children and puppies and strangers.

So training puppies and training children... it's really not all that different. Just when you think you've got the potty training thing worked out, you walk into your living room and find a pile of poop in the corner... Lovely, lovely, lovely.

She's totally worth it, the puppy. I love her. She's mine. I understand potty training is an investment of time and energy that will absolutely be worth it. She will be potty trained one day. Before I'm forty. I'm only slightly more tempted to give her away when she has accidents than I am when the kids do. But the temptation has yet to be strong enough to actually go through with reckless abandonment...

The other day, we took the kids out to lunch at this little cafe that we love to frequent. The food is good, and they have booths big enough to hold my entire family. We love booths. They contain children much better than individual chairs. We ate, we had fun, and then when it was time to go, Josh took the kids outside while I went up to pay for our food. One of the servers complimented me on the behavior of my children... said they hardly realized the kids were there. The kids had been well behaved... mostly because they love food as much as their Mama, and are very focused when at a restaurant.

I didn't explain this though. I just said Thank you.

Then, because I've never heard this comment before, the women ringing up my check, said,
"You must really have your hands full with four children... and they're all so close in age!"

Yes. Yes. My hands are full. My days are busy. My life is full of adventure and chaos.

"Two of them are twins..." I responded.

I find myself adding in this little disclaimer quite often these days. Lucy is a solid inch or so taller than Sam, and she outweighs him by six or seven pounds, so people don't often realize they are twins. But then the waitress says...

"You know, I knew it as soon as I say them come in... he's a bit taller than she is, but when they were standing there side by side, I figured they had to be twins."

Wait. He's taller than her? Or... he's not at all. Sam is so obviously smaller than Lucy, I wonder if maybe she thought Jordan and Lucy were twins. But that would be wrong because Jordan is so obviously older and bigger than Lucy.

My final conclusion is that the nice waitress lady didn't actually know what she was talking about. Even a little bit.

But she told me my kids were good, so I'll let her pass.

This post could lead into further expostulations about the idiot silly things that well intentioned strangers often say... in the grocery store, in the check out line... but I've covered this topic a lot. Because pregnant mothers, and mothers with small children... especially mothers of multiples, are veritable magnets for unusual, and some times disturbing comments from strangers. When my twins were babies, people ALL THE TIME would ask if they were identical. With different hair color, and different eye color, and uh, the fact that only one of them has a pe*nis.... yeah. Not identical. I should have just referred those questions to the woman that asked me if my twins were 'paternal." Paternal twins. Really? Paternal?

But I digress. The truth is that I really love talking to strangers. And quite often, I could very possibly be the one asking the ridiculous questions, or making off the wall comments to other mothers. Or to the nice lady at the drive thru window. If I notice the drive thru lady has nice eyes, or an outrageously awesome nose ring... because I am my mother's daughter, I'll tell her. And everyone else in the car may be embarrassed. But I bet the drive thru lady will smile when I drive away... just like I smile when people compliment my children. Or maybe she'll just think I'm crazy.

But I am a little bit. So it's okay.