23 - Triplets! Who’s Who??

The newborn triplets quickly aged up to toddlers, and they looked very much alike, all having Aashif’s skin tone and eye color, and the black hair Aashif and Maia both shared.

In order to tell them apart more easily, Maia dressed Rahu in red,

   

    

Ketu in green,

   

    

And Nikhil in blue.

   

    

Personality-wise they were quite different, though.

Rahu was fearless, and tended to just... dive into things,

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Ketu was bright, and was the first to master peg blocks,

   

    

And Nikhil had a “taste” for music.

   

    

And together, they were quite a handful.

   

    

Since her toddlers demanded so much of her attention now, Maia wasn’t able to visit her older children who still lived in Starlight Shores as often as she once did, but they all kept in contact via phone calls and email, and her children made sure to send her pictures of them and their growing families often.

Daughter Kimberly and son-in-law Asewuk with their daughter Cassiopeia in their home, with Kimberly’s IF Cosmo, her husband Clank and their son Carson:

   

    

Daughter Natalie and her husband Cale, with daughter Haley and new toddler Claire (grandchild #7) in the park with Natalie’s IF Peaches:

   

    

Twins Romeo and Juliet with their IF spouses Snuggles and Lucky, outside their home with their sets of now grown-up twins, Russell & Sophie and Linette & Jack:

   

    

Even her kids who had moved to other towns sent her photos, so she would see that they were all doing well, too.

Daughter Alisha and her IF Peanut on the beach in Sunlit Tides:

   

    

Daughter Erin and her IF Cuddles on their ranch in Appaloosa Plains:

   

    

Son David and his IF spouse Buddy in Twinbrook, who now, thanks to the wonders of modern scientific modifications, have twin daughters, Stephanie and Tiffanie (grandchildren #8 and #9):

   

    

Maia was glad her children all had someone to share their life with, and she was grateful to have Aashif around to help her with the triplets.  Maia didn’t think she could’ve managed all three boys on her own, especially when it came to toddler training.

   

    

Yes, Aashif had been involved in the day-to-day lives of Maia’s older children, but never so much as he was now.  Maia had never lived with any of her children’s father’s before, and found co-parenting a pleasant change of pace.

   

    

Aashif even wanted to help when the boys woke in the night, and took to sleeping in Maia’s room with her, to be closer to the nursery.

   

    

Maia had never had a man share her bed overnight either, and that situation was more than merely pleasant.

   

    

Maia settled into the familiar routine of taking care of her family. But she noticed something surprising in the nursery one day.

   

   

Nik could make toys appear... and disappear!

   

    

She asked Aashif if this was something common to genie children. But he said that genie powers didn’t manifest until childhood, and that this power wasn't one of them. But none of her other children had ever done anything like that! Could Nik have inherited witch magic from her? 

Thankfully, Maia knew just the person to call and ask.

   

    

Maia’s mother Hui explained to her that, yes, making their toys appear out of nowhere was something witch children often did.  Maia’s older kids had never inherited any witch powers from her because Maia’s magic had been mostly dormant when she had been pregnant with them. But now that Maia’s own powers were awakened, her future children had the potential to become witches, too.

After finishing the call with her mother, the part of the conversation that stuck with Maia most strongly was the comment concerning her future children.  Maia was going to have to have more children, and soon. But it wasn’t something she wanted to think about just yet.  Life was too peaceful and idyllic right now for her to want to change things, and she wasn’t ready to move on from the contentment she’d only just found.

Besides, there was another problem; those IF dolls that the triplets were always playing with. 

   

    

Maia knew when her triplets aged up and the dolls became real that she would have a full household again, and wouldn’t have room for another child.  She needed to do something about them now, before the triplets became too attached and the magic took hold and allowed them to become real.

So she took the dolls away.

   

    

Maia hoped they would forget about the dolls soon.  She put them in a storage room in the attic.

   

    

But the next morning when she checked on her sleeping toddlers, the dolls were back in the cribs with them.

   

   

Maia threw them out with the trash.

   

    

But yet again, the IF’s appeared back in the boys’ arms.

   

   

This was magic Maia didn’t understand; perhaps some teleportation spell or drawing charm, which was an inherent part of the dolls themselves. There seemed to be no way to be rid of them.

Even more perplexing, Maia knew she didn’t have a second cousin Eugenia, or an Auntie Bernice, or a Nana Lulu who mailed these gifts to her children.  She had always assumed these dolls came from the friends and relatives of the babies’ fathers, but now she realized that that wasn't possible.  Aashif had no more idea than she did who the person was who claimed to have sent the IF’s to their sons.

But if it wasn't a friend or relative... who was sending them?