A Beautiful Child

This almost never happens, but recently I was in the store with just one child.

I pushed Finley in the shopping cart as we looked for rice milk and chicken soup, when suddenly a woman stopped to look at us. “What a beautiful child,” she said. I looked at her for a moment that seemed to go on forever. I was frozen by the back-and-forth response bouncing through my head. What I was about to say is, “Oh, and I have another one just like him at home -- he’s a twin.” After some confusing internal whiplash, what I finally made myself say instead was, “Thank you.”

I am accustomed to people stopping my family, staring at and commenting on our two boys. “How cute!” “You must have your hands full!” “Are they identical?!” “Wow!”

Yes, we are like a little traveling circus, our family, and I’m used to attracting attention because, well, there are two adorable, blue-eyed little guys and that is indeed special.

The thing I sometimes forget is that just one adorable little guy is special. On his own.  

I’m sure people who have just one kid at a time (i.e., most people) have no trouble realizing that their one precious little bundle of joy is unique and wonderful and worthy of praise. My Facebook feed is full of pictures of super cute babies that don’t come as a set. I’m sure the parents of those babies are not taken aback when strangers tell them their baby is cute.

The world will give Finley and August all sorts of attention for being part of a duo, but it’s my job to make sure that each one knows he is separate and fabulous and worthy, all by himself.