7 Quick Takes Friday, vol. 41

~1~

I never liked Biology in school.  I had to take it in college and I opted to do it over the summer so it was the only class I took.  But there are still some basic biology concepts that did stay with me.  I am starting to think that's not the case for many people.  I get all sorts of interesting comments from people when I am out with my twins.  Sometimes I just don't know what to say, most of the time I don't say anything.

~2~

Sometimes conversations with strangers go something like this:

Stranger: Oh, are they twins?

Me: Yes.

S: They look a lot alike, are they identical?

Me: Why yes, they are.

S: That's so cool!  Do you have one of each or are they the same?

M: No, both the same, two boys.

I'm not going to tell a stranger that identical means everything is identical.  I hope it is that people just aren't thinking when they ask this question.  Or maybe they have forgotten that identical means one fertilized egg that splits.  How can you get a boy and a girl out of one fertilized egg?  I do find these conversations highly amusing, but more and more I find myself walking away from these conversations shaking my head in disbelief.  It's getting harder to give people the benefit of the doubt the more I run into some variation of this conversation.

~3~

Just a couple days ago I was checking out at the grocery store in the self-check lanes.  I was the only customer so the cashier came over to see the babies and she struck up a conversation.  First she tells me that she and her boyfriend have been talking about having a kid.  {Um, yeah, okay, thanks for sharing!}  Then she goes on to tell me how there are twins in his family, lots of them, and that they skip a generation and his mom was a twin and that most of them are boy/girl twins [i.e. fraternal] blah, blah, blah.  So of course HE is going to have twins.  I couldn't help myself.  I usually don't say anything to people, but this time I couldn't contain it.  I turned to her and said: "I don't think your boyfriend's family history is going to have any effect on your fertility."

Just in case you don't know, if your husband comes from a family with lots of fraternal twins, that will have NO effect on whether or not you release one egg or two (or more) eggs during a cycle.  If the fraternal twins are on your side of the family ... that's a different story, maybe.

~4~

And let me just say here that I haven't looked much into whether or not fraternal twins really are passed down within a family or not. I have identical twins, so I don't really care.  But from the little I have heard, it is not necessarily true that fraternal twins are passed down through families.  Maybe it is, I don't know.

~5~

I'm also tired of people asking me if twins run in my family.  Just to set the record straight: identical twins are random.  So it doesn't matter.

~6~

I've made an interesting discovery.  When I go out with the boys I either gets lots of strangers wanting to see the babies or talk to me or I see people trying to check the boys out without appearing to be gawking (and I'm okay with the gawkers, it means I don't have to get into a conversation with a stranger).  Or, I get absolutely nothing at all.  And it all depends on how the boys are being transported, which depends a lot on what store I'm in and what or how much stuff I am getting.

Scenario #1 (moderate to heavy grocery store trip): The boys are strapped into their double stroller that I push with one hand while I pull a small grocery cart with the other.  In this scenario we get lots of looks, etc.  In one of my trips to the grocery this week I even had a gentleman call me, "Hey, ma'am!" from about 10 feet or so away.  I thought maybe I had dropped something or he knew me from somewhere.  But no, he just wanted to see the boys.

Scenario #2 (light grocery store trip): One baby gets to sit in the seat of the grocery cart while the other baby stays in his car seat in the basket of the cart.  I put one of the carry baskets in the bottom of the cart to hold whatever I'm picking up.  I have yet to attract attention for having twins in this scenario.  I like shopping this way!

~7~

I'm slowly getting used to attracting attention.  I'm an introvert, I don't normally engage strangers in conversation.  I'm learning that being out with two babies that are incredibly adorable {not that I'm biased or anything} and look exactly alike is going to attract attention.  After almost a year, I'm still not completely used to it, and not sure I will ever get used to it, but it is an endless source of amusement.

For more Quick Takes head on over to Hallie Lord's blog, Betty Beguiles, who is graciously hosting this week.