The Evil Eye

People love twins. They go crazy, cra-zy when they see them. They stand in front of the stroller so I can't move. They tell me, "God bless." They make faces at August and Finely, who usually look impassively at the gawkers.

I feel like Angelina Jolie and her six kids. Wherever we go, people look, point, whisper or sometimes just come right up to the boys and talk to them or even try to touch them. I've lived a private, reserved life. I don't easily talk to strangers or strike up conversations with people in line. Or I didn't. Now I do.

One day recently, Matt took the boys for a walk. He was stopped by an elderly Russian lady, who advised him first that August's socks were too tight. She then recommended that Matt put a red string around both August and Fin's wrists to ward off the evil eye. "There will be many people looking at them because they are twins," she said. "So they need protection."

When Matt told me about the encounter we both laughed. A little while later, I turned to Matt and said, "Should we get some red string?"

Before I was a parent, I would read terrible news stories -- kids who were abducted, burned, molested, hurt in car accident -- and think, 'Oh my god, how awful, that poor family.'

Since having children, my thoughts are more like, 'OH MY GOD! HOW HORRIBLE! HOW CAN THAT FAMILY GO ON?!' The mere idea of something happening to August and Finley sends me into a spiral of despair and revenge. In my mind I morph into a crazy, vengeance-seeking vigilante superhero.

In the real world, however, I am just a mom doing my best to love and protect my sons. And someday I will have to send my boys out into the world. Hell, I already leave them in the care of someone else five days a week. At 8 months old, they go out into the world without me all the time.

I would like to accompany them everywhere. I'd actually like them to just stay in the padded kitchen nook we've turned into a play room. But I can't contain them even in the house. August and Finley are crawling like mad, standing, exploring. They are already finding their independence. Look at Finley crawling away from me!

So back to the red string and the evil eye. I will not put physically put a red string on their wrists -- it seems like a choking hazard! Instead, I'll just try like hell to protect them, and spend the rest of my life worrying about them. But I'll also proudly let old Russian ladies at Trader Joe's admire my sons. I'll take all the "God bless" comments I can get. And I'll let August and Finley out of the kitchen nook occasionally.