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I was trying to remember if I was ever one of those people who would stop and exclaim “Twins!” and then lean over the stroller for a look. I don’t think so. I might have thought it in my head but I am usually pretty reserved when it comes to getting in strangers faces and their babies.

Tadd and I attempted to take the twins to I Madonnari at the Santa Barbara Mission. The artwork is pretty amazing. Even though it was overcast we thought it would be nice to walk around. It would have been nice if we were able to get anywhere. We found parking a few blocks away and got out “The Enterprise” (when we were kids that is what we called my parents huge ugly green 1970’s station wagon with the wood paneling on the side. What kid my age hasn’t been in one?!). Well, I bequeathed the name to the big stroller. We got the twins out and tucked in, then we were on our way. I should mention that every time Tadd and I went to see the drawings it was AFTER the festival. The chalk lasts for weeks if it doesn’t rain too hard. We had never been in the midst of it with all the vendors and people and artists. If we had then we probably would have second guessed ourselves on going or at the very least took the slings vs the stroller. We barely got a few yards in when we were surrounded by people either watching the artists or watching us. We decided to turn around and come another day when lo and behold there was another stroller with 3 month old boy-girl twins behind us. Now we were just a spectacle. Since we were stuck I talked to the other mom for a bit. After commenting on how small my twins were I told her they were preemies. She says “So were mine! They were born at 35 weeks and were 5 pounds each.” We exchanged the stats on our twins. She agreed that 24 weekers were a lot more preemie than hers. We finally were able to separate and push our way through the masses. Later Tadd says how much it bugs him when people say they have a preemie when really they were almost term. We talked about the “grass is always greener” phenomenon. If I had carried to 35 weeks and the twins spent a week in the NICU, we would probably tell people they were preemies. I’m sure we would have bemoaned the whole NICU experience too. You just never know till you have lived it.

Anyways to go back to what I was saying in the first paragraph. After we left I Madonnari we stopped at Pottery Barn to replace a glass that we (Tadd) broke. As we are walking around we see a couple with infant triplets. I had to stop myself from walking over and peeking into their stroller…..

Well if you were this cute who wouldn’t stop you?????

Lord, that is a fat goat

My sad little sheepy

Looking at the Mission from a safe distance (the rose garden)

Update: Click here to see what we  missed: Best of I Madonnari