“Lord, have mercy. What are we going to do with your little heathen,” I asked Axel as I swam over to where Carrie was holding Rox. Of our two-year-old triplets, Rox was the sweet one who was an absolute charmer. Axel said it’s because he has my dimples. Max… well, Max was just about the loudest human being I had ever encountered in my life, but he was also hilarious.

Dex, on the other hand, was the quiet, broody one. His big sister was his favorite person in the entire world, and he was insanely protective of her and jealous of anyone who came near her, especially his brothers. He tended to bite Max and Rox whenever Carrie gave them too much attention. Trying to stop a two-year-old from biting had been one of the biggest parenting challenges to date.

I went and rescued Rox from the wrath of Dex’s teeth while Carrie explained to our little chomper for the umpteenth time why biting was bad. She was so patient with him, with all the triplets, actually. She was almost nine and reveled in her role as big sister.

The three boys were wearing their arm floaties so they could move freely around the pool in our backyard. The kids had plenty of supervision as my brother and all five of his buddies were in the pool with us. Scratch that. His buddies were in the pool, but Beau was sitting on a lounge chair nursing a beer with his sunglasses on. The sunglasses didn’t fool me, though. I knew his eyes were focused on the only other female in the pool besides me and Carrie.

Charli followed me out of the pool when I got out and wrapped a squalling Rox in a towel. “Blaire, do you want me to take him inside?” she asked. Charli was the daughter of our nanny, Ms. Casper. She had recently gone through a bad breakup and moved here from Georgia, and since “the trips” were getting so damned active, we’d gladly hired her as a second nanny.

“No, thank you, Charli. I want to go inside and see Dani anyway.” Dani was our sweet little Danica, who was born exactly six weeks ago today. Today was also my thirtieth birthday and the reason for our little party.

Max took off running around the pool screaming at the top of his lungs, which he often did for absolutely no reason at all except to hear the sound of his own voice. Charli smiled patiently and said, “I’ll get him, Blaire.” She took off around the side of the pool, chasing my rambunctious little boy and picking him up in her arms.