Three years later:

“Mommy?” Samantha tugged on my shirt.
“Yes, Samantha, what is it?” I asked.
“Jack won’t give back my car.” She complained.
Sometimes I still marveled at the rate the twins were picking up words. “Which car was it?”
“My black one, the older one.” She said.
She was talking about her Impala. A few months ago, Ashley had started collecting toy cars for the twins because they were so fascinated by ours when we went for a drive somewhere. He found a collection of larger vintage cars that they could play with safely. That was my one condition; they couldn’t be so small that the kids could possibly choke on them.
“Can you make him give it back?”
“Let’s go find your brother first.” I took her hand and headed up to their room to find Jack.
We entered the room to find him playing with her Impala in the middle of the room. “Vroom, vroom.” He was saying quietly to himself.
“Jack, you need to give Samantha her car back.” I said sternly.
“But Mommy, I like it!” He complained.
“I don’t care. You didn’t ask her if you could share it. Besides, you have your own cars to play with.” I gestured to the toy box where there were a few other cars for the both of them. I walked over to it and pulled out a Ferrari. “Here, why don’t you use this one? You and your sister can race them across the room.” I suggested.
“Okay!” His eyes immediately lit up as he took the car I offered him.
Samantha took her Impala back and they set them up at one end of the room. I shook my head and smiled as I went back downstairs.
“Everything okay?” Ashley asked as I walked into the living room.
“Just a little fighting over their cars. I told you that you should have bought two of each one.” I sat down next to him.
“Well, I’ll remember that for next time.” He kissed me.
“I think we should just start making that a policy. Unless we know one of them really won’t like something, we buy one for each of them.” I said.
“Sounds like a good plan.” He chuckled. “Just one more thing to learn in the parenting learning curve.”
I cuddled closer to him. “I love you Ashley.”
“I love you too Brittany.” He kissed the top of my head and pulled me close to him.
“What about us?” I heard from the hallway.
Ashley and I both laughed. I opened my arms and the twins came running. Samantha climbed onto Ashley’s lap and Jack climbed onto mine.
“We love you too.” I said.
“Yeah, we wouldn’t know what to do with ourselves without the two of you.” Ashley added.
“Yay!” The screamed together.
We were a happy family and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Notes