four seven with the triplets, their marriage had gotten better. Work was going well for them as well. They didn't have many complaints at this point in time.

"Momma?" Josie climbed up on top of Jing-Mei, "Up, Momma."

"Let mommy sleep, Josephine." Jing-Mei said.

"Hunga." Josie frowned. Jing-Mei sighed.

"Momma up." JT tugged at his mother's feet. Jing-Mei chuckled softly.

"Momma is up." She sat up and six blue eyes twinkled at her. "Let's go get breakfast." The triplets ran into the hallway.

"Food." Josslyn giggled as Jing-Mei helped all three of them down the stairs.

"We're getting food." Jing-Mei said. The triplets all ran into the dinning room and climbed up into their booster seats.

"FOOD!!!!" They cried. April laughed as she pushed out four plates of breakfast.

"I heard you all the way upstairs." April said. "I made pancakes."

"Thank you." Jing-Mei smiled as she sat down, "John should be home soon."

"I already made him up a plate." April smiled as she cut up the pancakes for JT.

"Good." Jing-Mei sipped a mug of coffee. She needed caffeine a lot lately.

"Momma, goss." Josie licked some maple syrup off of her little fingers. Jing-Mei chuckled softly.

"Eat, Josephine." She said. The triplets smiled as they ate. Jing-Mei heard the front door open and John stumble in from his long night of work; "We're in here, John." He mumbled something.

"DADDY!!!!!" JT cheered.

"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" The girls chanted as they banged their forks off of their highchairs. John walked in with half-mast eyes.

"Hey pumpkins." He said sitting down. Jing-Mei laughed.

"You can go upstairs and sleep." She said.

"I am sleeping." John mumbled looking at the pancakes.

"John, you drove home like this?" Jing-Mei frowned.

"Yes." He said. She growled slightly.

"Upstairs now, John." Jing-Mei stood away from the table, "Watch the kids, April." She took her husbands arm and pulled him up the stairs. "I can't believe you, John, you could have gotten yourself killed."

"I'm fine." He said as he crawled into bed.

August 14th, 2004

Josie sat quietly at the table in her bedroom. She had a piece of paper in front of her and she was colouring with a red crayon. She loved the colour red lately. Joss walked over to her and looked at the picture.

"Ugee." She giggled. Josie frowned.

"Not ugee." She said.

"Yup." Joss grabbed a blue crayon and began to scribble on top of Josie's picture.

"No!" Josie cried, "Bad Joss!" Josephine pushed Josslyn away. "'top it." JT sat on Josie's bed giggling.

"No push." Joss said pushing her sister back. Josie growled and began to pull Joss' hair. The girls fell to the floor in a hair-pulling match.

"Trouble." JT wagged his finger at the girls. John ran into the bedroom after he heard all the commotion.

"Josslyn! Josephine!" He grabbed the toddlers by the back of their overalls. The girls were still swinging at each other. "What on earth is going on??"

"Fight." JT giggled.

"I see that." John said sitting the girls down. Josie began sobbing. "What's wrong, pumpkin?"

"Joss mean." Josie sobbed. John rubbed her back and looked at Josslyn.

"What did you do?" He asked.

"Nuttin'" The toddler said. JT jumped off the bed and picked up Josie's ruined picture.

"See, Daddy?" He held it up. John looked at the picture and then looked at Josslyn.

"Did you scribble on her picture?" He asked. Josslyn shook her head.

"No." She said.

"Are you lying to me?" John asked.

"Yes." Josslyn giggled. John ran his hand through his hair. They would be horrible once they hit two years old at this rate.

"It's not funny, Josslyn. You did a very bad thing." John said, "Mommy told you not to draw on other peoples things. You need to go in time out."

"No!" Josslyn cried. "I good girl."

"You're a bad girl." John said putting Josslyn in a chair, "Think about what you did and come down stairs when you can say sorry." John stood up, picked the still crying Josephine up, took JT's hand and left the room. He brought them down stairs.

"Bad Joss." Josie cried.

"I know, bad Josslyn." John said sitting her had the dining room table, "Here, make Daddy a brand new picture, okay?" he asked. Josie nodded slowly. John put a new piece of paper and a red crayon in front of her. "What do you say?"

"Tanks." She mumbled. John sighed as he sat down at the table. He watched Josephine draw. This parenting this was insane. Jing-Mei walked in.

"Honey, I'm home." She said, "Where's Josslyn?"

"She's in trouble." John said, "We had another picture incident."

"Another?" Jing-Mei sighed. "That child will be the death of me."

"I'm already claimed it." He smiled, "Come sit on my lap."

"All right." Jing-Mei smiled softly and sat on her husband's lap.

"How was your day at work?" John asked kissing her neck.

"Long and boring. I had like two traumas and the rest were nothing." She said, "I swear, it's getting worse in that place."

"Here too." He winked. Josslyn walked into the dinning room, "Joss…Are you ready to apologize?" She nodded slowly.

"Sowee." Josslyn said. Josie ignored her.

"'tupid Joss." She muttered.

"Say thank you, Josie." Jing-Mei said.

"Tanks." She muttered again. Jing-Mei chuckled softly.

"Has JT at least been okay?" She asked. John shrugged.

"Excluding his tattle tallying, yes." John said.

"Good." She said, "I'm going to go take a shower and take a nap. I'm dead tired." John nodded and kissed his wife's neck again.

"Take a nap." He said, "I'll get you if they burn the house down."

"Thanks," Jing-Mei winked and kissed each of her children's heads before she went upstairs to take a shower. John looked at his children. Those little devils.