Shopping with the Salvateenies

On Saturday, the Salvateenies and I got to spend most of the day with Colleen.  Since the weather was good, we dressed them up and went out to do some shopping - the babies were in desperate need of some St. Patrick's Day outfits (sorry - you'll have to wait until Thursday for pictures).

First we went to Carter's, where we found everything we were looking for.  But it wasn't perfect, so we went to Target, Babies R Us, and Old Navy, just to be sure.  In Target, we also did a little grocery shopping.  Colleen had mentioned that she wanted to take the babies out and pretend they were hers, so I made sure she pushed the double stroller - especially since it's a little tougher to maneuver now that it holds 32+ pounds of baby.  She should've had a warning sign alerting other shoppers that she made wide turns and I seemed to be torturing her as I tried to find the right aisles and kept making U turns.

Now, usually when I'm out with the babies alone, or with Joe, or with my brother, or with my mother, people everywhere flock to see the triplets and comment on them.  I've actually used this as a selling point to get friends to take the babies out with me - "it's so much fun to see everyone's reaction".  But, just like when I went to these same stores with Alanna a few months ago, people did not seem to be all that impressed that Colleen and I were toting around triplets.  That is, except for one woman.  While we were in the grocery section of Target, an elderly African-American woman in a motorized Rascal-type scooter spotted Colleen pushing the double stroller and asked, incredulously, "You've got TWINS?"  Colleen smiled and pointed to me, saying, "No, she has triplets."  And with that, the woman shrugged and said, "Oh" and went on her way.  We were perplexed.  Why had it seemed so implausible that Colleen might have twins?  Why was it totally within the realm of normal that I would have triplets?  What did this woman know that she wasn't sharing?  (It clearly wasn't where the garbage bags were, because I spotted her later, still looking for them.)

After our shopping trip, we headed home.  I was showing Colleen how to get to my house from 280 without having to take 19th Avenue (because she comes by SO often, you know, she should know the best routes) when I got sidetracked by the windmill out by the beach.  The sun was still out, it wasn't too cold, and there was a parking space, so we unloaded the babies and went down to check out Queen Wilhelmina's Tulip Garden.  Sadly, the tulips were past their peak, but we were just a block from the beach, which had opened post-Tsunami watch, so we went for a stroll.  Again, the throngs of people along the sidewalk failed to comment on the triplets.

And then it hit me.  When I'm out with Joe or my brother and the babies, we look like a family.  When I'm with my mom, it's clearly babies, mommy, and grandma.  But when I'm out with another woman, there's the possibility that two of the babies are HERS and the other one is mine.  And as I've noticed since becoming pregnant with multiples, there are an awful lot of double strollers in this city - and they're not always filled with twins.

Or it might've been that I was wearing my new Binghamton "Triplets" replica jersey, a gift from my dad, so nobody felt like they needed to ask.

Caroline gazing up at Colleen