their dynamite napoleon
one of sebastian’s best friends is expecting a sibling in the next few weeks. the friend, who lunches here with his sister twice a week, examines the triplets carefully and kisses them as he is leaving goodbye.
whenever he starts paying a bit too much attention to the trio, sebastian steps in and says, not aggressively but as a reminder,
my babies.
and he and his friend go back to playing.
sebastian has declared the babies his own property since phuket.
i miss my babies.
we go home to my babies and mina and ita?
and statements about his babies are accompanied with him placing a hand to his chest.
this proprietary nature towards his siblings extends to his feelings towards them now that sela and carys (jasper doesn’t really care, he smiles and watches) are grabbing toys that sebastian considers "his". he’s doing a lot of grabbing away from the babies.
my babies are eating my purple car!
and most often times, one of them will be.
the babies continue to love sebastian, and even when he rips things out of their hands, follow him around.
and listening to them follow him around is exquisite. the chubby pat-pat pat-pat of their hands slapping against the wood, the pause when they’re trying to turn a corner or lift themselves up to see what he is doing.
they laugh when he jumps. mum and i tried it, they don’t laugh when we jump.
they laugh when he "falls" to the ground. they don’t even wait for me to hit the floor.
of course it is irritating to him that they are shoving his precious toys (of course more precious when they are playing with them) in their mouths, and soon will be invading more of his space and life. but oh they love him. he makes their lives funnier, more interesting, he isn’t their carer, he is their entertainer. watching him put on shoes evokes smiles from sela. i would love that sort of worship!
when i first got pregnant i wondered what i had done to sebastian. would triplets ruin our relationship with him? would he always feel like the odd man out?
that’s one of the reasons they all share the same room. so it can’t be a "them vs me" memory for him. they’re all in this sibling stuff together. not the triplets and sebastian, but "just wait until i tell your father what you kids did" team. or, "i can’t believe you all spent your money and bought me this." it doesn’t matter that he isn’t a triplet, it matters that they love him. in a special way, like they love each other.
for now, i hope the triplets assault on sebastian’s toys and food is balanced with how he feels witnessing how much they love him. it might not prevent fights and grabbing today, but years down the road it might promote grabbing the phone and checking in, just to say hello.
