With the baptism coming up, a trip to the mall was in order to get the boy’s christening outfits.  Rachael, Sarah and Abby signed up for the challenge.  Images of the youtube video I posted of the family going to the zoo flashed in my mind.  (If you need a refresher of the video click here.)   In preparation of creating a video of our own, we packed the Flip along with the diaper bag, bottles and extra pacifiers.

The questions started within 30 seconds of walking in the door.  I parked the car and came in after the girls to find someone already hovering over the babies.  I exhaled when I found that it was a friend of Rae’s.  How sad that the first thought to mind was “and here is starts”  haha

We walked out of the first store laughing in hysterics at the comments people were making.  I wanted to keep tally of how many times someone told us we “had our hands full” and the stupid comments we would get … the next stop was Claire’s for a notebook.  While I was in the store, Rachael stayed with the stroller.  This is when things got really funny – she started to pretend that she was the mom.  You know the massage kiosk?  Every employee stopped and walked over to check out the freak show!  Here is a clip captured by the hidden Flip:

Just when you think they left … nope!  They are STILL lingering.  And what was with the random different language?  What are they saying?  If someone can translate … please do!  At times, I’m not sure what was more funny … the on-lookers or the fact that Rachael was pretending to be me!

When getting pretzels, the lady commented on the triplets and Rachael stepped up to say that she was the mom.  The lady commented on how young she looked to have triplets.  I jumped in with “well she IS 27!” (my age, not Rae’s)  Defending myself to this stranger!  She’s not the only one who commented on how Rachael looked too young to have triplets … as if she was underage? … how old should you be to have triplets?  Would they say she looked too young if she only had one baby?  Do they realize you don’t really have a choice if you have one or three babies?

Here is  recap of what we encountered:

• We received only 3 death threats.  These were people who commented “I would kill myself”.  One was made by a young pregnant girl who commented “Triplets?  That would have sucked!”  Seriously?  And that comment was followed up with “All boys?  You didn’t even get one girl?”  I love all my boys … thank you very much!
• Some commented on how good I looked for having triplets.  One woman actually said “You look pretty good for having triplets”  Pretty good?  What does that even mean?  a half compliment?
• Six people said I had my hands full
• Three people ran into something or someone while gawking at the babies.  We were a show stopper!
• Four people commented one how they had twins and thought that was enough! Yes … having triplets is different from having twins, there is a whole nother baby!  And yes … I realize there are more babies than hands – I live it every day!
• Get this …. TEN people asked us if they were triplets.  If Jaden had come with us, Rachael really wanted to say that they were really quads, but Jaden had Progeria.  The disease where you look like you grow up too fast.  Terrible I know … but still funny.

Some comments we got were just plain funny.

• While walking by a guy he says over his shoulder to his buddy “my wife would never let me do that!”  Do what?  Have three babies at once or taken them to the mall?  all of the above?   We may never know ….
• When finding a place to eat in the food court we heard someone say “Holy stroller Batman”  That was just plain ridiculous!
• While walking by a lady, she peeked into the car seats and said “oh that’s easy – they are all sleeping”  Are you freaking kidding me?  Everything with triplets is harder – even pushing that darn stroller!  It’s a beast.  I say we’d give her a call when they wake up and then ask if she’d ever put easy and triplets in the same sentence again haha!

And some comments were just plain rude!  While in JCPenny’s the kidos needed new diapers … so Rachael manned the stroller, while pretending to be mom again and I took the babes one, by one into the bathroom to be changed.  A sales clerk took it upon herself to rally a crowd to check out the triplets.  She introduced them to everyone “This is Logan, he’s the oldest.  Owen is the middle one, but he’s getting a new diaper.  And this is Weston, the youngest”.  Not to mention her friend who asked Rachael if she “got triplets by that invetro stuff.”  Rachael made a point of making a disgusted face and said “no.”  She clearly didn’t get the hint that she was being inappropriate and followed up with “how does that happen then?”  Well when a man and woman love each other …. Rachael replied “I used a turkey baster”  She looked at her and said “Really?”  Ummm someone clearly didn’t have the birds and the bees talk with her.  It was a joke lady … to your clearly inappropriate question!  Too bad the camera wasn’t running to catch that on tape!

We did however, capture what it was like fitting onto an elevator with the beast of a stroller!

On our way out of the mall we got the craziest idea yet … the photo booth.   Could we do it?  We had to find out!

Rachael – you look a little scary or really excited – you pick!

“Everyone kiss a baby!”

Is Weston giving a thumbs down?

And we had so much fun the firs time … we HAD to do it again!  One would think that Abby is holding Logan (middle) and I am holding Owen (left) but no … that would be too easy!  I’ve actually got my left arm around Abby’s back and my right going in front of here, holding Logan and she’s got Owen.

Logan kept nuzzling Abby’s neck in between photos – getting fresh at a young age!  He’ll have the ladies eating out of his hand when he gets older!

We actually have two eyes on everyone in this picture!

Umm Logan looks a little hungry – eating Abby’s nose.

Rachael gets poked in the eye by Logan – look at his face while he’s doing that!  Doh!

Sounds crazy, but I didn’t think we got as much attention as other outings I’ve had.  I’m not sure if it was because Rachael pretended to be mom for most of it or if it was because we were at the mall rather than a department store.  I think in the mall everyone is hustling and bustling so we don’t stick out as much.  When we are at a place like Target – it’s much smaller, we over crowd the aisles and people are more likely to stop and chat.  I also wonder if there were fewer of us, if we would have been asked more questions.  For example, if it was just me and one other person, would strangers have felt more willing to ask their crazy questions or make their stupid comments?  I think we’ve just found ourselves the next experiment!  Two of us in Target … the third and fourth will have to follow  behind with the Flip.  I think I have too much fun with this!

Love, Mel