New Normal

This past Mother's Day, Seattle was blessed with one of those unexpected but cherished sunny days here in the Northwest.   

I'm casually trailing my vivacious twin 3 year old daughters as they eagerly pedal their tricycles down the sidewalk. They are both sporting butterfly wings and brightly colored mismatched skirts and shirts. A car drives past and I hear, "hey butterflies!" and it occurs to me how we must look. Now that I'm immersed in motherhood, I don't give a second thought to letting them leave the house in last year's Halloween costumes.

I suddenly remembered my perinatologist's supportive words to accept the interminable pseudo-contractions that began at week 20 during my pregnancy as my "new normal".

I don't think I could have comprehended then how prophetic those words would become.

When I am in public with my two butterflies, I've come to expect the unexpected.

Now that they have been blessed with language, modesty has gone out the window. On a recent trip through Safeway, Tristyn loudly announced to me that her undies were falling down (indeed they were - darn tights). And upon being pulled in at the Canadian border for a random search of our RV, apropos of nothing, she yelled "VAGINA!" in the very serious and somber holding area reserved for travelers asked to leave their cars. Jaeda followed suit, of course, with the pop hit "vagina song" and my husband and I could only look at each other in disbelief.

Each day that passes, my girls are gathering up their awareness of all things inappropriate, rude, disgusting and just plain silly. My husband and I are merely observers of this fast-moving train, yelling over the noise of the engine as we futilely attempt to keep them on track. ;-)