I was nervous about leavening the kids. I trusted my mom, of course, but I guess I'll always have that underlying fear of turning my back and something happening.
But the guys convinced me finally to come along and I'm glad I did, I guess.
It was named the 'Boy's Trip' by Piper. Leo tried to argue that 'we were MEN' but that didn't go over too well.
Anyway, we'd pretty much been driving through portals to different parts of the country and sightseeing. Every once in awhile we'd come to an old war zone and Grover and I would tell the story.
It had really been a great few days. I came to realize just how much I needed a break. It was our last night before going back and we were sat at a table at some restaurant in Arizona.
We were discussing how easy/very ridiculously hard our children were to parent.
Frank decided to start us out. "Well Emily is a little sweetheart most of the time, but as soon as she wants something and she doesn't get it, she shape shifts."
Leo started snickering. "It's really not funny," Frank tried to defend. "One time she turned into a fly when I wasn't home and Hazel called me asking if she should kill a fly because the baby disappeared."
Jason made an 'O' with his mouth. "That's terrifying," he said. Frank nodded. "Turns out she was just a snake in the kitchen cupboard and the fly was just a fly."
"K my turn," Leo said. "Both Milo and Sam have ADHD so that's fun to deal with. Also, Rose just loves to randomly burst into flames. Callie hasn't actually held her in a month because she's so scared of getting burnt."
Grover cleared his throat. "I don't even know where to start. Triplet satyr babies are definitely a handful. Nathan is pretty much the only one that doesn't cry all the time. Trevor is the one the spits up everywhere and Collin loves to scream."
Leo sighed and patted Grover on the back. "I'm so sorry." Grover laughed.
Everyone got quiet and looked at me. I was the single father here so I was bound to have some crazy story.
"My kids? Oh they're angels," I said straight faced.
"Like...actually?" Grover asked, unsure of himself.
"Oh, Hades no," I said. "Grover, you of all people should know that multiple babies at one time is trouble. Actually though, Ariana is probably the biggest trouble maker. And that's just because Bianca's not old enough to cause enough chaos. Ethan's pretty chill, very giggly. Luke is pretty independent, but he's definitely getting experimental with his water powers. I'm mainly concerned for when the other ones develop powers. Don't exactly know how I'll deal with that."
After a little bit of a lull in the conversation, we all looked to Jason, who'd been pretty quiet throughout the whole conversation.
"What about you?" I asked.
He had a snug, faraway look on his face. "Charmspeak," is all he said.
"Dude!" Leo complained, dramatically dying.
"Well, I mean, Riley's pretty quiet, but we think he's developing Charmspeak, so pray for me. Malia's the loud one. We caught her floating above her crib one morning so yeah, pray for her also," he said.
"That's...wow we really have a lot on our hands, huh?" Frank mused.
"I guess so," Grover agreed.
"So what do you think Nico and Will are doing right now?" Jason asked, no doubt thinking about how the two declined coming with us for reasons we do not know.
Leo stares him right in the eyes. "Don't ever ask that question."
"Yep, got it," Jason answered, wide-eyed.