Chapter 235: The Triplet's First Birthday

The poles for erecting electric wires were transported to the village entrance by large trucks, and then the strong laborers of the commune went to the designated places to dig large holes for the poles. These were not counted as work points, but were considered compulsory labor. Correspondingly, part of the money the village had to pay could be reduced.

The happiest people in the village are the children.

A group of kids, big and small, followed the truck from a distance, or stood in the fields watching the adults put up the tall telephone poles.

Xiaowen, Xiaowu and Beibei were no exception. They ran out to watch hand in hand as soon as school was over. However, they did not forget to work while watching. On the way back, they would pick up scattered corn stalks or dead branches.

Yanyan, Yeye and Yaoyao can finally try to walk a few steps.

Xia Juanjuan would deliberately stand far away and let them stagger over to her.

The three little guys took a few steps and finally fell into their mother's arms. They were so happy that they couldn't stop laughing.

Lin Yuru looked at him and smiled: "He's learning to walk pretty quickly. In another half a month, he'll probably be able to run around the yard."

When the three young guys saw Lin Yuru coming out, they looked up and called sweetly, "Grandma."

They have mastered a lot of vocabulary now, such as mom, dad, grandpa, grandma, brother, and sister. They have learned these titles with the help of the family members' meticulous teaching.

The other thing is related to food and the animals raised at home. Drinking milk, eating rice, collecting eggs, sheep, chickens...

When Lin Yuru was feeding the sheep, they would point at the sheep and shout “Sheep…seven…seven grass.”

Lin Yuru smiled perfunctorily and said, "Yeah, sheep eat grass."

Xia Juanjuan couldn't help laughing when she heard this.

Although he is really noisy when he is making trouble, he is also really cute when he is well-behaved and cute.

By mid-October, the first snow of this winter had fallen, and the triplets' birthday had arrived.

When a rural child celebrates his first birthday, it is customary to hold a birthday banquet and perform the "Zhuazhou" ceremony.

However, Li Zhan couldn't come back, and every household was having a hard time, so Xia Juanjuan forgot about it and called Li Jie and Zhou Qiuhe's family over to have a meal together.

Xia Juanjuan cut three pounds of mutton and made mutton soup. In addition, the bacon from the deer that Lizhan had hunted during the summer vacation was not eaten yet, so she stir-fried the bacon with bamboo shoots, fried eggs with baby spinach, fried tofu, and boiled seven or eight salted duck eggs. She also cut two pounds of pork belly, and made braised pork with preserved vegetables and the dried beans that Xia Tian had obtained. The staple food was mixed grain steamed buns, and millet and sweet potato porridge.

The triplets were the birthday boys, so Xia Juanjuan also baked a cake. She used leftover chestnut puree from the fall and homemade cream to make a small cake. On the cake, she wrote the names of the triplets and the words "Happy Birthday" with homemade plum jam from the summer.

Without blowing candles, he just cut it with a knife and gave it to his family and Zhou Qiuhe's children. The triplets were too young, so he gave each of them a sip of cream, which made the three little guys dance with joy.

It was also the first time for Zhou Qiuhe to see a cake made in person. She and Li Jie also tasted a piece. The sponge cake base was soft and fluffy, with the aroma of milk and eggs. The cream was also sweet and melted in the mouth.

Li Jie couldn't help but ask, "Is this what the city kids eat on their birthdays..."

Zhou Qiuhe rolled her eyes at her man and said with a smile, "You called me a birthday cake, but you can't even remember that."

Li Jie laughed twice.

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "That's right. I also saw it at the door of a state-owned pastry shop in Beijing. I shamelessly asked them how to make it, and then I figured it out myself."

Zhou Qiuhe was envious and said with a smile: "Juanjuan, you have seen the world and know a lot! Next time when our kids have their birthdays, I will try to do it. Juanjuan, you can teach me later."

Xia Juanjuan smiled and said, "Why not? Come to my house and grill it then."

Whether making cakes or bread, including making flower cakes, moon cakes and the like, an oven is required.

Xia Juanjuan thought that the oven was used quite frequently, and it would not be right to always use the oven in the same space, so she asked Xia Shuangshan to build another earthen brick oven in the kitchen. Apart from the fact that the temperature was difficult to control, it worked fine.

After everyone had finished their meal, it was time for the triplets’ one-year-old birthday celebration.

Xia Juanjuan and Lin Yuru prepared a lot of things, including an abacus and scale borrowed from the commune accountant, Xiaowen and Xiaowu's books and pens, a ten-yuan reunion gift, Xiaowen and Xiaowu's toy wooden guns, some colorful candies, and a Chinese medicinal seedling that Xia Juanjuan had just picked from the mountain.

Put the triplets in the middle of these things and let them pick the ones they are interested in. Everyone uses this method to predict what the children will do in the future and what they will achieve.

Yanyan and Yeye have been lively and active since they were young. As soon as the two brothers sat down, they started to touch and look at everything, and then they both took a fancy to the toy wooden gun.

Now, Yanyan crawled a little faster and got it first. Yeye reached out to grab it too. The two of them were fine just now, but soon they started crying because of the quarrel.

Xia Juanjuan was helpless.

Seeing this, the adults quickly separated the two of them, but Yanyan didn't let go in the end. Yeye looked at it for a long time, but finally shifted his attention and became interested in the abacus and scale. In the end, he held the scale and started playing with it.

Yaoyao has been naive and well-behaved since he was a child, and he doesn't fight for anything. He looked for a long time and finally grabbed the fresh herb.

The adults saw it and accepted it as the final outcome.

However, the three little kids didn't care about the adults' wishes. After playing with the things they chose for a while, they turned their attention to the fruit candies and the ten-yuan bundle. They dropped their own things and ran to grab them.

This time, even Yaoyao started crying.

The three little kids were in a show, crying so lively.

Xia Juanjuan, Lin Yuru and Xia Shuangshan quickly took them away and coaxed them well. They also quickly wanted to take the candies in their hands, but they didn't dare to let them eat them for fear that they would get stuck in their throats.

After finally coaxing her into submission, everyone packed up their things and Xia Shuangshan and Li Jie went to dig holes for the electric poles. Zhou Qiuhe, with her big belly, sat for a while and chatted.

"By the way, I saw the couple from Lao Er's family go to the commune to get a letter of introduction two days ago, saying that they were going to visit their relatives in Beijing. How could the Lao Li family and the Wang family have any relatives in Beijing? Have you heard about this?"

Xia Juanjuan shook her head: "What are they doing in Beijing?"

"Who said it wasn't? The travel expenses alone cost several yuan. I don't know what she was thinking." Zhou Qiuhe said, and then whispered, "Didn't our mother-in-law have a fight with the second brother's family and live alone? She came to my house again a few days ago. I thought she was clamoring to live with us again, so I quickly told Li Jie and told her not to agree. But guess what happened? It turned out that she wanted to let Li Jie talk to Li Zhan and live with you!"