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"You won't have to, Little Dove," smiled John, entering the bedroom with their breakfast tray.

"I'm not so 'little,' anymore," sighed Izumi.

Tenderly brushing Izumi's cheek with his hand, John smiled kindly at his wife.

"I love you," he reminded her.

With a smile of her own, Izumi nodded her head and stared at the large breakfast that Jake had prepared. It took a lot of food for the three babies to grow at a healthy rate, but as her due date neared, Izumi was finding it increasingly difficult to eat while the triplets were placing so much pressure on her stomach. In spite of feeling as though she were a beached whale, Izumi was actually a little under the goal weight her doctor had prescribed. It was with this understanding, that the weary mother tried to eat at least a small portion of her meal.

"Everything will be ready for the girls," John continued, sitting beside her on the bed and starting in on his own meal after saying grace.

"I don't know how you can say that," sighed Izumi, "when the cribs and everything else we bought are still in their original boxes!"

"I know, I know," admitted John, talking with food in his mouth, "but we'll be ready. Terry, Jake, and I will be assembling the nursery after breakfast. I realize that we're cutting it a little close, but it's not my fault, Little Dove. AJ kept using that room for their private discussions, so if you want to blame someone, blame them!" John looked at his wife with a twinkle of merriment in his eyes, and Izumi saw that it was no use fighting him.

"Oh! you!" she had to smile. "Abby," she asked, "could you get Jake to use that digital camera he has to take pictures of the nursery when they finish it? I'd love to see his mural!"

After breakfast, John and Terry disappeared into the garage and returned with their toolboxes, in preparation for the assembly that was ahead of them. When Jake saw that the men were supposed to bring their own tools, he began to feel a little left out, until Abby took him aside.

"You can use my toolbox," she offered. "It's in our garage, on the shelf, to the left of the pickup truck."

With a quick smile, Jake went off to get his wife's tools.

"Sorry," John apologized to Abby, "I forgot to bring anything for him to use."

"Jake isn't very handy," she warned him, "so I'm not sure how much help he'll be to you and Uncle Terry."

"It's all right," smiled John. "He tries. Whatever else you can say about the guy-- he tries."

Soon, Jake returned with a heavy metal box, and set it on the nursery carpet beside John and Terry's tools.

"Okay, I'm ready," said Jake, as the three men stood in the cluttered room and surveyed the unopened boxes.

"This place looks more like a warehouse, than a baby nursery," observed Terry, with a sigh.

"Okay," said John, "here's what we'll do. Terry and Jake, you each take a crib. I'll assemble the third one and show you which piece goes where. If we work in tandem, we should be able to go faster. Abby," her father noticed, "are you going to stand in the hallway the whole time? I don't think it's a good idea for you to be on your feet the entire morning."

"I'm fine, Dad," she persisted.

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