Are they twins?

I get a lot of stupid questions and comments when I am out with Sean and Aaron. The one that is probably the stupidest is, Are they twins? No, I voluntarily go out and about with two babies that appear to be the same age in matching car seats. Sure, I could be a nanny or watching someone else's similarly aged baby. Mostly I think people are just trying come up with something to say in order to break the ice and engage in baby staring. For the most part, I do like the attention. Who wouldn't appreciate perfect strangers saying wonderful things about their kids on a regular basis? Sometimes it gets annoying. I just want to get my errands done and not be a spectacle. I do a lot of ignoring, particularly when I just hear someone shout from across the aisle at the grocery store, "Twins!" Really, what am I supposed to respond to them with?

The thing that annoys me most is when people don't know what gender my boys are. Sometimes it might be confusing if they are wearing gender neutral colors, but usually that doesn't matter. So many people think Aaron is a girl. Poor Aaron. I can see maybe if they ask their names and I say Aaron and they might think Erin. Yes, he does have petite features and red hair. But, NOT A GIRL.

I had a doctor's appointment one day. It was a bit of an emergency and I had to take the little guys with me.* When I got Sean and Aaron dressed that day, I purposely made sure that Aaron was looking manly. Just the day before I had FOUR people at the grocery store comment on my how beautiful my daughter was. I was determined to make him look manly. I chose coordinating onesies and no pants since it was so hot that day. I made sure that Aaron was wearing the dark blue one with the pirate on it because nothing says "I'm a man" like a pirate. Roller skating turtles could go either way.


So, into the doctor's office I went. I was followed by an older couple who were quite chatty. The man must have asked me 3 times which of my babies he could have. Umm... neither. Then he insisted on pushing the stroller for me and smacked my hand away when I reached for it. His wife said the babies could come to their house and be top dogs since they didn't have any grandchildren. Then came the inevitable. "Blah, blah, blah because you have a boy and a girl." Seriously??? Dark blue pirate shirt people.

Maybe it is just the weird people that occupy my doctor's waiting room. As I was leaving that day, I was clearly struggling to fit my double stroller through the double doors, attempting to hold open the door with my butt while maneuvering the stroller with my hands, when a man sitting right next to the door said to me, "Wow, you really have your hands full." Yep. And you would think he would help me with the door. Not a chance.

The two best comments I have had about Sean and Aaron involved one lady telling me my kids couldn't be twins because they had different color eyes and another lady who said they couldn't be twins because they weren't dressed the same.



*I thought I had a hernia and was relieved to find out otherwise, since having surgery at this point in my life is not really something I think I could fit into my schedule. Instead I had an infection under the skin by my belly button. Apparently 8 months prior to this when I had that awful surgery to remove my ovary while I was 30 weeks pregnant, a "dormant pocket of bacteria" had taken up residence under the incision site. The bacteria decided to come out of hiding and start attacking me. I was put on antibiotics and a few hours after I saw my doctor, my belly button exploded. I'll spare you the details. Despite having gone through the above mentioned surgery, having issues with my incision after the surgery requiring a nurse to visit me every day to pack areas of the incision that had broken open, and then going through child birth, that infection in my belly was the grossest thing that my body ever did. I'm all better now in case you were wondering.