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I had to laugh after reading with great seriousness the recent Bulletwin article on Multiples and birthday etiquette. I sometimes forget that these very real quandaries for us are situations that never even cross the minds of the vast majority of the population!
It’s not every day that one has to consider the ins and outs of a “Multiples” birthday, and even rarer are the occasions when this consideration comes more than once in the immediate family. Not so with our friends, Vida and Kofi, Mom and Dad to 5-year-old twins and 12-month-old triplets!
 This past Sunday afternoon, Trevor and I took the boys to visit their friends Jeffrey and Justin, and celebrate the first birthday of their three little brothers, Joel, Jeremy and Jason. What delightful Chaos! Upon our arrival with balloons in hand, we were ushered into the living room by the two very excited big brothers, who had spent most of the afternoon “decorating”. They were keen to show off their efforts to us, and immediately pulled our Alex and Simon into the bustle.
My first observation was that the three little birthday boys were ALL WALKING! This presented some challenges we had not encountered on previous visits, nevertheless, Vida and Kofi carried on like the old pros they are! Vida brought out a giant cake, which two of the three triplets immediately began “sampling”, and it wasn’t long before the rest of the gang joined in. We quickly elected to take a group photo before the evidence was completely ruined!
There was no need for any kind of structured activity, as just getting everyone a piece of cake, and then trying to avoid said cake from being smeared into the carpet and various pieces of furniture kept us all busy enough.
We were able to finish a good quarter of the cake, and Vida disappeared into the kitchen returning shortly with a turkey she had roasted! No kidding—a whole turkey!!! (When our guys were small, Trevor and I got excited if we could manage to unwrap a frozen dinner and press the “auto-heat” button on the microwave!) Trevor and the boys dug in with gusto, while I read book after book to Jeffrey and Justin, who seem to have convinced themselves that because I’m a teacher, I must like to read all the time!
In between “All About Shapes” and “A Big Truck for Mike”, the adults managed a short reflection on the past year. “Remember the first night you brought them home?” I asked Vida as she tried with limited success to extricate Triplet B from under her shirt, where he was insisting on a birthday nurse (the other two had been weaned for a few weeks).
“Ahhh, yes!” she laughed, “We were soooo tired!” She proceeded to regale us with the all too familiar tales of night-time feeds and bumping into walls in a sleep-deprived stupor, and of husbands who fell asleep in the middle of a feed and dropped one or more babies, and all the rest of the post-partem drama we can relate to with some humour if we’re past the one-year mark!
In the car on the way home later that evening, Trevor and I had some time for reflection of our own. Marvel, really would be a better word: While we were in a now-embarrassing state of constant panic and dismay when Alex and Simon were little, our friends Vida and Kofi seem to be eternally laid back and easy-going, despite the frenzy of five little ones forever underfoot!
For us, this birthday party has been yet another lesson in the success of different parenting styles, and we thank the TPOMBA community for presenting this unusual friendship that continues to be a two-way blessing for both us and our many combined children.
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