Six Seconds of Confusion

This is Curly, but pretend it's somebody else's kid.

You ever look down and realize that the child hanging on your leg is not your own? You’ve heard of “Babe Magnets…” well, I’m a “Baby Magnet”! It happens to me at least once a month. Usually it’s in a crowded place like a grocery store, the library, or maybe the park. My kids will be wandering around, ignoring me for the most part. Then I feel it…that little arm wrapped around my thigh, or my personal favorite…the lean. A small head just above my knee. None of this bothers me until that little person looks up at me and after about six seconds of confusion, usually it begins to scream, then run. Not that I’m THAT scary.

Princess

Then there are the times when I’m the one who makes the mistake. Like last Sunday at church; Baby Doll and I were wandering the halls because she doesn’t like Sunday School class. We rounded the corner and headed down the long hallway. Just up ahead I saw a beautiful little girl in a short flowered sundress with a white t-shirt beneath it. She had on black stilettos and her blond head was bent over her scriptures. I walked toward her for about 20 feet before I realized that it was not my Princess. I was so startled by the resemblance that I even said something to her about it as I strolled by. She glanced up at me and again I got the six seconds of confusion. Thank goodness she was a little too old to do the scream and run thing at the church although for a minute I thought she just might.

Princess

So last night we had Pack Meeting for Sport and Bean Dip’s Cub Scout group. My sweetie happens to be the Cubmaster, so at our house it is a big huge hairy deal. He spent the whole weekend designing a rocket launcher that would send 2-liter bottles a couple hundred feet into the air. We had about a dozen cub scouts and their parents and little brothers and sisters. I know bottle rockets are cool (at least for 8-year-olds and their dads), but I and the rest of the moms were just chillin’ out in the pavilion waiting for them to finish up.

Gamer

Since Bean Dip also attends scouts with us, Bossy and Gamer were there with their boys. As usual, Gamer was teasing my girls and visiting with the neighbors. One of his favorite things to do to the kids (especially Princess and Curly) is to ruffle up their hair. He likes to run his fingers through Curly’s because it’s kind of like petting a woolly little lamb. Princess he torments because she cares what her hair looks like even in front of a bunch of 8-year-olds (as long as they are boys!).

My cute blond neighbor, Angie, and I were talking about our kids (she has six!) and the blog. We were straddling the picnic benches and I was keeping an eye on the action on the field and she had her back to everyone else. (I guess watching a 2-liter bottle sail up in the air 25 times gets a little boring after a while.) Suddenly, and without warning, Gamer slipped up behind her and ruffled her hair! Then he put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around so he could laugh at her…except that when he realized she wasn’t Princess…I’m not sure who was more surprised, my friend or my SIL. After the six seconds of confusion (from all three of us), I think he was ready to scream and run, but all he could do was apologize…over…and over…and over….